Report on the sub-study group on Dance Iconography held in Bamberg,
27-30 March. Compiled by Barbara Sparti
The meeting was wonderfully hosted by Marianne Bröcker in her home in
the historic and lovely town of Bamberg. The meeting consisted of (1)
presentations of works in progress followed by ample and in-depth
discussions. (2) An afternoon was dedicated to database cataloguing of
dance images, and (3) a session devoted to the volume or book of essays
on dance images the sub-study group would like to produce. This last
needs to be discussed further by our group and by the sub-study group
meeting in Monghidoro (at which time we can present our notes on our
discussion in Bamberg). It is still not clear what type of articles we
wish to have, by whom and for whom.
I. Individual Presentations--Summaries by authors
(Please note that I, Barbara, decided that for our members it was
important to have some real idea of what each person at Bamberg
discussed--and thus to see parallels among them--rather than the usual
report limited to name and title. This latter, succint version will
appear in the ICTM Bulletin. Each presenter wrote her/his own summary
stressing the points they felt were significant.)
Grazyna Dabrowska: "Some Polish dances--the polonaise and
others--painted in different historical times".
The most ancient information about Polish dances may chiefly be found in
musical and literary sources. The Death Dance is the oldest
illustration dating back to 17th/18th century. It is a painting by an
anonymous author that may be found at the Bernardins' church, Cracow. It
is an allegoric representation of 9 women in a circle dance with
skeletons and representatives of various social strata: emperor,king,
magnate, noblemen, tradesman, farmer, soldier, Jew, child and jester,
all performing the same dance at the end of their lives. The majority
of iconographic material on Polish court and folk dances dates back to
the 19th century. The material discussed is only a part of my more
extensive work. I present here and discuss the painting representations
of the polonaise, a Polish dance well-known throughout Europe. I pose a
series of questions, the answers to which, from the points of view of
aesthetics and others, and of historical context require a more
extensive analysis than permitted by the time reserved in Bamberg.
Christine Glauser: "The use of old photographs in Greek village interviews".
Christine's paper on photographs of dance events of the 1950s to the
1970s in the region of Siatista, northern Greece, focused on two subjects:
1) methodological aspects of using photographs during interviews about
dance events of that period (use of photos in Oral History); 2)
photographs as a source for socio-anthropological analysis of dance
events and the practice of taking photographs during dance events of
that period. This second part was based upon Pierre Bourdieu's concepts
developed in his book Un art moyen. Another point which was important
in the paper and was also mentioned by Laszlo in the discussion was: The
study of the social use of (dance) photos in a rural context, which
opens interesting perspectives upon the interrelationship of peasant
culture and urban culture and especially upon the process of urban
influence in the villages. Photography is one source for studying this
process and at the same time is itself an urban technique.
Barbara Sparti: "Who are the dancers in Lorenzetti's 'Buon Governo'?"
Barbara's presentation on Lorenzetti's "dancers" in the "good city" of
Siena (14th century) successfully broke down recent views that the
dancers were men and public entertainers through the use of sources such
as contemporary chronicles, paintings and literature, dress, and symbols
within the fresco itself. Unfortunately there was no time to go into
the "unreal" and symbolic quality of the dancers in comparison with the
"real" serpentine "canzone a ballo" (the earliest and still most
magnificent conception of a chain dance in painting). To be continued!
Tvrtko Zebec: "Stecci--reflections of culture and faith"
The background, knowledge and interests of the particular researchers
have resulted in various approaches and interpretations, which is
clearly shown in their particular interpretations of the symbols on the
upright (standing) tombstones - stecci. [note by BS: These were
reported on in Urbino and Szeged by Elsie Dunin.] Christian
iconographers say that the visual art sources and models of Christian
iconography belong primarily to Antique and Oriental compositions, whose
mythological content is visually similar to Christian parabola and
evangelical events. Thus, they were adopted by Christianity in their
visual art form, but given a completely different content. I have tried
to connect two different medias – tombstones on one side – with their
"heavenly" or "celestial" kolo-dance engravings motif, and – on the
other side, fresco depiction of the dance of death (Totentanz, danse
macabre), as the same idea developed in two different ways. The
techniques and manners of presentation may differ, but the symbols/
symbolism are the same – the link between the world of the living and
the world of the dead – or, in other words, a transition, the crossing
of a soul into eternal life.
Judy Van Zile:"Images related to Korean dance--a summary"
Judy spoke about issues in interpreting the myriad kinds of visual
representations of dance in Korea, and commented on broad issues she
considered potentially important in other geographic areas as well.
Beginning with ancient tomb paintings of dance and progressing through
various kinds of court documents, she contextualized images in relation
to artistic conventions of the time and the reasons for which images
were created, and related selected details represented to contemporary
practices. She pointed out that dance has been considered sufficiently
significant to be the subject matter of a vast array of images, but
raised questions regarding assessing their documentary veracity.
Irene Loutzaki: "A visual play between myth and history. The folk
painter Theophilos Chatzimichael ( 1873-1934)".
This study was guided by the words of the poet Odysseus Elytis
(1911-1996), who said that "the new Hellenism must finally attempt to
discover its true identity, since that which it has so far considered to
be Greek, is actually distorted according to the way that the west
perceives Greekness". Therefore, in my presentation the use of folk
painting as a medium to study dance was not about painting per se but
about its potential to question, tell in different voices or see through
different eyes what is depicted. Painting is capable of articulating its
own particular cultural voice within the discipline, as a document of
culture whose legitimacy is drawn from the fact that its creator--in my
case Theophilos Chatzimichael--is attempting to communicate values and
negotiated realities which are integral to human experience and
consciousness. As an example, in my paper I dealt with two famous
"naďf" compositions--"The dance of Zalongo" and "the Dance of
Megara"--made by the folk painter Chatzimichael. As an artist, the
public identified Theophilos with the concept of "Greekness" as it was
experienced and promoted, in ideological terms, during the first
post-War decades (after 1940), an attempt to return to the roots of
Hellenism. Observing his images as a formal symbol in a new alphabet, I
tried to depict, thanks to the explanatory accompaniment of words, the
tradition of mythological narrative which must assume the form of
historical fact.
Mohd Anis Md Nor: "Iconographic perspectives of Islamic culture and
their dances".
Anis spoke on the elements of the artistic expression of tawhid in
Islamic art, which also included culturally structured movement systems.
An overview of dances in the Islamic communities were presented to
illustrate the categories of dances (unfavored, indifferent, recommended
and commendable forms) similar to the categories of music and singing as
cited by Al-Faruqi in the categories of handasah al-sawt. After
positioning the categorical hierarchies of permissible dances, he went
on to elaborate the notion of Islamic aesthetics that are depersonalized
through the abstractions of the arabesque. The iconic structures as
embodied in the arabesque were highlighted in the dances of Islamic
societies. The essence of tawhid as the guiding structure in the Islamic
arabesque was applied to outline Islamic dance iconography.
László Felföldi: "Stereotype elements in iconographic representations"
Laszlo's presentation proposed such questions as the motives for using
stereotypes in images, which included: lack of invention, impressing the
public, propagandistic aims, political purposes; and how to evaluate
stereotypes? Negatively? Positively? Neutrally? Stereotypes, patterns,
motives, clichés, emblems are artistic expressive elements in the
framework of an artistic creation which are used to help in the
effective representation of the artistic message, by their metaphoric
features. Their meaning and their formal and functional characteristic
features were discussed, with particular references to repetitive
elements in dance images of the 18th-19th centuries in Hungary and
bottle dances in recent 20th century folklore. Several conclusions were
presented as well as guidelines for future work. Our sources for dance
research are more inclined to be fiction rather than reality. This is
not negative or positive in itself. It is our metaphoric way of
thinking, a kind of incapability to verbalise things, which are
expressed in a more proper way in other languages (sound, movement,
colours, forms, and behaviour. We have to admit that there is no one
reality that we are trying to grasp. There are different realities,
which may be valid at the same time, and we are also part of the reality
that we are examining, regardless of whether it came into being some
hundred years ago.
Placida Staro: "Dance as Metaphor--a report on a work in progress"
In the civilizations which use written languages, the symbolic
connections are mediated in an idiomatic form. Therefore, the use of a
representation of movements that crosses words and is connected with the
symbolic universe, is always predominated both by the author and the
interpretor of the work. This differs from those communities which do
not have a written language, and where movement assumes, or can assume,
in its iconographic form, a linguistic meaning, a direct rapport with
the universe of ideas, as in the case of hieroglyphics. But precisely
because its approach is univocal, the gesture assumes an emblematic
value. The gesture is therefore represented not in virtue of its own
dynamic capacity but in virtue of the system of connections which
renders it explicit through the visual representation. Now, the
questions posed are: has the dance within western culture ever assumed
an emblematic value "for itself", that is, not mediated by the idiomatic
link with language? And if the answer is positive, in what period, in
what works, for which motivations? And in which works can we see this
represented? On the other hand, what shared stereotypes allow the
members of a culture to distinguish a portrayal of a dance from a
representation of relations between or subjects represented? When are
these stereotypes formed and transmitted? What is the mechanism that
distinguishes these three levels? The answer to this question can help
us to clarify the separation between the ideal and the real dance which
exist in our western culture.
Questions raised by Judy Van Zile concerning "dance iconography": We
might consider adding these questions to our Guidelines for Reading
Dance Images.
-- How do we interpret images of the past in the present? Do images
reveal or conceal?
We are involved with describing and evaluating, which lead to interpreting.
-- How do our interpretations of the past contribute to our practices of
the present, and perhaps the future? Are images used to reconstruct the
past? Validate the present? Suggest reality? Document reality?
-- Apart from obvious issues of translating from one medium to another,
are there universal issues in interpreting dance images? Issues that
suggest methodologies?
-- Did the artist intend his work as a dance image, or is it a dance
image only because we label it as such--because that's our interest.
-- Can art historians and dance researchers contribute to each others'
methodologies and foster the fullest understanding of dances images?
Future meeting I have taken Judy's last question and been working on
setting up a meeting in Rome next winter at the American Academy
(proposal has been accepted) in which we would meet with art historians
(and painters, archeologists, and interested others including
specialists from appropriate museums and cultural institutes) to listen
to each other's presentations, to question, and to learn from one another.
Epilogue (Adrienne,of course!)
Then Laszlo appeared once again
Seen handing to Dina a pin
While holding a spider
He sat down beside her
And gave it to her with a grin.
Our man from Szeged with a spa
Happily shouted a final hurrah
Sea level with fountains
will transform into mountains
Where we all will appear once again.
Database report in Part II.
Part II: Report on dance iconography and "database" session at Bamberg:
Elsie Dunin.
Adrienne Kaeppler reviewed the early purpose of the iconography
sub-study group that focused upon developing a universal index and
cataloging system for a dance image database.
Elsie Dunin noted that in ensuing years (only a decade of time) there
has been a rapid advancement of computer technology available to the
personal user, including massive gigabyte memory in home computers, but
also read and write CDs. In addition for the general user, there are
more cataloging and indexing programs for text or images. These
programs can be customized to personal or small project archiving needs
that were not available at the initiation of this sub-study group.
At the iconography Urbino meeting, August 2001, musicologist Mariagrazia
Carlone demonstrated a computer program, "Musico," developed for music
iconography, but not yet used for dance images. Elsie Dunin volunteered
to do a "dance iconography pilot" using personally photographed
fieldwork images of dance events. Elsie briefly reported her
difficulties with setting up the Musico program (which is not compatible
with the Macintosh platform) on a PC with the latest Windows XP platform
(year 2001). Therefore Elsie was not able to pursue the "dance pilot" as
planned. However, the Musico program was applied to a European-based
project "Images of Music" to document and catalogue images with musical
subject matter. The project produced three "exhibitions" on the
internet (www.imagesof music.net), and made available three CD-ROMs.
One of the interactive CDs features "Rhythm in Music and Dance" and was
available to view at our meeting. There was not enough time at the
meeting to evaluate the CD fully, but in general the information and
sound examples were considered to be superficial. On the other hand,
the collection of historical images was considered valuable. Another
controversial issue was brought up: whether or not some of the
historical images actually portrayed dancing. The 14th century image
that Sparti discussed in her presentation happened to be also included
on this CD.
Within the context of sharing experiences with cataloging projects using
available programs, Judy Van Zile discussed the Endnote software, which
is basically designed for bibliographic cataloging. It was customized
for an iconography database project for Korean dance images. A model
was created for inputting "records" of iconographic images, which could
then be outputted in a variety of formats. Ultimately a notebook with
images and printout of data about the images was produced. Elsie
pointed out that although Endnote was selected for the Korean project,
there are other bibliographic database programs, such as ProCite that
have the same capability of customization and can be outputted into a
variety of biblographic formats. ProCite is used for the Study Group’s
Dance Research publication that is now produced in Zagreb. Using the
text based bibliographic programs offers a challenge of linking
thumbnail images with the text information, and enables one to search
and sort on either the text or image. There are photographic database
programs that can be adequately sorted into groups, but the text fields
are very limited. Elsie mentioned FotoStation, a photographic database
program (designed in Norway) as being useful as a cataloging program,
and one which is compatible with both Macintosh and PC systems.
Unfortunately there is a limitation to the customization of text fields.
Dunin’s point is that many ethnochoreologists have amassed personal
collections of fieldwork images that only they can identify, but which
are invaluable for the tracking of continuities and changes in the dance
events that are being studied. The tangible image of these studies is a
treasure chest of information, and must be catalogued and indexed by the
collector, and not by a third party. Technology developed for the
consumer is useful: within the last two years, for example, scanning
equipment to digitize slides and photographs has become relatively
standard and reasonably priced for the fieldworker. For this reason, it
is useful to identify computer programs that are basic, useful and that
will not become obsolete in a matter of a few years. Therefore, a
continuing discussion and sharing of information about technological
advances to catalog and index images should continue at future meetings
of this Sub-Study Group.
Report by Placida Staro:
Dina reported about the latest feature in cataloging images, sound, and
historical data in different kind of projects. The "architecture" of
the different programs now used in national archives (U.S.A. and Europe)
is constantly updated because of the changes in media development. The
discussions she had with the heads of these projects brought her to the
conclusion that it is not now necessary to have a shared protocol in the
software used, but first of all to use programs with a high degree of
compatibility with the most common protocols for data-base. The future
is in the virtual projects and the scholar's problem has to be the
consistent way of classifying his/her own material (in our case "dance")
and not the technical media.
Report by László Felföldi:
In order to promote cross-cultural research in ethnochoreology, we would
need to create MULTIMEDIA DATABASES being accessible on internet or on
CD-ROM. It may be especially useful in smaller regions, where the dance
iconographic materials (together with the historical texts and musical
documents) have easily comparable genres, techniques, topics. Another
important issue is the comparison of historical dance material with the
documents of recent dance folklore. That is why I urge intenational
cooperation in this field. As a preparation for this project we (members
of the sub-study group on dance iconography) could compile a collective
database with some examples interpreted and described in their regional
and historical framework.
Comment by Barbara Sparti
Many of the past years of the Ethnochoreology's sub-study group on dance
iconography have been dedicated exclusively to cataloging. At the
Urbino meeting in 2002, except for Elsie Dunin, there was almost no
interest in pursuing this further, in some cases because of the
elusivenss and special problems of world-wide dance. The Bamberg
meeting showed instead that a few members are very dedicated to this
aspect of dance images, and some are curious about it, while some are
not interested at all. It clearly is worth keeping this aspect alive
for those who are interested in it as one part of the projects
undertaken by the sub-study group (if not as a separate sub-study
group). As Laszlo put it, "We have to keep this topic alive with those
who are interested in it. We may write a pilot on it in order to decide
the main issues (softwear, content, ways of processing). To start as a
snowball in a smaller circle and then widen it as it is needed."
Report compiled by Barbara Sparti in July 2003
for the Dance Iconography Sub-Study Group
following the March 2003 Bamberg meetin
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Barbara Sparti
