The study of the archaic round dances dramaturgy from the spring cycle

The relevance of the study is determined by the need to find clarification of the interpretation of the primary symbolism of some dance ornaments and movements. This will help to focus the choreographers’ attention on the competent use and interpretation of symbols in the dance dramaturgy. The purpose of this study is to analyze the archaic motifs in the dramaturgy of the spring cycle dances on the cycle example of round dances “Podolianochka” to explain their primary sign content. The methodology. The article analyzes the dramaturgy of the archaic spring rites on the cycle example of round dances “Podolianochka”, which are united by a plot and choreographic features. The archaic origins sources of the choreographic staging of these ritual actions are traced and systematized. The components of mythological, calendar-ritual and initiating origins of such a rite are considered. The results. The main character origin as a sun reflection in the spring flood (in the Danube) is formulated on the basis of a common feature — “white face” and others. The initiation of “Podolianochka-Bilodanchyk” leads to the Lela-spring birth. Choreographic elements that contribute to the success of the magical ritual and accompany the events course are considered: jumps — for the successful initiation, marriage and promoting plant growth, running — to increase fertility. It is shown that the schemes of movement in these round dances ensure the involvement of all girls in the role of the central character, as well as create magical symbols similar to Easter painting: sun-bird, meander, “thunderbolt”. It is proved that from the view of magical point the round dance plays the role of rosaries, the grains of which are taken one by one, and to each of them the gods’ glorification is pronounced. The novelty of this study is to clarify the ideological basis of the main character origin of the dance “Podolianochka-Bilodanchyk”, in the interpretation of choreographic patterns as symbols similar to Easter painting, the analogy between the touching of rosaries and mandatory participation in the role of the central character of all girls. The practical significance of this study is the selection of meaningful lines of round dance dramaturgy: 1) choreographic staging of events with grain and sorcery for the harvest; 2) girls’ initiation before the marriage period; 3) choreographic staging of events from the gods’ life and consecration of human actions. This allows you to more fully reconstruct both individual movements and the round dance dramaturgy as a whole in practice.

About Russian Old-timers' Performing Style in the Northern Regions of the Udmurt Republic

Статья посвящена исследованию некоторых аспектов исполнительского стиля русских старожилов северных районов Удмуртской Республики на примере песенных жанров, включенных в календарную обрядность (песни святочных гаданий «Илею», колядки, хороводные, лирические песни). Экспедиционные материалы показывают, что темброво-тесситурные особенности и исполнительские приемы приобретают значение типичных элементов песенного стиля исследуемого ареала, свидетельствуя о единстве музыкального фольклора русских старожилов наряду с самобытными чертами местных локальных традиций. В статье указываются способы фиксации фольклорно-этнографического материала в экспедиционных условиях, которые дают возможность воссоздать фольклорные записи, представить звучащие песни включенными в определенный контекст, с учетом особенностей их функционирования; раскрываются сведения о том, кем, когда, в каком пространстве и как исполнялись колядки, песни святочных гаданий «Илею», хороводные и лирические песни. Эти сведения позволяют сделать вывод о некогда активном бытовании перечисленных жанров, об их значимости в местной традиции. Певческие приемы («петь на ростяг», «скольжения-переходы», взятия и сбросы дыхания), темброво-тесситурные, динамические особенности песенных форм, точные высказывания носителей традиции о звучании различных жанров музыкального фольклора углубляют знания об исследуемой культуре, позволяют воссоздать ее своеобразный звуковой облик, а также выявить музыкально-выразительные средства, характерные и для других песенных традиций. Article is devoted to the study of some aspects of the performing style of Russian old-timers in the Northern regions of the Udmurt Republic on the example of genres included in the calendar rites (songs of YuLe divination “ILeyu,” Christmas carols, round dance and Lyrical songs). The expedition materials show that timbre and tessitura indicators and performance techniques are becoming typicaL elements of the performing styLe in the studied areas. They point to the unity of the Russian old-timers musical folklore along with the original features of LocaL traditions. The articLe reveaLs the ways to record foLkLore and ethnographic materiaL in expeditions. It aLLows us to recreate foLkLore texts, imagine sounding songs incLuded in a certain context, taking into account the pecuLiarities of their functioning. This work provides detaiLed answers to the questions of who was performing the caroLs, songs of YuLe divination “Ileyu,” round dance and LyricaL songs, testifying to the once active existence of the Listed genres, their importance in the Local tradition. Singing techniques (singing “narostyag” (“stretching” signing), sLiding transitions, taking and resetting breath), timbre and tessitura, as weLL as dynamic features of song forms, accurate expressions of the bearers of tradition about the sounding of various genres of musical folklore deepen knowLedge about the cuLture under study, aLLow us to recreate its originaL sound appearance and identify musical and expressive means characteristic of other song traditions.

‘Creator gave us two ears and one mouth’

Acoustic ecology has served as a foundational theoretical field for many sound scholars to understand the soundscape as a signifier for environmental crisis. While sound theorists like R. Murray Schafer and those in the World Soundscape Project have developed ways in which to critically analyze environmental soundscapes, these methods have often excluded Indigenous narratives which offer complex understandings of sound through embodied experience. In this paper I employ a brief description of acoustic ecology, drawing attention to its benefits as a methodological approach to sonic ordering, while also demonstrating the possibilities for expansion of this field when examined in conversation with Canadian Indigenous perspectives and notable sonic activist movements. I address how Indigenous knowledge systems, futurisms, art, and activism can provide critical perspectives within the field of acoustic ecology, which lends well to understanding soundscapes of crisis. I identify a few case studies of sonic forward Indigenous environmental movements which include game design by Elizabeth LaPensée, Rebecca Belmore’s Wave Sound sculpture, and the Round Dance Revolution within the Idle No More movement. In sum, this paper works to bridge the work of acoustic ecology and Indigenous sonic movements to encourage a complex and nuanced relationship to sound, and to explore moments for understanding sonic intersections at the forefront of environmental crisis.

Circle Dance and Dance Therapy for Talented Children with Disadvantages and Special Needs

At the meeting points of different cultures, a unique quality is born. That is what we can experience when sacred round dance, dance therapy, and talent development meet and overlap. The study aims to present a project operated by the Budapest 10th district Educational Consultant Team with the support of the Hungarian National Talent Program. The program, named Square-Dance-Theatre-Scene, was started as an experiment, integrating 12–14-year-old students, including psychologists, drama experts, art therapists, dance therapists, and dance teachers. In the paper, a sacred dance therapeutic workshop is described and analyzed, which was a part of this broader talent management program. The workshop was preceded by an outline of the underlying tripartite theoretical background: The sacred dance workshop’s group dynamics are analyzed with dance and movement therapy methods. The archaic roots of sacred dance related to the therapeutic approach are also displayed. Finally, a SWOT-type summary of the work process is given, including both the project’s strengths and weaknesses.

Motives and Images of Folk Laughter Cultures as the Commonplaces of the Soviet Carnival of 1920–1930

The article is devoted to the study of the problem of continuity between images, motives, poetic clichés of Russian as well as Jewish folk cultures and components of the laughter discourse of the Soviet era. Genre patterns (procession, round dance, game, street song, everyday wit), chronotope (Pesach / Easter / May day), archetype (a dying and resurrecting hero), ethnical and social stereotypes (“aliens”), ritual objects (carnival carriage; matzo vs Easter baking), grotesque rhymes (“matzo – lamza-dritsa”) are analyzed on the basis of the popular city song “Tram No. 9”, ditties, memoirs, satirical wall newspapers. Those elements of the traditional laughter culture of the Slavs and Jews had been actively interacted in the urban environment at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, was exploited by the Soviet carnivals of the 1920s–1930s, and remained in Russian folklore of the second half of the 20th century. The study demonstrates that the scriptwriters and actors of the Soviet carnivals borrowed some of the brightest and at the same time common elements of folk laughter culture, which formed extremely labile semantic ties outside the traditional calendar and everyday contexts changing their content in agreement with the political situation. At the same time, the basic techniques and bottom semantics of the folk comic remain unchanged.

“The Starry Round Dance”: Mastering the Universe by the Means of Folk Choreography in the USSR of the 1960s

In 1961, Tatiana Ustinova, the choreographer of the famous Pyatnitsky Choir, choreographed “To the Stars”, the first dance on the theme of space exploration in the Soviet repertoire. The suite, in the Russian pseudo-popular style, told of the Russian cosmonaut's encounter with the moon and stars. However, this work remained in the repertoire of the famous chorus for a relatively short time. How to assess the emergence and disappearance of this dance from the point of view of a historian? To answer this question, the choreographic event is placed within the Soviet historical context of the Thaw and the dance-artistic context of 1930s – 1960s. The paper shows that a combination of circumstances outside and within Soviet choreography was not favourable for the conjuncture of space dance in the USSR. The pathos of a break-through into the future expired soon after Khrushchev resigned, the boundless pride for the unparalleled leap forward was superseded by the bitterness of the untimely loss of the first man in space and the success of the American space programme, and the language of Soviet choreography was hopelessly anachronistic for description of a new reality. But the very attempts to portray space on the dance stage are evidence of the incredible popularity and ubiquity of the theme of space in the USSR in the early 1960s.

Vocabulary reflecting the titles of Evenk and Even dances

The paper is a comprehensive description of the vocabulary of the dancing culture of Tungus ethnic groups - Evens and Evenks. The development of Even and Evenk folk dancing art was preconditioned by the peculiarities of their economic activity and way of life and the geographical conditions of the northern region. The dances and games reflect the local features related to the history of Even and Evenk settlements in the territories they currently inhabit. Round and imitative dances, an integral part of all ritual celebrations, are the most typical and distinctive for their dancing culture. Intimate relationship to nature is important for dancing vocabulary formation. The traditional culture of Tungus peoples was considerably influenced by their confession: as pagans, they shaped their mythical and real notions of a totem. The dancing tempo of Evenk round dances was influenced by Yakut round dance osuokhai. The analysis of ethnographic, folklore, linguistic, and the authors’ field materials allowed presenting the titles of Evens’ and Evenks’ imitative round dances for the first time holistically. Common and distinctive features of Even and Evenk vocabulary of the round and imitative dances’ titles are revealed. The notions of dance and song in Even and Evenk languages are often indivisible, expressed by cognate words: Even nѳrgenek “dancing with singing”, Evenk iken, ikevun “dancing with singing”. Most of the vocabulary common to the Even and Evenk languages is indigenous to them, with Evenk-Even linguistic correlations on the lexical and semantic levels, suggesting the commonality of the historical processes affecting the development of these languages.