A couple of weeks ago I went to a full moon party with my cousins visiting from Canada. It was a beach party. A DJ played and people danced. Still, I was overcome with a feeling of sadness. I mentioned this to cousin L. I’ve seen sad and empty looks on the dancefloor before, all around the world. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.
Sadness and dance seem strangely, intrinsically linked: in ancient Greek tragedy, in the Danse Macabre, on the faces of women dancing for the disappeared in Chile, in parades and funeral processions, on the face of all sad lovers dancing alone.
There were lots of drugs about. You could smell weed in the air and you could see faces of revelers in the crowd climaxing on their pills of choice. I never bought into the whole silly idea that God is a DJ. But perhaps if he plays a lyre..
Having been to lots of panygiries (celebrations of name’s days of saints throughout Greece) in the last few years, I have had the chance to see the ecstasy drawn on folks’ faces, an ecstasy attained through the dance.
To ‘lose oneself in ecstasy – to let go of one’s physical and temporal boundaries – is to glimpse, however briefly, the prospect of eternity’ Barbara Ehrenreich explains in ‘Dancing In the Streets’ which I’m reading now.
Recently, at one such panygiri where we were late-comers a goat was given away in a lottery. It was the grand prize. Having arrived late, we sat in the back where the goat was tethered to a metal pole. Its limbs were also tied together. There he was. Little Pan beeeehed away as good ‘Christians’ danced the night away.
It reminded me of a passage from Plutarch.
In what has been called “one of the most haunting passages in Western literature”, the Greek historian Plutarch tells the story of how passengers on a Greek merchant ship, some time during the reign of Tiberius (14-37 BCE), heard a loud cry coming from the island of Paxos. The voice instructed the ship’s pilot to call out, when he sailed past Palodes, “the Great God Pan is dead.” As soon as he did so, the passengers heard, floating back to them from across the water, “a great cry of lamentation, not of one person, but of many”.
(George Steiner, lecture at Boston University, 1999, reported at www.bu.edu/bridge/archive/1999/features2.html.
Quoted from Barbara Ehrenreich’s ‘Dancing in the Streets’)
I’ve stumbled upon some wonderful writing lately. Barbara Ehrenreich’s Dancing In the Streets, A History of Collective Joy (Metropolitan Books) is an apocalypse. It has been ever since I first picked it up. In the last few months we have lost so many dancers: Michael Jackson, Pina Bausch, Merce Cunningham. This book couldn’t have arrived at a better time.
The book’s third chapter is titled ‘Jesus and Dionysus’. It interestingly draws parallels between the lives of both. There are some striking similarities: ‘..we find far more intriguing parallels between Jesus the historical figure and the specific pagan god Dionysus. Both were wandering charismatics who attracted devoted followings, or cults; both had a special appeal to women and the poor. Strikingly, both are associated with wine: Dionysus first brought it to humankind; Jesus could make it out of water. Each was purported to be the son of a great father-god- Zeus or the Hebrew god Yahweh- and a mortal mother. Neither was an ascetic – Jesus loved his wine and meat – but both were apparently asexual or at least lacking a regular female consort. (…) Each faced persecution by secular authorities (…) For what it’s worth, they even had similar symbolic creatures: the fish for Jesus, the dolphin for Dionysus’ (Ehrenreich, page 59).
In light of the recent fiasco with the New Acropolis museum (a film by director Kostas Gavras was banned by the church for claiming that the church had played a role in the destruction of antiquities) I think it is wrong of the church here to attempt to rewrite history. Especially history which is well documented everywhere else in the world. C’mon…
Dance was once an integral part of everyday life, of celebrating life, of worship and attaining ecstasy. People used to dance inside and around churches. Before the war on dance people were closer to God and to each other. Over the centuries the powers that be here on earth have done everything to stop the dance. Still many dance on. Through dance people used to find very necessary release. Having lost this connection to themselves people feel even more lost in these deeply troubling times. Dance can be so very therapeutical. Along with theatre I believe it should be taught throughout life.
When did you last dance?
If it has been a while maybe you should consider a twirl..
Go ahead.
Spin.
