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Progression of Acrobatic Dance: Ancient Times to Modern Era

This research report explores the evolution of acrobatic dance since ancient times, covering its presence in Ancient Egypt and Greece, as well as its development in later centuries. The report includes iconography, texts, and a bibliography on the subject.

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Progression of Acrobatic Dance: Ancient Times to Modern Era

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  1. Ms. Adamantia Angeli (Greece) & Mr. Prof. Alkis Raftis (Greece): Acrobatic dancing since Antiquity Research report presented at the 40th World Congress on Dance Research, 1-5 July 2015, Athens, Greece

  2. Contents • Introduction • Iconography Ancient Egypt • Texts on acrobatic dances • Iconography Ancient Greece and Italy • Later centuries • Bibliography • Profiles of the authors

  3. Introduction This is an introduction to a research on how acrobatic dance progressed within the dance community since ancient times. In Ancient Greece acrobats were considered dancers and are often mentioned as entertainers of guests at banquets. Dancing acrobats are also depicted in funeral or religious processions. Looking at elements found at works of writers and dance researchers, we see that dance in Antiquity included acrobatic movements, could even be a type of dance on its own. Special skills, balance and risk are the basic characteristics of an acrobatic performer in the same way as music, rhythmic movement, dance technique and acrobatic elements are required to define a dancer. Modern acrobatic dance emerged in the USA and Canada in the early 1900s. Although individual dance and acrobatic acts had been performed for several decades prior to 1900, it was not until the early 1900s that acts combining dance and acrobatic movements became popular. A boost was given by the popularity the type of dance called pole dance in the last decades. A project which will follow shortly will be the completion of an existing website: https://sites.google.com/site/acrobaticdancehistory/

  4. Ancient Egypt

  5. Acrobatic dancers.2500 B.C. approximately. Mural painting from the tomb of Mehu, Saqqara, Egypt.

  6. Figure of a dancer-acrobat on an ostrakon. -1400 B.C. approximately, Painting on a shell. Italy, Torino, Museo Egizio di Torino

  7. Description of acrobatic movements - Homer, in his description of Achilles’shield, mentions the “kybisteres” who dance in front of the circle at Ariadne’s “chores". - "Acrobatic scenes in the ancient Greek dance" edited by Prof. Ms. Marie-Hélène: ..."We have an example in Xenophon: “A Mysian came in holding a shield on each arm. He started to dance and sometimes he held his shields as if he had only one, and sometimes, he turned around and jumped in somersaults without letting go of his weapons. It was a beautiful performance”. Two figurative representations correspond to this description, one showing a woman with two shields, the other showing an acrobat dressed up like a hoplite (without the lance) and executing a perilous jump."... - Iliade, XVIII, 506 : Et deux acrobates pour préluder à la fête, font la roue au milieu de tous, trad. P. Mazon, CUF, 1951 - Hérodote VI, 129-130, danse finale d'Hippocleidès en équilibre sur la tête.

  8. Ancient Greece and Italy Iconography

  9. kylix Todi, end V century B.C .

  10. 500-490 B.C. Acrobatics of older men in comic choirs

  11. Αcrobatic movements related to war dances: ~530-400 & 268 B.C.

  12. Seated female teacher playing the flute for dancing pupils. around -450 B.C.

  13. Ulofs, A.: Kyvistrides. Acrobatic dancers. 1887. (drawing) Print 9 x 14 cm. Greece, Athens, collection Alkis Raftis. After illustrations on ancient Greek vases, Filling a vase with water and walking between knives.

  14. Acrobatic dancer and harpist. -670 B.C., approximately. Painting, Amphore in oriental-influenced style 46 cm height. Germany, Würzburg, Martin von Wagner Museum.

  15. Flutist and acrobatic female dancer. -550 B.C. approximately. Painting, mural Italy, Siena, Chiusi, Museo Civico.

  16. Dancing girls and acrobats, detail of a Hydria vase -430 B.C., approximately.Painting, vase 43 cm height. Italy, Napoli, Museo Archeologico Nazionale

  17. Later centuries There have been cases throughout the years and all over the world that there was a kind of risk while dancing. Some examples follow:

  18. Martν, Samuel & Kurath, Gertrude Prokosh: Aztec acrobatic dances. 1600 approximately. Drawing, manuscript illumination, miniature, color.

  19. Naerebout, Frederick & Raftis, Alkis: Joannes Meursius and his "Orchestra, sive de saltationibus veterum" of 1618, the first monograph on ancient Greek dance since Antiquity. Athens, Greek Dances Theatre "Dora Stratou", 2002.

  20. Landivar, Rafael: Flying game. Flying pole dancers. (Volantum ludus) 1650 approximately. Latin Print.

  21. Acrobatic dance with water bowls. 1700 approximately. Drawing, color, manuscript illumination. India, New Delhi, National Museum.

  22. Two musicians and dancer spitting fire. 1800 approximately. Drawing, manuscript illumination.Greece, Athens, collection Alkis Raftis.

  23. Court dancer doing a handstand. 1825 approximately. Painting, watercolor 16.1 x 10.7 cm. Private collection.

  24. Saint-Blaise, de :Interior of Sjordalen barracks. 1861. Print, wood. 15.7 x 23.4 cm. Greece, Athens, collection Alkis Raftis. Illustration for an article.

  25. Schmidt, E. A.: The Schäffler dance - final group. 1894. Print sketch. 21 x 9.2 cm. Greece, Athens, collection Alkis Raftis. From the handicraft festival in Erfurt of Green Monday on 30/07/1894.

  26. Scene from a café-concert. Print, colour, approx. 1870/

  27. Seurat, Georges: Dancing Street Acrobats 1886 approximately. Drawing, Conté pencil, 24.7 x 31.2 cm. Japan, Nichido Museum Foundation.

  28. Bibliography • Delavaud-Roux, Marie-Hélène: Les danses armées en Grèce antique. Aix-en-Provence, Université de Provence, 1993. • Delavaud-Roux, Marie-Hélène: Les danses dionysiaques en Grèce antique. Aix-en-Provence, Université de Provence, 1995. • Delavaud-Roux, Marie-Hélène: Les danses pacifiques en Grèce Antique. Aix-en-Provence, Université de Provence, 1994. • Delavaud-Roux, Marie-Hélène: Recherches sur la danse dans l'antiquité grecque, tomes I, II, III. Aix - Marseille, Université d' Aix - Marseille, 1991. • Falke, Jakob & Politis, Nicolaos: Hellas. Life of the Ancient Greeks (in Greek). Athens, Karl Wilbert, 1887, p. 106. • Lazou, Anna, Raftis, Alkis, Borowska, Malgorzata (editors): Orchesis, texts on ancient Greek dance. Accompanied by a CD-ROM. Athens, Greek Dances Theatre "Dora Stratou" & Way of Life Publications, 2003. • Ministry of Culture: Gifts of the Muses. Echoes of music and dance from Ancient Greece. Exhibition catalogue. Athens, 2004, p. 266 • Naerebout, Frederick & Raftis, Alkis: Joannes Meursius and his "Orchestra, sive de saltationibus veterum" of 1618, the first monograph on ancient Greek dance since Antiquity. Athens, Greek Dances Theatre "Dora Stratou", 2002. • Naerebout, Frederick: Another battle fought and lost. Seventeenth century Dutch predikanten and the dance • Raftis, Alkis: Prints Collection. • Wosien, Maria-Gabrielle: La danse sacrée. Rencontre avec les dieux. Paris, Seuil, 1974. • Mandalaki-Spanou, Stella: The dance in Minoan Crete.

  29. Useful links:http://ancientgreekdance.orchesis-portal.org/https://sites.google.com/site/acrobaticdancehistory/http://danceprintscollection.orchesis-portal.org/ • Internet Sources: • https://sites.google.com/site/acrobaticdancehistory/ • http://danceprintscollection.orchesis-portal.org/gallery/index.php/custom_fields • http://ancientgreekdance.orchesis-portal.org/index.php/modern-writer/65-charikleia-lanara-voyatzi-on-dances-athenaeus-scholars-at-dinner • http://ancientgreekdance.orchesis-portal.org/index.php/450-to-425-bc • http://www.westsideacademy.com/perfco/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26 • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acro_dance • http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/timelines/topics/music.htm • http://ancientorchesis.blogspot.gr/2012/05/historical-sources-of-ancient-greek-and.html • http://humanitieslab.stanford.edu/117/849 • http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/priap/prp107.htm • [June 2015]

  30. The authors Alkis Raftis http://www.alkisraftis.orchesis-portal.org/ Adamantia Aristagora Angeli https://sites.google.com/site/adamantiaaristagoraangeli

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