Dr.Hab., PhD A.A. Peredel'skiy
Postgraduate K. Krukhmaleva
Russian State University of Physical Culture, Sport, Youth and Tourism (GTsOLIFK), Moscow

Keywords: sport dance, global and national dance culture, ballroom dancing, sportization.

Background

Dances and dancing traditions are undoubtedly a global social phenomenon known from the earliest growth stages of every society till nowadays. It should be emphasized that the phenomenon is global both in the spatial and temporal dimensions of the social progress, i.e. dance culture has existed always and everywhere; and this is the reason why it is not always sensible to look for its origins in the ancient devotional systems, worships, religions and rituals, albeit a religious dance tradition comprises an inalienable part of any dance culture found anytime and anywhere.

Dance origins are much older than ancient period as the primitive forms of dances are found in the oldest magic, totemic and other religious ceremonies and traditions with a dance playing a pivotal role of what can be called a key social information accumulating, saving and transferring mechanism, or a social information/ communication tool and media. To put it simpler, dance has always been an oldest body language operating with an alphabet of gestures. In this sense, dance is by far older than any written language, any rope-and-knot writing system, pictographs, hieroglyphs etc. Moreover, dance may be interpreted as our genuine link with nature which gave birth to all of us as it demonstrates and proves our relationship not only with animals and birds with their mating behaviour but even with insects (e.g. bees who dance to communicate information about flight direction and distance).

Objective of the study was to make an overview of the competitive dance history in the global and national dimensions.

Study results and discussion. Dance may be viewed as one of the oldest culture developing mechanisms, since any culture comes into being and grows largely supported by language in its verbal and non-verbal communication forms and tools. The idea that “it is the body language that creates a body of culture”, however allegorical and highly aesthetical may it seem, is reasonable both in the form and essence since it is a dance that has always been used to unfold and perform rituals; and it is the rituals that formalize customs; the customs fix and save traditions; and the traditions passed over from one generation to the other is what the “body of culture” is essentially made of.

Deep semantics of a dance may help us understand the problem or paradox of its social nature that manifests itself both in arts and sports. It should be noted that sports as one of the ancient forms of competitions originate from the Greek and Roman religious systems and rituals. And it is very important that it is the creative element that conveys the competitiveness principle to the gymnastic games (as the Greek mythology puts it), and not vice versa. However, the ways of conveyance are not as important as the fact that sports and arts in the ancient proto-culture were at least presented in the rituals and traditions if not united, i.e. had the same general operational basis. And this fact may mean that there is always a potential for a future synthesis of the things that were once integrated in the past. Therefore, such synthesis of a sport and art in sport dances needed only time and favourable social situation to come into being, and it happened in the second half of the XX century.

However, the above sequence is more about the general logic than factual basis of the historic process of dancing traditions and sport dances emerging as a social phenomenon. And as far as the historic facts are concerned, they may be described as follows.

The exact time, period and geographic place of origin of dances remains unknown, and it is very likely that there is no chance to identify them in future. However, we know perfectly well the type and sector of public life where dances were in active use from the very beginning. It is religion, and more specifically – temple religion. Archaeologists have found images of dancers on a variety of antiquities including the sacred and household utensils of ancient cultures of Egypt, India, Crete and some other regions, with the oldest findings dated by the IV – III millenniums B.C.

Role of dances in the ancient Greek temple culture is also beyond doubt: we know that at least in the VIII century B.C. Olympic Games opening ceremony in the Zeus Temple started from a dance of virgins. Semantics of the ancient dances were largely religious in their essence and their body language referred to the religious interpretation of the ancient cosmogony and cosmology, i.e. the divine history of universe, its origins and development. Senses, emotions and feelings conveyed by the dances, by every their move and gesture, were appealing to the essence and role of the divine being whom the dance was intended to serve to. Furthermore, the ancient dances may be classified into the women’s and men’s ones, with the first largely telling about love and the last appealing to and demonstrating militancy, albeit essentially every dance emphasized different aspects of the mainstream service mission.

Therefore, the early history of dance may be summarized as having an expressed religious and worshiping nature (with military dances being no exclusion in the case), i.e. the ancient dancing culture was a form of service to one or another religion and divine being(s). Even the ancient erotic/ wild/ dissolute dances were addressed to deities, albeit not necessarily the highest ranking ones. That is why we feel that it is unlikely reasonable and grounded to single out and oppose the Dionysus dances to the other ceremonial dances as some research reports do (S.V. Akukionok, 2003).

Dances and dance music that are used today as a basis for or decoration of competitive dance routines came to the cultures in different time periods and from different places. Slow English waltz may be viewed as a successor of the Boston waltz that was imported back in 1874 from the USA to the European continent, reached the peak of fashion only by 1922 and was significantly modified in 1926-27. The forerunner of tango immigrated to the continent from the South America, most probably from Argentine. The dance was twice redesigned in Buenos Aires and later on in Paris when it was adapted to the more quiet European temperament, then gained more and more popularity and faced attacks from the French clergy, mass media, public organization and even health authorities.

Slow foxtrot in its multiple performance versions that emerged much earlier than waltz and also originated from the American continent came through serious changes in 1918, 1919, 1920, 1922 and a few times later on. The Vienna waltz and its nearest predecessor came, curiously enough, not from Vienne but most likely from Bavaria in the late medieval time, or maybe even from France in the same historic period. The dance became broadly popular by the end of the ХVII century, although in the early XVIII century was persecuted by some local social groups for “being too dissolute”.

Quickstep may be interpreted as a sort of synthetic remix, a quick version of slow foxtrot and Charleston.

The Latin American dances popular in Europe since the early ХХ century and having the Spanish, Portugal, Indian and African origins were mixed up in America. Paso doble, for instance, came from Spain and Mexico; jive – from North America; samba – from Africa and Brazil; cha-cha-cha was born on the American dancing floors; and rumba is originally a Cuban-African dance.

What conclusion may be made from the above? The conclusion may be only one and quite unexpected for us in fact. Having summarized what we know about the dance history we have to confess that the European and Latin American standardized ballroom dance routines followed by the relatively modern competitive dance routines came through the crucible of the American mass culture, and we find no exclusion from this fact. It is not that important that the main standardization process was taking place in the Great Britain. What it gives to us? We do not know yet, although some ideas are coming up – for instance, that ballroom dance routines were subject to sport [‘sportization”] process somewhat later than the traditional dances, albeit they went through the same competitiveness-driven modifications that brought to being the modern competitive dances as a result.

It may be assumed from the above that the global dance traditions were very selectively screened and standardized (and it is a high time to clearly and definitely refer to the already accepted competitive standards albeit still unendorsed by the formal regulatory framework) in the context of the relevant cultural models and standards of the western world and then forwarded to the mass production in between the First and the Second World Wars. It should be noted that the above considerations make us think that it is premature to put the European ballroom dances and modern competitive dances on the equal footing, nor it would be reasonable to view the latter as natural successors and followers of the former.

On the whole, it was by the 30ies of the ХХ century that the ballroom dance routines went so long way in the sport process that became subject to the regular open championships of the UK and other countries and the European and World championships. By the 50ies of the ХХ century, at least ten ballroom dance routines were danced in competitions, and they formed a basis for the modern “European” and “Latin American” competitive routines in fact.

It is England that leads today in the competitive ballroom dance culture for a variety of well-known reasons, with the relevant standards being naturally set by the English school of ball choreography that formulates the first international competitive Regulations designed to spell out the basic technical specifications of the modern dance standards. It should be mentioned that this process for the time being is presented as going under the auspices of arts. Therefore, the competitive ballroom dance routines slowly (due to the phased dance sport process) but constantly come into conflict with their already shaped up sport content and nature. What should be done is a small deal – just to put the old form in compliance with the new content, and it is exactly what was done in 1990 when the International Amateur Dance Union was renamed to the International Dance Sport Federation (known as the World Dance Sport Federation since 2011). The very term “dance sport” came into use in the early 80ies to clearly and precisely define the essence of the renewed dance style. And it was only natural that the recognition of the new sport by the International Olympic Committee was not too far off. However, this key issue of our study needs to be considered in a more detailed and specific manner.

The national (Soviet and then Russian) culture of ballroom dance in particular and sport dance on the whole was lagging somewhat behind the world dance traditions albeit followed the same development route. The national ballroom dance routines were largely driven by the European and American dance fashions; they first appeared as competitive dances and it took only a few decades for them to become totally competitive sports. It should be noted that the dance style was ideologically persecuted at some point and faced quite a few challenges on the way to recognition on the global competitive and sport arenas. The national dance culture in this process succeeded not only in breaking every tie with the cultural sector and moving to the sport sector, but in eradicating every sign of the national dancing traditions from the dancers’ sport training process as well – to totally resettle to the international dance routine standards and to be recognized with time one of the leaders of the world dance process. It should be noted that the project splendidly implemented by the West fell flat on the Russian ground in fact for a variety of objective and subjective reasons.

It was back in 1977 that ballroom dance routines were first formally registered as “sport dances” by the Integrated Sport Classifier of the USSR. Later on, the Soviet sport dancers had become regular participants of the relevant amateur and professional tournaments and championships the world over. In 1988, the Professional Ballroom Dance Performers and Teachers Association was established in the USSR and later on, in 1990ies, reformed to the Russian Dance Union and Dance Sport Federation of Russia.

October 3-4, 1988 are the special days (as the author of “Who is who” book puts it) in the national history of ballroom dance as it was the time of the First Pan-USSR Contest organized by Stanislav Popov. And it was for the first time in the national history that Soviet dance routine was performed at the dance event of such level as the dancers were competing only in the European and Latin American dance routines. The contest was not yet formally qualified as a championship, albeit its winners are reasonably ranked as the first national champions in professional dance (S.V. Akulenok, 2003). Then it were the First and Second Moscow International Professional Tournaments (1988, 1990) to follow that gave an impetus for the rapid growth of children’s and junior ballroom dance movement with the national sport dance soon evolving to a fully fledged sport discipline.

Conclusion

The long-term opposition of the western and national dance cultures came in the sport sector to a complete, albeit possibly and hopefully not final, victory of the western culture. At least we are hopeful welcoming the successes of our competitive dancers in the ХХI century.

References

1. Akulenok P.V. Kto est' kto? (Who is who?) / P.V. Akulenok // Mezhdunarodny ob'edinenny biograficheskiy tsentr. – Moscow, 2003. – Iss. 5, V. 2.
2. Peredel'skiy A.A. Istoriya stanovleniya traditsiy edinoborcheskikh iskusstv (History of formation of combat sports traditions) / A.A. Peredel'skiy // Fizicheskaya kul'tura: vospitanie, obrazovanie, trenirovka. – 2008. – № 4. – P. 54–56.
3. Peredel'skiy A.A. Fenomen sportivnoy kul'tury v aspekte filosofskogo i sotsiologicheskogo analiza (Sport culture phenomenon in terms of philosophical and sociological analysis) / A.A. Peredelskiy, A.G. Alekseev, Yu.A. Tsegelny // Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kultury. – 2014. – № 8. – P. 94–96.

Corresponding author: alisa.gorba4eva@yandex.ru

Abstract

The authors argue that the European and Latin American standardized ballroom dance programs, and then sport dances, almost without exception have gone through the crucible of American popular culture. Nevertheless, they originated in the UK. Ballroom dancing took the path of sportization a bit later than the traditional sports, and it caused the creation of modern dance sport.

The world dance tradition was very thoroughly screened, brought up to standard, cultivated in the focus of samples, standards of the Western world and put into mass production in the interval between the First and the Second World Wars.

In the study the authors conclude that the long­term confrontation between the Western and domestic dance cultures was finished in the field of sports with complete, but perhaps in the long term not quite final victory of the West. At least, it is to be hoped, seeing the success of our athletes in the twenty­first century.