Introduction
Individuals all over the world dance for various reasons and in diverse ways. A number of dances express feelings such as anger, joy, or sadness. Other dances can essentially narrate a story. Folks might dance as part of a crucial ceremony. A number of cultures in fact honor their ancestors by dance. Dance is thus among the most important parts of any culture. Most of traditional dances have actually been formed and advanced through centuries to reflect the culture. Cultural dances are very precious to various civilizations, since they normally contain pieces of their livelihood and history, which would else be lost. Many tribes throughout the world look dance as a mode to convey mourning, joy, and even in times of war and battle. In fact, dance is a mutual language, which unites all of us on some level. For this reason, this essay discusses the cultural importance of the Sun Dance by using three premises for “culturally sensitive approach to dance” as discussed by Deidre Sklar.
Sun Dance is actually an anthropological development referring to various ceremonies on Great Plains, which were characterized by the considerable internal complexity. Generally, Sun Dance is essentially a great religious drama where individuals pledge vows to Great Spirit for help. According to Sklar, movement knowledge in dance is a type of cultural knowledge (Dils and Albright, 30). He goes further and argues that movement knowledge in a certain group of people shows who they are.
The cultural importance of Sun Dance is that its movements help to identify the plain tribes in India and their cultural knowledge. This dance is performed in Indian ceremonies during the year. It helps to integrate the entire belief system of various tribes found in Great Plains. In addition, the way this dance is performed indicates a way of knowing or recognizing among its performers. For instance, the dance is customarily held outdoor and the performers move in large circle that is called hoop or mystery circle. The way the participants move in the circle during the dance indicates their knowledge about the Great Spirit and various rituals.
As a result, the importance of this dance to the tribes is that they recognized by performing it in a large circle, the ceremony will ensure the entire tribe wellbeing as well as answer the prayers of the dancers performing the most physical and painful aspects of the dance. Moreover, the movement in Sun Dance is important in furthering the cultural knowledge of the Indian tribes since the individuals who pledge to dance got instructions about the meaning of the symbolism and rituals from a Shaman (Brouwer, 49).
One of pledgers is picked to find tall cottonwood tree that has a forked top and this tree is placed in center of Mystery cycle where participants’ rotate while dancing. The way the participants of Sun Dance move in the Mystery circle during dancing is essentially more than entertainment, biology, and art (Doolittle, Lisa and Heather, 118). In fact, their movements are an embodiment of their cultural knowledge. Therefore, the movement in Sun Dance is an important aspect of the Indian culture.
Sklar also argues that it is important to look beyond the movement in order to get at its implication. He means that cultural knowledge embodied in any movement is only recognized through looking beyond the movement (Dils and Albright, 31). This means that the importance of Sun Dance movements in this case is that it help people from outside the Plain Indians culture understand this culture better. By looking beyond the movements in the Sun Dance other individuals from outside the culture will understand, and even appreciate the culture of the Plain Indians better.
The outsiders will understand the meaning of Mystery Circle and what does it mean when the pledgers go to center of this circle. Thus, the importance of this dance is that it makes the intruders understand various aspects of the culture of the plain Indians. For example, by the pledgers moving to the Mystery Circle center, a person will understand that this simply means that these pledgers go to center of the earth as well as take upon themselves all other individual’s sufferings. Moreover, through looking beyond the movements of the Sun Dance, one understands why the dancers’ leader lyes down on the buffalo robe and why the intercessor or medicine man pulls up his left breast skin and why he thrusts a skewer all through the loose skin.
Movement knowledge in Sun Dance is actually intertwined with the other types of cultural knowledge among the plain Indians. Sun Dance plays an important role in day-to-day lives of the Plains Indian culture. It was hard for an event to end without the cause for ceremonial act that involved dance. Truly, dance became a crucial part of their native religion. Indians believed that Great Spirit taught them how to dance; hence, they could express their feelings and thoughts to him through the movements of this dance. In addition, through the movements of Sun Dance, the Indians believed that they were adequately communicating with the spirit world.
The culture in the plains was deeply rooted in animals and weather patterns such as the melodramatic prairie lightning storms among other manifestations in the nature. Therefore, Sun Dance and more specifically its movements became a better means for the Plain Indians to understand these natural occurrences. Furthermore, Sun Dance rituals among the Plain Indians also played a crucial role in acknowledging the changes in the cycle of human being that is, birth, adolescence, marriage, and demise. There were different dance movements to welcome the strangers, to bring good luck during hunting and war, to make peace and cure illness (Doolittle, Lisa, and Heather, 114). Specifically, Sun Dance lasted from 4 to 8 days and showed continuity between existence and death. In fact, the way it was performed showed that a true end to life did not exist, but what was in existence was a cycle of symbolic, true deaths, and true rebirths.
Works cited
Dils, Ann, and Ann C. Albright. Moving History / Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader. Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan University Press, 2001. Print
Brouwer, Sigmund. Sun Dance. Minneapolis, Minn: Bethany House, 2000. Print.
Doolittle, Lisa and Heather Elton. “Medicine of the Brave: A Look at the Changing Role of Dance in Native Culture from the Buffalo Days to the Modern Powwow” in Moving History/Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader, edited by Ann Dils and Ann Cooper Albright, 114-127. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2001.
