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PEACE THROUGH ARTSARTS THROUGH PEACE: DANCE

Joan W. Kealiinohomoku, Prof. (Emeritus) Cultural Anthropology, Northern Arizona University
Dance is to human bodily move-
ment as song is to speechspecial
rhythmically patterned, affective,
enhancement of ordinary behavior.
It diners from song in that it is a
complete bodily activity, but song
and dance or dance-like movements,
are ofien seamless in their interface.
Dance, as song, is universal to
all cultures and has been throughout
all human time. But dance does not
have a history that characteristical-
ly associates it with global peace.
Because it is an extraordinary
expression of the ordinary, dance
functions well in affective events.
Because it can express and also
arouse, dance has ofien been the
artistic mode of choice for both reli-
gious and secular celebrations.
Religious Dance Practices
In "closed" societies, such as tribal
societies, spiritual practices are exclu-
sive to their members. A person who
is bom into a closed society has a cul-
tural heritage that establishes a per-
sonal identity. That identity includes
spiritual behefs and practices, life
styles, world views, and cultural conti-
nuity with shared historical frames of
reference. If someone is not encultur-
ated as a Hopi Indian, say, one cannot
tnily become a Hopi no matter how
fervently it is desired.
Hopi dances are prayers for the
whole world, it is true. While they
benefit the whole world, only Hopi
persons are authorized to do them
because only Hopis are privy to the
metaphysics of their practices. In
essence, however, the dance prayers
are for moisture and weather control,
and only by implication are they for
peace. Moisture is necessary for the
well-being of all nature and in that
sense, peace can be a natural result.
This is far different from saying that
Hopi dances are for peace, per se.
The or;ganization of white business
men in Prescott, Arizona, that called
themselves the Smoki People, per-
formed Indian dances in public, osten-
sibly to keep them viable. This effort
did not bring peace among white peo-
ple and Indians. The Hopi people were
especially outraged because for over
fifty years the Smoki People conclud-
ed their annual public performance
with a snake dance that was cleaily
modeled after the Hopi snake dance.
After a series of mishaps and lack of
interest by young people to continue
the annual event, the Smoki People
finally gave up on their public perfor-
mances. This was about ten years ago,
but Hopi people still speak about it
with bitterness.
Only "revealed" religions poten-
tially allow people to participate
regardless of their patrimony.
Revealed religions are inclusive
instead of exclusive because they
depend upon proselytizing to obtain
new members. But religious tenets can
exclude certain behaviors even if they
do not exclude people. For example,
two of the major revealed world reli-
gions, Islam and Christianity, have had
an uneasy relationship with dancing,
probably because of the power of
dancing in pre<onversion belief sys-
tems. Islam and Christianity have his-
torically considered dance to be dan-
gerous and immoral.
However, there have always been
extra-orthodox groups that incorpo-
rate dance as an integral part of their
worship.
The Shakers are a Christian sect
that regularly used dancing, singing
and marching in certain phases of their
worship. The Shakers, so-called
because of their trembling produced
by religious emotion, are correctly
called the United Society of Behevers
in Christ's Second Appearing. This
millenarian group originated in
England in 1747 and came to the
United States in 1774 when eight
believers accompanied a woman
known as Mother Arm as she immi-
grated to New York state and founded
a Shaker colony there. A fundamental
Shaker belief was the dual nature of
the Deity, with Jesus as the male prin-
ciple. In the Americas Mother Ann
was the female principle. Tenets ofthe
faith included celibacy, open confes-
sion of sins, communal ownership of
possessions, separation from the
world, equality of the sexes, conse-
crated work and pacifism. New mem-
bers were added by conversion and by
adoption of orphans.
Primarily because ofthe insistence
on celibacy. Shaker communities
declined by the end of the nineteenth
centuiy and by the end of the twentieth
century the Shakers as a viable sect
had become extinct. The impact of
Shaker practices is still felt, however,
and one of their songs has become a
beloved part of their legacy"The
Gift to be Simple." The Shakers did
indeed have peace dances, some of
which have inspired concert dance
choreography that is viewed as an
artistic curiosity rather than a message
for peace.
In the last few years there has been
an increasing interest in using dance to
promote Christian love. Groups of
dancers meet in ecumenical assem-
blies to develop Christian dances. The
Fiist International Christian Dance
and Movement Conference, sponsored
by the Christian Dance Fellowship of
Australia (CDFA), was held in
Australia, January, 1988 If developed
to their full potential, new Christian
daiKes can certainly become Peace
Dances.
Throughout Islamic countries
there are some brotherhoods and sects
that engage in ecstatic daiKes. The
west has Iong been fascinated by the
"whirling dervishes." Devotees avoid
the word "dance" to describe their
body movements, probably because of
THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES AND PEACE, 1997
64
secular connotations. Nevertheless,
the broad definition of dance does
describe their behavior. The group that
calls itself the "Whirling Dervishes of
Turkey" has toured the United States
several times, and they came once
again in Januaiy and February, 1997,
to perfonn in Alaska, the West and
East Coasts and Washington, D.C.
This group, belonging to the Mevlevi
sect inspired by the 13th centuiy
Persian poet, Jalal-u-Din Rumi, is part
of the Sufi movement.
The public viewing of this practice
makes at least two contiibutions to
peace. The fust is that viewers seem to
achieve a meditative state as they vic-
ariously experience the slow, repeti-
tive, mesmerizing, mystical dances.
Second, audiences can take a privi-
leged peek at one facet of Islam. This
insight gained by experiencing these
dervishes in action counteracts the
general suspicion held by many
Americans who tend to associate
Islam with extremists, even terrorists.
In that sense, then, witnessing these
Sufi exercises promotes peace and
understanding through aesthetic and
emotional means.
Sufism is a "term generally applied
to mystical currents in Islam. . . . tte
word is derived from suf (Arab.,
'wool') pointing to the woolen fnxks
of Middle Eastern ascetics," according
to the The Harper Collins Dictionary of
Religion (p. 1029). "Sufi dareing," in
the United States, however, has become
a popular form of mixed gender group
circle dancing to promote peace. This
use of the term, "Sufi Dancing," gives
me cognitive dissonance as does the
surprising permutation of the form, but
I need to do more research before mak-
ing further comments.
Buddhism is the other major spiri-
tual system. In its various branches
and regional adaptations. Buddhism
values dance as a discipline to encour-
age personal detachment on the one
hand, and compassion for all living
beings on the other hand. Detachment,
compassion and peace have a relation-
ship that suggests that many Buddhist
ceremonial dances promote peace.
However, only in recent years have
women participated fully as dancers in
Buddhist ceremonies. Throughout
Tibet and Nepal, devotions to the
Goddess Tara were traditionally
danced by male clerics. An American
woman, Prema Dasara, studied reli-
gious dances extensively in India and
Tibet with respected teachers. With
their blessing she translated the devo-
tions of "The Twenty One Praises of
Tara" into English and developed a
danced mandala which she has taught
successfully to numerous women in
the United States during the last few
years. She also brought this work to
women in Nepal and to children in
Indonesia. When the Dalai Lama was
in Tucson, Arizona, in 1992, Prema
and several women performed the
Tara devotions for His Holiness,
which he watched carefully and for
which he gave his hearty approval.
In Flagstaff, Arizona, many of the
women who learned "The Twenty One
Praises of Tara" meet regularly to per-
form it as a spiritual practice. In danc-
ing this ceremony the women seek
personal enlightenment. On the princi-
ple that peace begins with each indi-
vidual, it can be said that the Tara
dances are dances of peace.
Secular Dance Practices
There are three movements in sec-
ular dancing that promote peace: rein-
terpretation of functions, multi-cultur-
al festivals, and a fusion of forms.
Many societies on every continent
and island chain have war dances.
They have been used to galvanize and
engage the participantsperformers
and onlookersto fight and be willing
to give up their lives if necessary.
Some societies have victoiy dances
after a war to celebrate, honor, and
create loyalties that can be tapped in
the future. These dances arouse neuro-
chemical, hormonal responses that
allow people to perfonn extraordinary
tasks. They create focused arxl accel-
erated emotions.
Where war is now outlawed, such
as in the High Lands of New Guinea,
many societies continue to perfonn
war dances but for new purposes
festivals or athletic competitions.
Similarly, North American Indian
powwows include war dances as one
category of competition. The dancers
become heritage keepers who main-
tain histoiy and group identity. The
dances still arouse strong emotions of
loyalty and even nostalgia, as they
honor their ancestors and commemo-
rate a former way of life. It could be
said that the new functions of war
dances is comparable to beating the
swords into plow shares, because, in
fact, war dances have been trans-
formed into peace darKes.
Since the early 1940s a Holiday
Folk Fair is produced every November
by the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsia
From its inception the various ethnic
groups in the Milwaukee areas have
performed their dances and sold their
handicrafts and foods in harmony and
enthusiasm. Many people attend the
Fair in their traditional outfits worn
throughout the two day event and
everyone enjoys sampling foods and
buying gifts from various countries.
Thousands of Milwaukeeans retum to
the Folk Fair year after year. They
look forward to the treats that are in
store. They become "experts" on the
variations of dancing, costumes, food
and handicrafts of each group. And of
course, with familiarity comes respect
(rather than "contempt" as the old
cliche would have it).
Beginning in 1972, and held eveiy
four years, twenty-plus Pacific Island
nations hold a Festival of Pacific Arts
which features the dances of those
nations. The nations represent the
native culture areas of Polynesia,
Micronesia, Melanesia and Australia.
Each time the festival is given a dif-
ferent nation hosts the ten day event.
For example, in 1996 the host was
Western Samoa, a Polynesian natioa
In the year 2,000 the host will be New
THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES AND PEACE, 1997
65
Caledonia, a Melanesian nation. The
objectives of the Festival are to pro-
mote the survival of traditional arts, to
make Island nations aware of one
another's cultures, and to proclaim the
importance of Pacific arts to the
world. Certainly this sharing of cul-
tures promotes peace among the island
nations as they meet one another and
leam to appreciate what each nation
has to offer.
Each Pacific nation, but one, inter-
prets "traditional" as referring to cul-
tures that were present since time
immemorial. Thus the groups that rep-
resent New Guinea are tribal groups,
the groups that represent Hawaii are
native Hawaiians who perform the
hula, the groups that represent
Micronesia are native groups that per-
form dances that represent their her-
itage from prehistoric time to their
adaptation of the dances of European
conquerors.
Only Fiji has a different agenda.
For maity years there were severely
strained relations, even violence,
among Fijian natives and those
Indians and overseas Chinese who
made Fiji their home in this centuiy
and who, as Fijian citizens, have no
intention to leave Fiji. The major point
of contention was a power strtiggle of
land ownership versus economic
imbalance. Native Fijians held the
land, Indians and Chinese held the
purse strings. Finally, in the interest of
peace, a conscious decision was made
to cooperate with one another and to
respect the contributions of each group
to the modem nation. In this spirit, tltt
powers that be decided that their
entries into the Pacific Arts Festival
will include all three cultures. Thus
Fiji sends dancers that represent
Fijian, Indian and Chinese traditions.
No other Island nation includes the
dance cultures of their expatriates in
the Festival. This political move pro-
motes peace in Fiji and sends a mes-
sage of peace to other nations.
Very different from the use of fes-
tivals to promote peace through under-
standing of discrete dance cultures, is
a movement toward fusion. The irrter-
est in World Music and a similar inter-
est in World Dance demonstrates an
appreciation for one another's culture
by cooperation of artists from differ-
ing traditions to leam and borrow from
one another. This has been especially
problematic with dance.
Westem concert dancers expect to
constantly create new works and they
search the world for new ideas to
incorporate in their choreographies.
Many non-westemers do not think that
imitation is the sincerest form of flat-
tery. To the contrary, some cultures
feel that borrowing culturally tradi-
tional dance is a trespass that trivial-
izes them, at the least, or even dese-
crates them, at worst. See for exam-
ple, the case of the Smoki People and
the Hopi Indians, mentioned above.
Westem concert dancers and dance
critics have had to leam new sensitivi-
ties and discover which cultures wel-
come coilahoration and which do not.
For example, Hopi Indians deeply
resent any attempt to incorporate their
dance cultures by non-Indians. When
the Rebecca Haikness ballet company
produced a ballet called "Koshare" in
the late 1960s the outciy by traditional
Hopis was swift and scathing. The
illustrious Hopi jeweler, Charles
Loloma, who was also the katsina
chief in his village of Hotevilla, wrote
a letter of protest to the person who
had admired the ballet in print.
A surprising example of a happy
use of a traditional dance by dancers
from another culture is the increasing
popularity of the Hawaiian hula.
Although it, too, was trivialized until
Hawaiian culture experienced a
renaissance beginning in the 1960s.
Since that time many dancers around
the worid take it as a serious art form.
There are active hula groups in many
parts of the world, most notably in
Mexico and Japan. I know a few hula
masters who see this as a move toward
universal peace because they perceive
that people who leam the hula will
understand and transmit the spirit of
aloha, sometimes translated as love.
This understanding of the hula seems
to me to be completely incompatible
with its original function, but if this
reinvention enlists htila as an instru-
ment of peace it is commendable.
Finally there is a secular approach
to dance that pereeives that under-
standing and appreciation of dance as
an integral part of cultures world wide
is a conduit to peace. The organization
with which I am affiliated, Cross-
Cultural Dance Resources, includes
this goal as part of its work to be an
instmment for peace.
Conclusion
There is little evidence that tradi-
tional dance cultures intend to promote
global peace. There are peace dances
by implication or spin-off, but not nec-
essarily by intent. In fact there are two
ways that dance promotes peace even
if the content or meaning of the dance
is not focussed specifically on univer-
sal peace. The first is to create commu-
nity togetherness and joy, as those per-
formed at Mardi Gras, or personal tran-
quility as in Zen dance.
Thinking globally is relatively new.
Dancing globally is even newer. But
because dance is universal to all
human societies, and because the need
for peace is also universal, there will
tmdoubtedly be dances that promote
peace that have not been thought of
before. Wherever there is a human
function to fill, dance and its interface,
song, will appear Our survival as
happy, healtt^ human beings depends
upon peace. It will be interesting to see
how dance helps to promote peace in
the future.
Bibliography and References
Brown. Bcveriy S. (1990). An
Ethnography of a Christian Sacred
Dance Conference. Unpublished Master's
Thesis, Department of Performance
Studies, New York University.
Dionnc, Alexandria (1997). "Dervishes
Whirl From Coast to Coast," Dance
Magazine (January): 32.
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66
The Harper Collins Dictionary of
RdUgicm. Jonathan Z. Smith, cd. San
Francisco: HarperCollins. 199S.Severa]
entries especially those on Shakers,
Sufi, Rumi.
Kealiinohomoku. Joan W. (1986). 'The
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Frisbie,ed., Explorations in
Ethnomusicology: Essays In Honor of
David McAllester, pp. 111-126. Detroit
Monographs in Musicology Number 9.
Detroit: Information Coordinators in
Detroit
Kealiinohomoku, Joan W. (1993)."Music
and Dance ofthe Hawaiian and Hopi
Peoples," In Richard L. Anderson and
Karen L. Field, eds. Art In Small Scale
Societies: Contemporary Readi ng
pp.334-348.. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:
Prentice-Hall.
Kealiinohomoku. Joan W. (199S).
"Dance in Traditional Religions," In
Jortathan Z. Smith, general ed.. Sam D.
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of Reli^on, pp. 304-307. San Francisco:
HarperSan-Francisco.
Kealiinohomoku, Joan W. (1996). "The
Dances of Tibet". The International
Journal of Humanities and Peace
11,1:49.
Lee. Sun Ock and John Chang McCurdy
(1983). Zen Dance: Meditation In
Movement .Seoul. Korea: Seoul
International Publishing House.
Loloma, Charles. Letter to the Editor.
The New Columbia Encyclopedia (1975
William H. Harris and Judith S.
Levey, eds. New York and London:
Columbia University Press.
Joan W. Kealiinohomoku, Ph.D., is a
cultural anthropologist of the peiform-
ing aits. Her research concentration is
on the holistic role of dance through-
out the world. Although she has inves-
tigated numerous dance cultures, she
has especially focussed on the role of
FOLK DANCERS
dance among Polynesians and Indians
of the U.S. Southwest. She is co-
founder and director of the non-profit
organization Cross-Cultural Dance
Resourees, a non-profit organization
based in Flagstaff, Arizona.
PEACE THROUGH ART
VIJAYABHANU
SILHOUETTE PHOTOS OF TASHI DHONDUP BY JOHN RUNNING
THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES AND PEACE, 1997