DANCE

Dance generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting. Dance may also be regarded as a form of nonverbal communication between humans. Definitions of what constitutes dance are dependent on social, cultural, aesthetic, artistic and moral constraints and range from functional movement (such as folk dance) to virtuoso techniques such as ballet. Dance can be participatory, social, ceremonial, or erotic. Dance movements may be without significance in themselves, such as in ballet or European folk dance, or have a gestural vocabulary/symbolic system as in many Asian dances. Dance can embody or express ideas, emotions or tell a story. Every dance, no matter what style, has something in common. It not only involves flexibility and body movement, but also physics. It is not possible to say when dance became part of human culture. Dance has certainly been an important part of ceremony, rituals, celebrations and entertainment since the earliest human civilizations. Archeology delivers traces of dance from prehistoric such as the 9,000 year old Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka paintings in India and Egyptian tomb paintings depicting dancing figures from c. 3300 BC.

One of the earliest structured uses of dances may have been in the performance and in the telling of myths. It was also sometimes used to show feelings for one of the opposite gender. Before the production of written languages, dance was one of the methods of passing these stories down from generation to generation. Another early use of dance may have been as a precursor to ecstatic trance states in healing rituals. Dance is still used for this purpose by many cultures from the Brazilian rainforest to the Kalahari Desert.

Osho says, “everything that is of authentic value in life has arisen out of meditation. There is no other way. Meditation is the mother of art, music, poetry, dance, sculpture. All that is creative, all that is life-affirmative, is born out of meditation”

In the matter of dance, Bharata Muni's Natyashastra (literally"the text of dramaturgy") is the one of the earlier texts. The Natya Shastra is an ancient Indian treatise on the performing arts, encompassing theatre, dance and music. It was written during the period between 200 BC and 200 AD in classical India and is traditionally attributed to the Sage Bharata.

The Natya Shastra is incredibly wide in its scope. While it primarily deals with stagecraft, it has come to influence music, classical Indian dance, and literature as well. It covers stage design, music, dance, makeup, and virtually every other aspect of stagecraft. It is very important to the history of Indian classical music because it is the only text which gives such detail about the music and instruments of the period. Thus, an argument can be made that the Natya Shastra is the foundation of the fine arts in India. The most authoritative commentary on the Natya Shastra is Abhinavabharati by Abhinavagupta.

Ballet developed first in Italy and then in France from lavish court spectacles that combined music, drama, poetry, song, costumes and dance. Members of the court nobility took part as performers. During the reign of Louis XIV, himself a dancer, dance became more codified. Professional dancers began to take the place of court amateurs, and ballet masters were licensed by the French government. The first ballet dance academy was the Académie Royale de Danse (Royal Dance Academy), opened in Paris in 1661. Shortly thereafter, the first institutionalized ballet troupe, associated with the Academy, was formed; this troupe began as an all-male ensemble but by 1681 opened to include women as well.

Love out of meditation is not a relationship: it is a state of your being. You love because you cannot do otherwise; you have to love. You have only love to give -- and this love will be expressed in many ways. Different people, different talents -- somebody will paint, somebody will compose music, somebody will dance; but the basic quality is the same.
While painting, the meditator disappears; there is only painting going on, there is no painter. The dancer disappears; there is only dance, there is no dancer. The poet disappears; there is only poetry. And the same is true about all the dimensions in which your creativity can have its expression. You create because you are so overflowing with energy you cannot contain it. So whatever your talent, whatever your genius, your energy will take that dimension.
Any act arising out of meditation has no goal, it has no motivation; its value is intrinsic. While dancing, you are getting all the reward; there is no need for any other reward afterwards. There is no ambition, that you want to become famous, the greatest painter, the greatest poet -- all that nonsense is part of the mind, which is egocentric.
OSHO