Hey Hey Hey! We all know that Izzy is Greek so she already knows all of this information obviously! This week we focused more on the European growth and development of art. Dance performances had three specific purposes; theatrical(pleasure of the onlookers), spiritual(dances to please the gods), and social dancing(dances to please dancers). Often Greeks used the purpose of spiritual or ceremonial to pay tribute to their many gods. The Greeks viewed the combination of dance, music, and poetry as a symbol of the harmony of mind, body, and civilization. As we discovered in class, today, Greek folk dances are used for celebratory purposes and social interaction. In today’s society, we rarely see new dances being used for the sole purpose of celebrating or worship. Social dancing nowadays has also slowed down on its development and now you see one or two dance moves in a social setting as opposed to a whole dance as an entirety. I wonder if that is because as a society with the development of new technology, we have less of an attention span than when we used to. Just a thought!
Next, we see the development of all art in the Renaissance inn Italy! This is where court dance was the thing to do! As the art of dance continued to thrive, we saw the development of the barre, horse ballet, and women as choreographers. Women were able to contribute to the art but they had to be married. Oh the patriarchy! Even when women were in positions of power, they were not in power. Women need to be puppeteer by their husbands or else their hormones will make them start a war!!!?! Isn’t that the fear? OH WELL Continuing on...The French looked to Italy as a source of what was the hot thing to do. Not very free thinking or original if you ask me. But, this is where ballet came to flourish and really develop into the codified technique that we all know and hate(maybe love idk you). Ballet’s popularity can be tribute to Louis XIV. Ballets also became more theatrical. Jean Baptiste Lully was to thank for that because he was known for his comedy that included singing, dancing, musical instruments, and acting. Lully was also homosexual which contributed to his taboo reputation. The story of his death was quite an interesting one... he fricken stabbed his foot with his counting stick... yuck!
Anyways, Europe had a whole mixing and sharing of ideas on art from Greece, to Italy, to France and so on. PS lets not forget that IZZY IS GREEK
