Spiritual proportions.Regarding the December issue's article on spirituality: Asian and African dance The term African dance refers mainly to the dances of subsaharan and West Africa. The music and dances of northern Africa and the Sahara are generally more closely connected to those of the Near East. Also the dances of immigrants of European and Asian descent (e.g. openly acknowledge their spiritual foundations or purposes, while Western dance shies shies 1 v. Third person singular present tense of shy1. n. Plural of shy1. away from recognizing the spiritual elements of physical and artistic expression. Not so the practitioners, as we see from Era Yaa Asantewaa's article, "The Divine Within: Dancers on Spirituality." I think back on the beginnings of modern dance--Ruth St. Denis Denis, king of Portugal: see Diniz. , Isadora Duncan, Martha Grabara--who celebrated dance's spiritual elements. And, recently reading Deborah Jowitt's book, Jerome Robbins: His Life, His Theater, His Dance, I was struck by a young Robbins' references to faith and dance. He wrote in a journal, "My classes shall be my daily worship." I do believe that the discipline, concentration, and extreme reach of dance often lead one to experience the divine. That's why we're all in love with dance. CYNTHIA HEDSTROM NEW YORK New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , NY |
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