National Dance Research Articles

"SCIENTIFIC AND METHODOLOGICAL LABARATORY OF KAZAKH DANCE" - A NEW PROJECT FOR NATIONAL ART PRESERVATION

The Kazakh National Scientific and methodological laboratory plays an important role in the promotion of national values in society, the formation of national ideology, the development of respect for cultural heritage among the younger generation. In 2019, the Kazakh National Academy of choreography established the "Kazakh National Scientific and methodological laboratory" in order to develop the art of national dance. The Laboratory employs experienced specialists in the field of Kazakh dance art T. O. Izim, A. A. Tati, A. K. Kulbekova, A. A. Sadykova, A. Sh.Shamshiev.Currently, as a result of the projects implemented in the laboratory, the terms used in the discipline "Kazakh dance" (names of each movement) have been unified. This article is aimed to examine the main direction of the laboratory's work and new ideas aimed at developing national art. The importance of national choreographic art in the formation of methodology has been considered during the world pandemic online concert "persons who contributed to the development of Stage Kazakh dance", the content features of the scientific works "reference (methodological guide)" published in 2021, "choreographic art of Kazakhstan: traditions and modernity" published in 2022. In addition, the concept of a laboratory in the field of dance art is considered and an analysis of the activities of foreign laboratories is carried out. In the course of conducting scientific research, a survey was conducted among the members of the laboratory. The survey questions were aimed at determining the specifics of the laboratory's work and the work plan. The results of the research demonstrate the necessity of studying Kazakh dance art history as well as organizing the activities of laboratories. We are convinced that the “scientific and methodological Laboratory of Kazakh National Dance " is a new project in preserving the continuity of traditions and studying national art.

Optimization Simulation of Match between Technical Actions and Music of National Dance Based on Deep Learning

In the match between technical movements and music of folk dance, the most important thing is to extract features effectively. DL algorithm is one of the most efficient methods to extract video features at present. In this study, the DL method is applied to the matching optimization of technical movements and music in folk dance. Using DL to train the corresponding relationship between the technical movements and music of national dance, the given dance movements and corresponding movements are adapted to the musical beat points. To better reflect the degree of correlation between music and movement changes, the change rate of feature value is used instead of feature value itself in correlation calculation. The matching degree between this method and genetic theory method and spatial skeleton timing diagram method is compared. The experiment shows that the matching method of technical movements and music of national dance optimized by DL can achieve 95.78% accuracy, and the matching synchronization of technical movements and music of national dance can reach 96.17%. Therefore, the method proposed in this study can fully reflect the synchronization of music and movement changes, and the optimized movement matching method matches the national dance technical movements—music matching quality is better. This study expands a new perspective for the research of dance and music matching technology. It has certain practical and theoretical significance.

국립민족예술단과 북한의 민족음악

This article aims to enhance understanding of the National Folk Art Center (hereafter, the Center) through dividing its 75-year history and activities into three periods, and to review the trend of changes in North Korean national music, From 1947 to 1965, the Center had been reorganized as the Joseon Classical Music Research Institute, the Classical Orchestra directly under the Ministry of Culture and Propaganda, the Hyeopryuldan within the National Arts Theater, the Classical Orchestra under the direct control of the National Arts Theater, the National Classical Arts Theater, and then National Folk Arts Theater. During this period, traditional music capabilities such as changgeuk (Korean opera derived from pansori) and instrumental performances of Korean traditional musician who crossed the border to North Korea had a great impact on the North Korean music scene.
 From 1965 to 1992, the Center had been renamed as the National Folk Opera Theater, the Pyongyang Art Organization, the Moranbong Art Organization, and then the Pyongyang Art Organization; the content of activities had changed. At this time, the pibada ('Sea of Blood') style of national opera was established, and the comprehensive music and dance performances were vitalized while many folk dance and national dance works were created.
 Since 1992, when the Center worked as a National Folk Art Center, it has created and performed works such as national operas, folk dance suites, and national songs and dances. Since the 2000s, the Center focused on creating large-scale art performances together collaborating with various music organizations, rather than solo performances. After the Kim Jong Un era, the Center has been pursuing activities as an independent organization.
 Through the activities from the Joseon Classical Music Research Institute to the National Folk Art Center, we can get a glimpse of the way in which the modern transformations of national music were realized in North Korea, and confirm that the activities of those who crossed the border to North Korea were at the base. The activities and roles they played in North Korea serve as a point of contact for South and North Korea to confirm their traditional musical culture and national identity.

Interpretation of Spanish Dance in Antonio Gades’s Stage Choreography

The purpose of the article is to reveal the peculiarities of the interpretation of Spanish dance in the choreographic productions by A. Gades. The research methodology. A set of methods typical for art analysis is applied. To study the peculiarities of the interpretation of Spanish dance in the choreographic productions by A. Gades, the problem-logical and general scientific method of modeling is applied, as well as the iconological method, that enabled a formal analysis and determination of symbolic meanings by revealing the national and cultural roots of the dance. Scientific novelty. The production activity of the leading Spanish choreographer Antonio Gades is studied; the peculiarities of the interpretation of Spanish dance in the process of working on stage productions are considered. For the first time in domestic art history, the choreographic performances by A. Hades «Blood Wedding, or Bodas de Sangre» («Blood Wedding, or Bodas de Sangre», 1974), «Flamenco Suite» («Flamenco Suite», 1989), «Fuenteovejuna» («Fuenteovejuna», 1994) are analysed. Conclusions. The study of the productions by A. Hades revealed a peculiar choreographic handwriting, the originality of the choreographer's decision and the individuality of plastic interpretations of Spanish dances. In the process of creating choreographic productions full of conceptual unity and depth, the master positions Spanish dance as a universal style with huge expressive possibilities, which allows him to non-verbally represent classic works of European literature in different parts of the world, in particular «Bloody Wedding» by F. García Lorca, «Fuenteovejuna» by Lope de Vega, «Carmen» and others. According to A. Hades, any work of art can be understood only in the unity of its content, means of artistic expression and cultural reminiscences (memory, echo, echo, which lead to comparison with something), which provide a kind of "connection of times" in the mind the viewer. The choreographer demonstrates this approach in the process of translating famous Spanish literary and dramatic works into the language of dance, turning to national dances, in particular the Pasodoble ballroom dance, Spanish folk dances Bolero, Cachucha, Muneira, Segidilla, Sarabanda, Sardana, Fandango, as well as dances in the southern Spanish Flamenco style.
 Key words: Spanish dance, dance interpretation, flamenco, Antonio Gades, stage choreography, choreographic productions.

Dance Images in «Rondo-Khaitarma» Violin and Piano Work by Nazim Amedov

The purpose of the article is a musicological analysis of the dance images in «Rondo-Haitarm» work for violin and piano by the Crimean Tatar composer Nazim Amedov. Research methodology. Analytical, historical methods, the method of comparative and musicological analysis have been used. Scientific novelty of the research. For the first time, a musicological analysis was conducted of the dance images in «Rondo-Khaitarm» work for violin and piano by the Crimean Tatar composer Nazim Amedov. Conclusions. Nazim Amedov's «Rondo-Khaitarma» work for violin and piano highlights the national features of the artistic thinking of the Crimean Tatar people. Using a variety of musical and expressive means, CHANGING different shades: from persistently energetic, expressive to soft, lyrical, with the affirmation of a bright affirmative character the composer multifacetedly presents the main national dance image in its overall development. The dominant technique of development is «mirroring». It extends to the intonation-rhythmic organisation of the theme, has a form-creating function. These techniques are inherent in the author's handwriting and composer's thinking of Nazim Amedov.
 Key words: dance images, Crimean Tatar music, folklore, «mirroring», thematism, metro-rhythmic organisation, Crimean Tatar composer Nazim Amedov.

Tari Serampang Dua Belas:

The Serampang Dua Twelve Dance, which is a Malay dance originating from North Sumatra, in the Malay Deli Land, is very different from other Malay dances of the same family. It was first shown in 1952 in Medan City. In subsequent performances, this Serampang Twelve Dance can enter the international world. So that at that time President Soeharto was interested and decided that the Deli Malay dance would become a national dance. Guru Suati as the famous pioneer of the Serampang Twelve dances. Incorporating various cultures from various cultures in the city of Medan at that time. The attitude of maintaining and strengthening Malay culture is highly demonstrated in the tarain which currently stands out as a complement to the meaning in the dance. In this study, the authors used a descriptive qualitative method, taking into account secondary and primary interests. From this research method, it is hoped that it can solve problems related to this research, so that the objectives of this research are achieved. The purpose of this study is to find out more about the various dance movements that support the performance and convey meaning in the Serampang Dua dance, from the perspective of the dancers' perfection in the city of Medan.
 Keywords: serampang twelve dance, Malay dance, performance, meaning,

Role and significance of the State National Dance and Song Theater "Altam" in the cultural space of the Altai Republic

The article is devoted to the consideration of issues related to the study of the role and significance of the State National Dance and Song Theater "Altam" in the cultural space of the Altai Republic. In the process of the research, special attention is paid to the methods and tools through which the theater attracts spectators and cultural and art workers. Also, specific examples describe the influence of the theater on the familiarization of the Altai population with art, as well as on the preservation and multiplication of cultural heritage.

Reactivating the Record: Performance, Spaces of History, and Researching the 1990 Cambodian National Dance Company Tour to the UK

This is an autoethnographic reflection about doing research on the 1990 Cambodian National Dance Company tour to the UK. Drawing upon research on performance, history and reactivation, I argue that the situated encounters, memories and experiences associated with performance documentation – the archival “record” – complicates our sense of performative endings. I reflect on the seeming inability to study an “original” performance and the passing of dance masters during the course of my research, whilst simultaneously finding pictures and reports about them in archives and online. Through this, I consider how the affective investments of performances linger, often for decades.

The Peculiarities of Defining Culturally Specific Uzbek Names in Associative Dictionaries

This article deals with the discretion of associative features of names of culturally specific units in the Uzbek language. Also, this article highlights the issue of their classification. The method of studying the associated experience of native Uzbek speakers (L1 users) with the names of cultural units revealed the peculiarities of the emergence of the names of cultural units in the Uzbek language, as well as their nominative expression in associative dictionaries. The names of cultural units in the Uzbek language are different according to different topics. They can be classified as names of national rituals, customs, and traditions, national food, national haberdashery names, names of national cloth, national musical instruments, national songs, national dances, national holidays, national architecture, architect devices (or material), national games, national jewelry, make-up units, local organizations names, etc. The range of the usage of these names is different in a literary language. In this article, a special attention is given to survey how such names are presented in the associative dictionaries. The results of the analysis of materials on associative experiences related to such names show that not only linguistic factors, but extra-linguistic sources also can cause the associations. Specifically, the human factor is studied in the cognition of the names of culture units by Uzbek language native speakers. The issue of the comparison and contrast of other dictionaries with the Uzbek associative dictionary was compiled for the first time.

Methodical aspects of the (H)ostropat dance as an indispensible part in the repertoire of dance groups from the Republic of Moldova

Th e study addresses a wide range of interpretations of (H)ostropat dance from the repertoire of dance groups in the Republic of Moldova in the XXI century. (H)ostropat — represents a ceremonial dance that accompanies various ritual acts in the traditional wedding, being an expression of a specific language of communication that determined the very aesthetics of the dance, its forms of expression, stylistic norms of the repertoire, etc. The (H)ostropat dance, being part of the value system of popular culture, with some aspects of ritual and entertainment, highlights the importance of professional choreographic practice and the role of dance groups in cultural institutions of traditional amateur artistic activity. Th e author focuses her attention on the configuration of the methodological apparatus of researching the repertoire of dance groups as a paradigm of a new stylistic direction and cultural identity in the realm of contemporary choreographic art. It is found that the tendencies of simplifying the ritual structure of the wedding and of compressing the temporal and spatial framework, the modernization of the ceremonial conception and the flow of new dances, created by professional artists or adapted from the repertoire of folk, neo-traditional and national dances in the region, have essentially marked the structure of the repertoire of the traditional dance groups.

Развитие педагогической компетентности у студентов-хореографов в процессе изучения народного танца

The current state of the labor market dictates the necessity to develop personal and professional competencies in the current educational process of Kazakhstan. A modern specialist should both be educated and capable of generating knowledge and be able to respect and appreciate the opinions of other people, to negotiate with them to reach agreement, be active, emotional, communicative, and organized. Moreover, currently, much attention is paid to pedagogical competence in the professional training of a specialist – a future choreographer. The authors consider the development of personal and professional competencies of a future choreographer in the process of studying folk dance at the university as the main way to form pedagogical competence. Theoretical studies of the development of the future choreographer pedagogical competence in the process of studying Kazakh folk dance through the unity of the competencies identified by the authors – intellectual-pedagogical, communicative (empathy, extraversion), informational, and reflective – were carried out. The formation of these competencies helps in transforming knowledge about the content of Kazakh dance into knowledge about teaching and educating through Kazakh dance. Studying the history of national ballet art, analyzing its libretto, comparing and collating with modern national ballets will allow the future teacher-choreographer to reflect adequately in choreography the spiritual and moral foundations of national identity, culture, traditions, authenticity of epic traditions and awakening of national artistic and aesthetic consciousness. Through the involvement of students-choreographers in creative groups, creative thinking and personal qualities are awakened and activated, educational and creative activities are carried out, difficulties are overcome, and creative tasks are solved. The authors formulate proposals for the development of professional and personal qualities of students-choreographers. The authors consider the development and understanding of spiritual and cultural values, activity, self-analysis, performance skills of students-choreographers in the process of studying national dance at the culture and arts university as a solution to the problem of developing pedagogical competence.

Pan Voyevoda by N. A. Rimskii-Korsakov. To the Creative History of Opera

In the N. A. Rimskii-Korsakov’s legacy there are operas that seem to be in the shadow of his great creations; among them is the opera Pan Voyevoda (1903) to a libretto by I. F. Tyumenev (without using any historical or literary source). The opera was the result of the composer’s long-cherished plan to create an opera on a Polish plot, so that in it “there would be no place for politics or national enmity”. Romantic events that took place in the 16th–17th centuries are presented in many respects in the traditional musical solution, which does not exclude the presence of bright dramatic situations, dramatic alignment, magnificent melodies, famous national dances. The surviving documents: letters, memoirs of both authors, as well as autographs of the libretto, clavier (partially) and scores from the archives of St Petersburg allow us to recreate the process of working on the work. The main time of work on the musical text was in the summer of 1902, when the composer left for Heidelberg to live with his son. The execution of several other creative works in parallel, including the re-interpretation of the Stone Guest by A. S. Dargomyzhsky, did not interfere with the active process of working on Pan Voyevoda. The first three acts of the four (the last act is very short) were written in less than three months, and during the winter and spring of 1903 N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov performed the orchestration. Musical autographs show how the work was carried out: the text of the libretto was clarified, sometimes expanded or shortened, the composition of the characters was determined, intonation and harmonic variants were introduced, the orchestration changed, and so on. The composer strenuously searched for optimal means of expression, creating a national color and a special “timeless aura” of Polish antiquity. It is no coincidence that the composer marked on the title page a dedication to the Memory of Frédéric Chopin.

Antonia Mercé “La Argentina” in the Philippines: Spanish Dance and Colonial Gesture

This article examines Antonia Mercé La Argentina's stay in Manila in 1929 and the creation of her solo La Cariñosa as a case study to analyze the place of Spanish dance as both colonizing and colonized on the basis of the cultural legacies since Romanticism, when Spanish dance was an exoticized and racialized “Other dance” in relation to the canon and hierarchies of Western dance. La Argentina's supposed homage to the Filipino people in the creation of a solo that stylized their national dance performed for Western audiences continued the exercise of colonial power. The result of those processes of appropriation would be the creation of a repertoire of “Hispanic essences” of that constructed postcolonial “community”; a catalogue equivalent to the rock-hard monumentality of a Hispanidad—the commemoration through Columbus statues and colonial architecture—now celebrated from the body, its performativity, its symbolism, and its gesture.

Dancers as diplomats? Quiet diplomacy and post‐conflict geopolitics in the 1990 Cambodian National Dance Company Tour to the UK

AbstractThis paper examines the relationship between performance and diplomacy during the 1990 Cambodian National Dance Company Tour to the UK. The tour stemmed from Oxfam UK's Kampuchea Campaign, which attempted to restore bilateral aid to the State of Cambodia by pushing for international recognition and a brokered peace settlement. Contributing to geographical work on diplomacy, the paper examines the different agents involved in the tour and their response to the dancers as diplomatic actors, examining the different types of performance in operation and their relationship to diplomacy. Dance was often oriented towards geopolitical ends, but there were also moments when dancers used their artistic performances to open up new modes of subjectivity and identity. The paper attends to these experiences and to how the dancers' actions extend existing conceptions of diplomatic subjectivity by considering vulnerability. In examining these dynamics, the paper also contributes to existing work on art and geopolitics, both through its diplomatic focus and its analysis of how diplomatic and creative practices were intertwined through an aesthetic of quietness. It thus attends to how geopolitical aesthetics matter, and how, in this instance, quiet aesthetics were a mark of international disempowerment.

Power and Play

Power and Play

Improving reliability and validity in hip-hop dance assessment: Judging standards that elevate the sport and competition.

This study examined the reliability and validity of judging system scores of past hip-hop dance competitions in Japan. The analysis focused on the scores for each assessment category separately. Judges’ scores were obtained from national dance competitions held annually in Japan between 2014 and 2019. In these competitions, five experienced judges evaluated the dancers’ performances. The judges scored on a 10-point scale in five categories as follows: creativity, expression and interpretation, impression, technical quality, and synchronisation. This study found that the technical quality category demonstrated good reliability, whilst the impression showed poor reliability. Systematic bias was significant for all categories. There are no levels of difficulty defined for technique, no criteria set for correct movement and no explanation provided for each scoring level, which suggests that each judge may have interpreted the criteria for evaluating hip-hop dance differently. Developing these definitions and identifying the biases that affect evaluation would ensure a reliable evaluation system.

“The nightingale is a graceful dancer”: Bulbul Chowdhury, dance heritage, and the new nation-state of Pakistan

ABSTRACT This article focusses on the cultural work of dancer Bulbul Chowdhury who performed extensively in East and West Pakistan (1950) and toured Europe with his troupe (1953). Chowdhury’s approach towards dance in newly formed Pakistan coincided with larger political events of WWII, Bengal Famine, Partition as well as the Language Movement. His methodology of dance encompassed a vision of “inter-Asia” in which he excavated Muslim pasts to create a vocabulary of “national dance” for Pakistan. During early years of decolonisation and Cold War, Chowdhury’s performances for the Shah of Iran in Sylhet or for Jawaharlal Nehru following the Nehru-Liaquat Pact signified how such high-level state events were crucial for his travel abroad and thus gained a cultural currency/endorsement for his troupe. Drawing upon Kuan-Hsing Chen’s “Asia as Method” (2010), this article concentrates on Chowdhury’s role in connected geographies to identify structural limitations and alternative possibilities of knowledge production in dance.

Japanese dancers, Bollywood dance: finding authenticity at Tokyo’s Namaste India Festival

ABSTRACT By sharing the stories of the Japanese Bollywood dancers at the Namaste India Festival in Tokyo, this paper explores their self-developed hierarchy of authenticity to argue that there are multiple ways to claim and access authenticity as it relates to the performance of Bollywood dance. The dance form’s base as global, hybrid, and commercial rejects authenticity as a concept, but its performance by these groups results in meaningful cultural exchange. The appeal of this Indian dance form in Japan provides an Inter-Asia reference point from which to explore the different ways this transnational yet national dance form functions as a sign of global modernity in these two different Asian contexts. The Japanese Bollywood dancers have developed a discourse that references and weights criteria such as heritage, source material, training and discipline, in-country experience, affect, imitation, cultural proficiency, emotion, and engagement as they rank themselves in relation to other dancers.

Application of Rotationally Symmetrical Triangulation Stereo Vision Sensor in National Dance Movement Detection and Recognition

Information acquisition is an important branch of information science. It is the product of the development and cross-integration of traditional sensing technology and other multidisciplines. It is characterized by the high precision, high speed, integration, and intelligence of information acquisition. An important part of information acquisition, it studies how to acquire the geometric structure and scale information of objects in three-dimensional space. With the continuous development of the level, the acquisition of 3D information has become more and more important in scientific research and industrial production. This paper takes 3D information acquisition technology as the main line. From the perspectives of fusion, effectiveness, physical limit, and measurement efficiency, high-resolution 3D information acquisition techniques are studied. In this paper, the upper and lower limb movements of each behavioral segment are segmented according to the difference. An omnidirectional stereo vision sensor composed of a single camera and two secondary conical mirrors is designed, which solves the problems of large size, narrow field of view, and asynchronous image acquisition of traditional binocular vision sensors, effectively ensuring image perspective. The invariance of projection avoids image distortion caused by curved mirror imaging and reduces the difficulty of subsequent work. The three-dimensional Delaunay triangulation algorithm is used to replace the traditional Poisson reconstruction algorithm to generate the triangular mesh model. The triangular mesh model obtained by the multiview stereo reconstruction algorithm is relatively rough. This article uses Zbrush’s ZRemesher and geometric-divide functions to smooth and simplify the model. The results show that the accuracy of the algorithm proposed in this paper is as high as 89.25% in the motion recognition of body elements. The dynamic mapping method is used to map the texture of the triangular mesh model, so that the realism of the model reaches 91.23%.

Letters to TURBA

Letter from Tunis: We will keep dancing . . . We just don’t know quite yet how to keep on balance . . .In the aftermath of the Hors Lits Festival, I am writing to share with you the reality of artistic, and particularly choreographic, performance in Tunisia. Here in Tunis, we have to date only one national dance festival and two or three private festivals, still struggling for their existence. Faced with the lack of a strong event dedicated to dance, we conceived the Hors Lits Festival (literally, “out of bed”), offering performances within the privacy of spectator’s homes: in a living room, a bedroom, or a kitchen . . . out of bed. This format has allowed us to reach a new audience, to present artists, to try out new artistic forms . . . to demonstrate the importance of creating alternative spaces for dance. Letter from Istanbul: There Is a Sonic Revolt in the Streets!When the government announced Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention on 20 March 2021, we were waking up every day with the news of missing, murdered, raped, and beaten women and LGBTQ+ people. Our situation was sadly not unique; indeed, all around the world, our comrades had been struggling with the same systematic violence. Hence, we were not alone in this shit!