DANCES OF THE NATIONS.

Evening Post, Volume XLVI, Issue 25, 29 July 1893, Page 2 (Supplement)

DANCES OF THE NATIONS.

Dancing has, more or less, always been associated with exuberant spirits, md this natural outburst of bodily activity may be attributed to either ■ the excitement of the light, of tho •■base, or of a religious ceremony, or to excessive delight. \ The North American Indians have . long been famous for theirwar dances, - one of the most exciting of which is rhat practised by the Sioux, and rep- ■ resenting by pantomimic actions au , attack upon and massacre of the inhabitants of a neighbouring village. The Cheyennes too, execute a somewhat similar dance, the difference . 'leiug that the attitudes through ! which they pass are supposed to describe a horse-stealing raid. The Turk is Dever so happy as '. when prancing about and flourishing liia sword or gun, and it bodes no i good for the Turkish authorities when 1 a number of the people of Albania, Montenegro, or Herzegovina break . out into a war dance. When this i occurs steps are always immediately 1 takon to suppress their buoyant ' spirits, for fear the agitation should ' spiead throughout the country, j There are a number of dances accomplished by tho Red Indians ' which, though regarded as perfectly I nerious by the performers themselves and the ret>t of the tride, appear absoL lutely ludicrous to the civilised on- ' luokors. The Buffalo dance, for instance, is i supposed to represent a grand hunt, j Ono of the braves fixes the skull and horns of a buffalo on bis head, J and skips about ao tho oth rs try to ' catch him, dancing the while. Then, there in the Snake dance of , the Mosquis, the scalp dance of the \ Sioux, Apaches, and Cheyennes. the Rain dance of the Blackfeet, aud tho \ Ghost dance, which was the main cause of the Indian rising in the i North West a.year or two ago, when • the famous chief Sitting Bull lost his t iifof <in the occasion of a young Sioux , being admitted into tho ranks of the - braves, a Sun dance is executed, f during which the new comer undergoes the most frightful torture, in r order to cest his efficiency as a b warrior. '■ Notwithstanding the rapid advance of civilisation in Australia, the abj originals still continue to perform a . Kangaroo dance, in which the chase 1 of that animal is accurately depicted B from start to finish by means of a 2 dumb show. B The Hare dance of Siberia and f the Ostrich dance of Africa are • eclipsed by the one in which two * Siamese fall upon their hands and 9 knees and furiously attack one auother, fully convinced for the time - being that they are elephants, while i the onlookers dance round. a Tho Hindoos accompany nearly every religious ceremouy with furious ', dancing, and, in fact, go absolutely ' out of thoir minds on come occasions. ? Tho most notorious religious fanae tics, however, are the "Whirling Dern viahes, the Mohammedam priests nhu spin round on their feet for 6 hours at a time without experiencing any injurious effects. if A scarcely less marvellous dance, - though one not of a religious nature, * is that known as the Egg dance, performed by tha young women of . Bhopal, India. Upon the head of the dancer is placed a large wheel of ■s wicker-work, from the sides of which, at equal distances apart, hang slipknots. In herhund she carries a basket of eggs, and her object is to insert an ogg in each slip-knot while s the strings are extended out all round " by means of her rapid circular motion . This done, and the more delicate a task of returning the eggs to her basket successfully completed, the dance 1 ends g Scotland may truthfully be said to k have produced the most unique of all ■• national dances, for, while no trouble ■> has been experienced by the inhabi- >" tants of this and other countries I in performing the quadrilles of Bel- - gium, the waltz of Germany, and the * polka of Hungary, there is no one ° on earth who can dance the Scotch 0 reol with the ease and grace with \i which it is accomplished by the High:i lander. jj The dance which most nearly apa proaches it in its unique character is B the Italian Tarantella, which has - attained notoriety more by the wide- • spread nature of the legend attached 1 to its origin than by the actual feaa tures of the dance itself. 9 The story runs that early in the - fifteenth century a superstition arose { " amongst the Italians that whoever B was bitten by a tarantula spider 1 would go out of his mind, and that the j f only certain cure for this form of mad- j | ness wasconstautand f uriousduncing. * As a matter of fnct the Tarantella i, was a dance first performed at Tar- ' auto ; hence its name, and from that , spot it spread all over Italy in a very j r short space of time The music was j ' r decidedly good, but the actions of the 1 dancers were simply those of men and , women in a violent state of frenzy. 1 Ihe national dauce of Spain is the fc Fandango or Bolero, and that of 'f Poland the Polonaise. The Irish1 man claims the jig for his personal i delectation, and the Frenchman that 3 the minuet, the favoured dance of 3 liia forefathers, is still without a rival. | England has no national dance, unless i ? o can call Sir Roger de Coverley by > th.ft name. : The earliest reference to daucing occuvb in the Bible, in the song of Mirium the prophetess, who " took n timbrel in her hand, aud all the women went out after her with timi brels and dances." In the early Christian churches E spaces were provided for dancers, but ; the pructice of dancing during the j • service soon fell into disfavour, and i was discontinued.