Dance In Religion

Created in 1960 this painting is a depiction of Jewish faith mentioned in the Hebrew bible. The artist was Jewish and immigrated to France once the German nazis invaded his home town of Berlin. Exodus 15 (the name of the painting) is the story of the Israelites turning from God and beginning to worshiping deities such as the golden calf. They celebrated this deity through dance hoping it would bring them salvation from wandering in the desert for so long. The curved arms of the figures show the movement and the dark color of the figures and the background are used to make the focus of the piece (the clan) stand out. This also helps tell the story of Exodus by showing the most important element of the story in a noticeable color..

Painting of a dancing Gopi (basically an Indian farmer who raises cows) is a depiction of Indian woman posed in a dance position to represent poses goddesses are usually depicted in. Jamini Roy is considered a father of Indian art, and his work combines South Asian folk art traditions and international modernist aesthetics using sharper edges rather than smooth lines throughout, and unusual colors for the skin. This could represent the brightness of the culture and all its complexities.

This watercolor painting shows a Native Americans dance as a ritual to have a good harvest season so they will have enough food to preserve for the upcoming winters where they won't be able to find enough food for the whole tribe. The dance is like a prayer to the gods for good fortune for the entire tribe. The bright colors of the costumes make the dancers stand out as the other people praying are more subtle in traditional clothing. the fact that this prayer is not performed individually and is a prayer for the entire tribe shows the united aspect of their culture.

The War Dance is a dance form of prayer from early cultures to prepare for war. They practice this tradition before battles to ensure winning. Usually only warriors participated giving the fighters a sense of purpose in the upcoming battle, this is shown in the artwork because the people are all holding weapons for the prayer. This depiction is specifically interesting because there is a woman leading the dance. The simplicity of color and use of spaces shows that this was not the focus of their prayers but rather a historical record of how they prayed.

This painting shows gods of hindu religion singing and dancing for the announced marriage of the greatest yogini, Shiva, and his bride Parvait. Shiva and Pravait are laying on a tiger skin in a sort of picnic setting and are dresses in traditional Indian clothing. Shiva is very distinct because of his features such as his ash-white skin, long hair, snake jewelry, and third eye. The large line that winds around the right side of the painting shows how big of a celebration this, everyone came out to celebrate the union of the gods.

This Native American tribe believes that unless the sun dance is performed each year, the earth will lose touch with the creative power of the universe, thereby losing its ability to regenerate. Some celebrations required extreme physical tasks and have been banned in the 19th century for the safety of all involved.This depiction by Frederic Remington implies that this dance is performed around a fire and everyone in the tribe is in attendance showing the importance of the ritual in their culture. All the background spectators are also depicted in a darker shade than the people performing the dance because the dance is the focus of the painting.

Untitled is a depiction of the celebration of death. It is not necessarily a dance, but the painting has movement through it like a dance between life and death. Moving from right to left the painting gets increasingly darker and the feeling becomes heavier. Fewer and fewer people are depicted and the facial expressions seem to be more agonizing. Not all important ceremonies are commemorated by a dance, however the feeling of back and forth may feel like a dance.

This depiction of dance shows the structure and elegance of dance as entertainment rather than using for a ritual where the appearance of the dance doesn't matter as much as the intent behind it. the lines and shading that create the skirts and the body shows the subtle movement of dancers waiting in the wings before a performance. It conveys the nerves but also the confidence of each person. The position of the bodies also seems elegant giving a hint to the kind of dance they are about to do.

Most dances used for entertainment have an element of synchronization. This depiction by Georges Seurat is a prime example of this aspect of performance dance. Showing all the elements of a performance including: the unison of the dancers the direction of the conductor and the sound of the orchestra that guides the performance through each dance and each scene. It depicts not only the synchronization of the dancers but the entire performance.

Dance has evolved into a demanding and challenging ritual. Years of training, months of practicing, and hours worth of performances combined to create the world of competition dance where the elements of ritual dance and entertainment dance combine. All of the ritual dances have a specific purpose behind them and the entertainment dances are exciting to watch. Competition dances, such as Latin American dancing depicted in this painting, combine the two elements of purpose and synchronization to tell a story in a easy-to-follow and beautiful way.