Dance in ancient Egypt

Types

“Elizabeth Artemis Mourat, performer and dance scholar has categorized these dances into six types: religious dances, non-religious dances, banquet dances, harem dances, combat dances and street dances.” (Ancient Egypt,1) Irena Lexova mentioned that at the end of the fourth century BC there were acrobatic dances and pair dances. Men and women were seen dancing with clappers (wooden castanets). She also added that dancers of that era used a short curved stick or cane while dancing which is a prop still used by modern Egyptian dancers.

Solo, Pair and Group Dances

Ancient Egyptian Dancers danced either as soloists, in pairs or in groups depending on the occasion and type of the dance performed. In solo dances, “the king performed the sun dance. Priests designated as the kings representatives performed solo dances or led religious dances. At the harvest festival, the king or his representative danced in honor of Min, a god of fertility.” (Kassing, 46)

Pair Dancing

In pair dancing, it was either two males or females performing their dance as a kind of entertainment. It was noted in the 5th dynasty that girls held hands while performing unison symmetrical and dramatic movements to express emotions as longing or depression whereas in the 6th dynasty girls danced with canes.

Group Dances

There were two types of Egyptian group dances. One was performed in individual movements that confirmed a theme or idea or was carried out spontaneously as in prehistoric times. Dancers competed with one another, often in groups, substituting movement that were later established in funeral dances rites (Lexova 1935) “In the second group style, pairs or ranks of dancers executed repetitive movements in a circle. Trained pair dancers often performed at banquets and festivals.” (Kassing, 46)

Costumes and Headdress of Ancient Egyptian Dancers

In the Old Kingdom female dancers wore short men’s skirts or danced naked wearing just a belt around their waist. Some dancers wore long or short transparent garments sometimes completely revealing the right side of their chests. Whereas in the Middle and New kingdoms dancers wore transparent broad long cloaks with tight or loose sleeves. Dancers adorned themselves in brightly decorated collars, bracelets, earrings, and ribbons or garlands on their heads. The dancers also wore cones made of fragranced semi solid fat, used to give out a pleasant perfume as the dancers performed.

The Old and Middle Kingdom women’s hair dress was characterized by “evenly cut and smoothly combed down, divided into two thinner plaits hanging from the shoulders down to the chest and one broad plait covering the upper part of the back.” (Lexova, 59) Female dancers who did not have long hair resorted to wearing wigs styled in the same fashion. The Egyptian male dancers in both the old and middle kingdoms wore the regular men’s dress viz. skirt or an apron with round edges in the front. The dancers of the dwarf dances wore a crown made of reeds or palm fibers woven into the shape of white upper Egyptian crown. For ornaments male dancers wore collars adorned with ties, they also wore chains around their necks, whereas the younger boys wore bracelets on their feet.

Musical Instruments

The ancient Egyptians used a vast array of musical instruments such as harps, lutes, drums, flutes, cymbals, clappers and tambourines that played a prominent role in melodic compositions of ancient Egyptians composers and musicians. “Only musicians directly associated with the dancers are those clapping their hands, using clappers or playing tambourines, drums, sistrums or other percussion instrument to beat out tempo and rhythm.” (Metwally, 2) It was rare to find wind or stringed instrument players close to dancers in the same scene. However, it was noted that whenever musicians are depicted, dancers were not generally far away.

Types of Dancing

Funeral Dances

It included three types of dances: ritual, postures and gestures and secular dances. During the old kingdom, just after the mummification process was completed, dances were performed by a specialized group of ladies known as “the acacia house”. At Beni Hasan, Middle kingdom tomb, there are scenes depicting dancers following the funerary procession and performing acrobats. Another group of funerary dances were the mww (muu) - dancers, known from the old kingdom through the New Kingdom. These wore kilts and reed crowns and dances performed when the funeral procession reached the tomb, to symbolically ferry the dead across the waters leading to the netherworld. Dancing dwarfs were known from the old kingdom and were prized for their rarity. They used to dance at the entrance of the shaft. The dances they performed were farewell performances associated with the departure of the sun. The dwarfs were used as they were thought to represent the sun due to their stunted growth. Another kind of funeral dance was seen during the Middle and New kingdoms in celebration of the coming of the goddess Hathor (the lady of drunkenness) whose responsibility was to help the deceased enter the underworld, and was the main force behind their rebirth; so an appeal was recited or sung using percussion instruments and the clapping of hands and sticks. Banquet scenes represented in New Kingdom tombs combined the ritual and domestic sides of a family feast, where music and dancing took place to help people forget how short their lives were. After the new Kingdom changes of tomb decoration took place funerary dances were no longer depicted on tomb walls but were found in temples instead. The dancing scenes portrayed in temples reflected both royal and divine ceremonies. All dancing scenes had one common feature that being the solemn procession of the sacred barks carrying a god.

Festive Dances

Among the festivals during which dancing took place the following are enumerated:

References

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