World music and dance, part 2-and traditional arts generally

This will be a blog about world music and dance, and traditional arts, created and practiced by numerically small groups.  We like to think that size doesn´t matter when it comes to the beauty or importance of an art form.  But does our behavior always live up to this ideal?

We also want things to be "relevant."  Now, there´s a contradiction inherent in these two ideas.  Things are generally considered more "relevant" if we see a lot of them.  If there are a LOT of people rioting in New York, that´s "relevant."  If 10,000 people are working on a project, that makes the project seem a lot more important and "relevant" than if only 10 are.  And if a LOT of people are singing that song, it´s popular, it´s worthy of imitation, it´s worthy of study and it´s "relevant."

West African masquerade dancer (Ikan).  (dancer=James Esoimeme)

 But wait.  What about an art form--let´s say a traditional art form--that is practiced by only a very few people in the world (small community) or is practiced by only a very few people who we see near us (small representation in our area).  Does the size of the community practicing it or the number of people practicing it near us make it any more, or any less, important?  Any more, or any less, beautiful?

In our series on world music and dance, we look at traditional music and dance.  Some comes from numerically large communities: bharatanatyam, for example, is a major and ancient classical art form that comes from the Hindu community of southern India.  We have another show in the series that looks at traditional music and dance of West Africa, and even another that looks at Mexican traditional, folk music and dance.

Tahitian dance is for men as well as women.  (dancers=from da Island Way)

But what about smaller communities, or communities numerically unimportant in north America?  We believe these are just as worthy as the others.  Our series, then, also looks at Tahitian and at Afro-Peruvian music and dance, and at Thai classical music and dance. Our pilot episode focused on classical Persian music and dance.   There are relatively few people in the world that can be considered to be Tahitian or Afro-Peruvian and almost none of them live in north America.  Not many people are trained in classical Thai music or dance, and Persian classical dance is one of those art forms that is in danger of disappearing because it is prohibited in today's Iran and not widely practiced outside of Iran.

In a nutshell, we believe that the size of a community or the number of practitioners does NOT have a direct relation to the beauty and importance of an art form.  We believe each art form should be appreciated and evaluated on its own merits.  And we hope that you agree.

Shahrzad Khorsandi performing Persian classical dance.

Our NEXT BLOG will be about the hang drum.

World music and dance, part 1

In my television series about world music and dance ("The Languages of Sound & Movement"), one thing that struck me with particular force is the different uses of music and of dance.  Another that struck me with somewhat less force is that more people in California seem drawn to music than to dance, but in other areas, the opposite is true.

Ok, so what ARE some of these huge differences in the uses of music and dance?  Well, one of our programs ("Of Beauty & Deities:  Music and Dance of India") looks mostly at southern Indian classical bharatanatyam.  That dance and that music, up until modern times, were used exclusively to communicate with and to entertain the deities.  In many cases, a human audience was also invited but the dance and music are (or at least, were) essentially religious.

Bharatanatyam dancers from the group Kalanjali:  Dances of India--photo:  Ganesh

Currently, bharatanatyam still has strong ties to religion (Hinduism, to be specific) but it is no longer an exclusively religious art form.  It is correct to have an image of the deity Shiva on the stage (at stage left) and the dances still tell stories of the deities or are something likely to amuse the deities, but you don't have to be Hindu to learn and perform it, and it is no longer confined to Hindu temples.

A river (the Ganges?) in southern India.--photo:  Robert Holmes

Another program we made ("A Zest for Life:  Afro-Peruvian Music & Dance") is about...well, Afro-Peruvian music and dance.  THIS art form is used as a way of remembering the history of a community, and also of simply giving people (the participants as well as an audience) a good time.

Caitro Soto and others.  photo:  Caitro Soto y el duende (el Comercio, Lima, Peru)

Our NEXT BLOG will be a further look at world music and dance.

Switching names

Our earlier blog, "arts imMediately open" has a name so esoteric that we've decided to change it to this one, PalominoPro.blogspot.com, which works well with our web site www.PalominoPro.com.  But so as not to lose the past, we'll switch over portions of the posts from the former blog (probably one day at a time).

And the phrase "arts imMediately open" will live on, at least temporarily, as the by-line in the blog's banner.

So hang on to your seat.

"de Rompe y Raja," a performing groups in our world music & dance series-photo:  Morty Sohl