Dance as an Expression of Islamic Culture

Abstract

What, if anything, relates the dances of the Muslim peoples to the other arts produced by the culture to which they belong? Is there a community of belief and an aesthetic identity strong enough among the Muslim peoples, despite their wide geographic dispersion, that would result in a homo-geneous community of artistic production and appreciation? Is dance among the Muslims an art which, like the visual and aural arts, shares characteristics which reveal a consistency and unity despite regional differences? Or, on the contrary, is “Islamic” only a convenient label for an amorphous body of dance phenomena existing among peoples who share religious beliefs, but among whom little penetrating cultural affinity is revealed in their dance?Before attempting to answer the above questions, we must call attention to the fact that dance did not play the important aesthetic role in Islamic civilization that it played in some other civilizations (e.g., in Hindu culture, among the Amerindians, and in Western Europe-America during the last few centuries). The Muslims were never able to quite resolve the uncertainty which they, as a people, felt over the legitimacy of dance. There are various explanations for this problem regarding dance. Perhaps all of them can claim some validity.