Anna Pavlova

Biblical allusions; sacred dances; the Salome episode and its modern influence—The Arabs; Moorish florescence in the Middle Ages; characteristics of the Moorish dances; the dance in daily life; the harem, the Dance of Greeting; pictorial quality of the Arab dances.

I

That dancing was practiced in temples and homes of the ancient Hebrews is evident from numerous Biblical allusions, and is only natural when we consider that they were educated in Egypt, the cradle of dancing. Some scholars maintain that dancing was a part of Hebrew worship, pointing as a proof of their theory to David’s dancing before the Ark of the Covenant and the fact that Moses, after the crossing of the Red Sea, bade the children of Israel to dance. Others, basing their arguments on the Talmud, deny this. It is very likely that the dancing which the Hebrews had learned in Egypt soon degenerated into crude shows, due to their long nomadic desert life, far from civilization. Only now and then did some of their kings indulge in dancing and try to revive the vanishing art. David and Solomon introduced dancing at their courts and in the temple, as we can see in the Bible: ‘Praise the Lord—praise him with timbrel and dance.’ ‘Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance.’ ‘Thou shalt be again adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances,’ etc. On another occasion we read how the sons of Benjamin were taught to capture their wives. ‘If the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife.—And the children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their number of them that danced, whom they caught.’

The Dance of the Golden Calf, which was plausibly an imitation of the Egyptian Apis Dance, was most severely forbidden by Moses. Since this dance was one of the principal ceremonial dances of Egypt, it is evident that it had rooted deep into the soul of the people and Moses had to resort to violent methods in order to abolish it entirely. We read in the Bible that to honor the slayer of Goliath, the women came out from all the cities of Israel and received him with singing and dancing. Other historic sources tell us that the ancient Hebrews frequently hired dancers and musicians for their social ceremonies. There are various Byzantine designs and inscriptions of the fifth and sixth centuries, in which King David is depicted as a ballet master, with a lyre in his hand, surrounded by dancing men and women. We read that when Solomon finished the New Temple in Jerusalem it was dedicated with singing and dancing. It is evident that the ancient Hebrew sacred dances were performed by men, while women figured exclusively in the social dancing. The Jews in Morocco employ professional dancers for the celebration of the marriage ceremony to-day.

The best known of the ancient Hebrew dances is that of the celebrated Salome. Thus we read in a chapter of St. Matthew of the beheading of John the Baptist: ‘But when Herod’s birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod. Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatever she would ask.’ These short remarks of the New Testament describe a gruesome tragedy that has inspired hundreds of artists to amplify with their imagination what has been left unsaid in the Gospel. Moreau, Botticelli, Dolci, Reno and Stuck have produced immortal paintings of Salome. Some of them have depicted her as a stately society lady of her times, the others show her either frivolous, abnormal or under the spell of narcotics and wine. Many gruesome legends have risen about the death of Salome, according to which she committed suicide by drowning. But an accurate historic investigation has revealed that she was married to the Tetrarch Philip, after whose death she became the wife of Aristobul, the son of Herod, and died at the age of 54.

Be that as it may, the Salome episode is an eloquent proof that dancing was cultivated by the Hebrews and that their daughters were educated in this art either by Egyptian or Greek masters. Several other historic allusions show that Greek dancers went often to Jerusalem to give there performances during the national festivals. Plutarch writes that rich Hebrews came to the Olympic and Dionysian Festivals and were eager to learn Greek music and dancing. But evidently the Greek arts had the least influence upon the Hebrews, whose minds had been trained in the strict Mosaic code of morals to follow only the autocratic commandments of the Lord, and to leave all the arts of other races alone. Like the Confucian philosophy in China, the Mosaic ethics in Palestine put a stamp of Æsthetic stagnation on Hebrew national life. For this very reason the Hebrews never developed a national art, particularly a national music or national dance.

The Salome of Richard Strauss has inspired many of our Western dancers to personify the ancient heroine. With the exception of Ida Rubinstein and Natasha Trouhanova, the Salome dances of all the European or American aspirants have been of no importance. There are characteristics to be seen in a few old inscriptions of dancing Hebrew priests which express most forcibly their peculiar nervous poses and quick gestures. European choreography has for the most part failed to grasp the principal features of the vanished Hebrew dances.

II

Of all living Oriental races the Arabs show the most innate instinct for dancing. Judging from the ruins of the architecture that the Moors have left in Spain we can see that they knew more than the mere elementary rules of Æsthetic line and form, which is the very essential of a dance. The ruins of the majestic Alhambra speak a language that fills us with an awe. No architects of other races, either dead or living, have reached that harmony of line which is plainly visible in this structural masterpiece of humanity. Since, according to the views of all Æsthetic psychologists, dancing and architecture develop as allied arts, the Moors must have developed a high degree of dancing in the Middle Ages, when the rest of the world was shaken by barbaric wars and ruled by ecclesiastic fanaticism. However, the Mohammedan religion prohibits painting and sculpture, therefore we find no frescoes or decorations in the walls of the Moorish castles or Mosques that could give an idea of the style and perfection of the dancing that was taught in Cadiz.

The Greek and Roman writers allude frequently to the fiery and passionate dances that were exhibited by the graduates of Cadiz, ‘which surpassed anything the people had seen before.’ We know that the Moors taught dancing to their boys and girls alike. Furthermore, we know that their dances differed distinctly from those of the Greeks and Egyptians. The dancing teachers at Cadiz emphasized agility of legs, softness and grace of the body and a vivid technique of imitation. Passion was the principal theme of their feminine dances, and was expressed with the technique of virtuosity. It is said that the Califs of Seville kept a staff of fifty trained dancers at their court.

The essential feature of Arabian dancing was the graphic production of pictorial episodes, in rich harmonious lines of the body, sensuous grace of the poses and sinuous elegance of movement. A special emphasis was placed upon the exhibition of the most perfect womanly beauty. To complete the task of architectural perfection an Arabic dancer was taught to study carefully the geometric laws of nature and eliminate the crudities acquired in everyday life. The principal musical instrument of the Moorish dancers was the African guitar, which was their national invention. Most of the great Arab dancers were women, who preferred to dance without a masculine partner. Ordinarily they danced to the music of two or three differently tuned guitars, and only on festival occasions or in appearances at court was the music supplied by an orchestra of ten or more. Already the Arabs had their musical notation, set in three colors: red, green, and blue. Fragments of their mediÆval music notation were recently discovered by a French scholar and were successfully deciphered. It appears that many of the dance melodies still in use in Spain are of Moorish descent. The Kinneys,A who seemingly have made a study of Spanish and modern Arab dancing, write of it graphically, as follows:

‘Of formulated dances the Arab has few, and those no more set than are the words of our stories: the point must not be missed, but we may choose our own vocabulary. In terms of the dance, the Arab entertainer tells stories; in the case of known and popular stories she follows the accepted narrative, but improvises the movements and poses that express it, exactly as though they were spoken words instead of pantomime. Somewhat less freedom necessarily obtains in the narration of dance-poems than in the recital of trifling incidents; but within the necessary limits, originality is prized. In the mimetic vocabulary are certain phrases that are depended upon to convey their definite meanings. New word-equivalents, however, are always in order, if they can stand the searching test of eyes educated in beauty and minds trained to exact thinking.

‘Nearly unlimited as it is in scope, delightful as it unfailingly is to those who know it, Arabic dancing suits occasions of a variety of which the dances of Europe never dreamed. In the cafÉ it diverts and sometimes demoralizes. In his house the master watches the dancing of his slaves, dreaming under the narcotic spell of rhythm. On those rare occasions when the demands of diplomacy or business compel him to bring a guest into his house, the dancing of slaves is depended upon to entertain. His wives dance before him to please his eye, and to cajole him into conformity with their desires. Even the news of the day is danced, since the doctrines of Mohammed deprecate the printing of almost everything except the Koran. Reports of current events reach the male population in the market and the cafÉ. At home men talk little of outside affairs, and women do not get out except to visit others of their kind, as isolated from the world as themselves. But they get all the news that is likely to interest them, none the less; at least the happenings in the world of Mohammedanism.

‘As vendors of information of passing events, there are women that wander in pairs from city to city, from harem to harem, like bards of the early North. As women they are admitted to women’s apartments. There, while one rhythmically pantomimes deeds of war to the cloistered ones that never saw a soldier, or graphically imitates the punishment of a malefactor in the market place, her companion chants, with falsetto whines, a descriptive and rhythmic accompaniment. Thus is the harem protected against the risk of narrowness.

‘In the daily life of the harem, dancing is one of the favored pastimes. Women dance to amuse themselves and to entertain one another. In the dance, as in music and embroidery, there is endless interest, and a spirit of emulation usually friendly.

‘One of the comparatively formalized mimetic expressions is the “Dance of Greeting,” the function of which is to honor a guest when occasion brings him into the house. Let it be imagined that coffee and cigarettes have been served to two grave gentlemen; that one has expressed bewilderment at the magnificence of the establishment, and his opinion that too great honor has been done him in permitting him to enter it; that the host has duly made reply that his grandchildren will tell with pride of the day when the poor house was so honored that such a one set his foot within it. After which a sherbet, more coffee and cigarettes. When the time seems propitious, the host suggests to the guest that if in his great kindness he will look at her, he—the host—would like permission to order a slave to try to entertain with a dance.

‘The musicians squatting against the wall begin the wailing of the flute, the hypnotic throb of “darabukkeh.” She who is designed to dance the Greeting enters holding before her a long scarf that half conceals her; the expression on her face is surprise, as though honor had fallen to her beyond her merits or expectation. Upon reaching her place she extends her arms forward, then slowly moves them, and with them the scarf, to one side, until she is revealed. When a nod confirms the command to dance, she quickly drops the scarf to the floor, advances to a place before the guest and near him, and honors him with a slave’s salutation. Then arising she proceeds to her silent Greeting. * * *

‘The Arabian dance is not a dance of movement; it is a dance of pictures, to which movement is wholly subordinate. Each bar of the music accompanies a picture complete in itself. Within the measure of each bar the dancer has time for the movements leading from one picture to the next, and to hold the picture for the instant necessary to give emphasis. At whatever moment she may be stopped, therefore, she is within less than a moment’s pose so perfectly balanced that it appears as a natural termination of the dance. The Oriental’s general indifference to the forces of accumulation and climax are consistent with such a capricious ending. In his dance each phrase is complete in itself; it may be likened to one of those serial stories in our magazines, in which each installment of the story is self-sufficient.

‘To the Occidental unused to Oriental art, the absence of crescendo and climax, and the substituted iteration carried on endlessly, is uninteresting. Nevertheless, a few days of life among Oriental conditions suffice to throw many a scoffer into attunement with the Oriental art idea, which is to soothe, not to stimulate. Moorish ornament is an indefinitely repeated series of marvellously designed units, each complete in itself, yet inextricably interwoven with its neighbors. In music the beats continue unchanging through bar after bar, phrase after phrase. The rhythmic repetition of the tile-designs on the wall, the decorative repetition of the beats of music, produce a spell of dreamy visioning comparable only to the effect of some potent but harmless narcotic.’

From all modern observations and ancient records it is evident that the Arabs’ dances differed essentially from their Eastern neighbors. Spain undoubtedly is the only Occidental country that has preserved in its vivid national dances, Jotas, Boleros, Seguidillas and Fandangos, the mutilated and deformed elements of the vanished choreography of Cadiz. Though the Moor has left so few records of his highly cultivated art of dancing, yet his spectral shadow hangs over the race beyond the Pyrenees. Of all the living civilized nations the Spaniards, more than any others, are justly the very incarnation of the vanished magic Arabs in dance. A studious observer finds in Spanish dances all the hysteria, magic, seductiveness and softness that was practiced by mediÆval Arab dancers. And then the costumes—most picturesque and romantic—that the Spanish women use in their dances are similar in their lines and colors to those that were worn by the Moorish girls who entertained with their magic dances a Cleopatra and a CÆsar.