Egyptian Ritual Dance - history

• For the most part, dance groups consisted of either male or female, but not both. There is actually no known depictions of pair-dancing between a male and female.
• Within the performance, dancers could execute particular movements solo or in unison with one or more other dancers. However, all dancers were part of the same choreography even though they might execute different movements at the same time, just as in modern dance.
• There appears to have been no clear borderline between dancing and acrobatics or gymnastic performances.

• There are two primary types of funeral dances: Acacia and Mww
• Acacia:
• Performed by ladies
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• Their function seems to have been the appeasement of the dangerous lion goddess and the rejuvenation of the dead. They were responsible for mourning the dead, but also celebrating the regeneration of the body.
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• The dancers performed what is termed the "offering table" dance, which lured the dead, born to a new life, to his first meal.
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• However, there were variations of this dance that did not always include the ladies of "the acacia house".
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• There are scenes depicting other groups of women and even men, associated with the funerary procession. On the way to the tomb, those carrying funeral equipment and the statues of the dead were followed by dancers.
• At Beni Hasan, Middle Kingdom tomb scenes depict groups of dancers performing acrobats, looking more like circus performers than dancers. The images at Beni Hasan are particularly striking, though less vivid scenes also occur during the new kingdom.

• Another form of Acacia:
• characterized by leaping or skipping and was meant to celebrate the coming of the lion goddess who met the dead at the entrance of the underworld. She was responsible for helping the deceased enter the underworld and was the main agent of their rebirth, so an appeal to her was recited or sung, accompanied by the clapping of hands and sticks and the use of other percussion instruments.
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• Mww
• In the less detailed tomb scenes, they danced once the funeral procession reached the tomb. They are distinguished by their special headdress, consisting of woven papyrus stalks. These identified them as marsh dwellers and, more precisely, as ferrymen. Their role was to symbolically ferry the dead across the waters leading to the netherworld, a route that lead from Memphis to Sais, then to Buto and back. In more sophisticated scenes, the dancers are depicted in a more complex setting that includes lightly built chapels, pools surrounded by trees and religious symbols. Such scenes appear to recreate on a small scale and near the tomb, the sacred precincts of this journey.
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1. The purely movemental dance. A dance which was little more than an outburst of energy, where the dancer and audience alike simply enjoyed the movement and its rhythm.

2. The gymnastic dance. Some dancers excelled at more strenuous and difficult movements, which required training and great physical dexterity and flexibility. These dancers also refined their movements so as to move delicately.

3. The imitative dance. These appeared to be emulative of the movements of animals, only obliquely referred to in Egyptian texts while not actually being represented in art.

4. The pair dance. Pairs in ancient Egypt were formed by two men or by two women dancing together, not by men dancing with women. The movements of these dancers were executed in perfect symmetry, indicating, at least to the author of this treatise, that the Egyptians were deeply conscious and serious about this dance as something more than just movement.

5. The group dance. These fell into two sub-types, one taking place took place with perhaps at least four, sometimes as many as eight, dancers, each performing different movements, independent of each other, but in matching rhythms. The other sub-type was the ritual funeral dance, performed by ranks of dancers executing identical movements.

6. The war dance. These were apparently recreations for resting mercenary troops of Libyans, Sherdans, Pedtiu and other groups.

7. The dramatic dance. From the examples used herein, the author is considering a depicted familiar posture of several girls as being performed to commemorate a historical tableau: a kneeling girl represents a defeated enemy king, a standing girl the Egyptian king, holding the enemy with one hand by the hair and with the other a club.

8. The lyrical dance. The description of this dance indicates it told its own story, much as a ballet we may see today. A man a girl dancer using wooden clappers which gave their steps rhythm danced in harmonious movement, separately or together, sometimes pirouetting, parting, and approaching, the girl fleeing from the man, who tenderly pursued her.

9. The grotesque dance. These were apparently primarily performed by dwarves such as the one Harkhuf was asked to bring back to dance "the divine dances".

10. The funeral dance. These formed three sub-types. One was the ritual dance, forming part of the actual funeral rite. Then there were the expressions of grief, where the performers placed their hands on their heads or made the ka gesture, both arms upraised. The third sub-type was a dance to entertain the ka of the deceased.

11. The religious dance. Temple rituals included musicians trained for the liturgy and singers trained in the hymns and other chants.

• Men and women dance with hand over the head and clapping in rhythmic pattern
• Postures and gestures expressing grief
• Secular dances performed for entertainment of deceased..