I wanted to start this area of research with a dance style which I'm more familiar with: Scottish Highland dance. Although the dances have been watered down and standardized for public consumption, many of the dances had what I would argue was a ritual function in Scottish culture. The most obvious to me were the Sword Dance and the Highland Fling from the Scottish Highland tradition. In their original form, the dances were male rituals which took place prior to and after battles respectively. I am relying on a lot of the traditions I learned from my dance teachers over the years, but I would highly recommend the Wikipedia article on “Scottish Highland dance” as a starting point for further information. I would also be happy to elaborate or discuss the topic if anyone is interested.
The first is probably one of the more infamous dances: the Sword Dance. This is danced by one, two, or four dancers over crossed swords. The widely available story dates back to the 11th century when the success of the dancer would foreshadow the outcome of the army in battle. The legend goes that a chieftain would pick his best dancer from amongst his soldiers and that said dancer would perform the Sword dance over crossed swords. If the dancer completed the routine without hitting the swords, it was considered good luck for the battle to come. If he touched the swords, he might lose not only a toe, but the respect of his peers. Modern Sword dancers don’t have the fate of an army hanging over them, but they do lose points for every time they touch the sword. As a Premiere (highest rank of competitive highland dance), touching the sword in a competition is grounds for instant disqualification. The dance is done to a prescribed bagpipe tune - “Ghillie Chalum” - and in the modern version varies in length from 2 minutes to 2.5 minutes depending on the number of steps and the masochistic nature of the piper.
The second dance which I argue has ritual significance in the Scottish Highland tradition is the Highland Fling. This dance has several different origin stories. The one I learned when I started dancing was that the end of a battle, a soldier would put his targe (shield with a GIANT spike in it) on the ground and dance on top of it. In other versions, he used the shield of his enemy for this purpose, but the result was basically the same: don't step on the spike and stay on the spot or you'll seriously hurt yourself. There was no indication in any of the information I learned that the warrior was penalized for a misstep, but the results would be very painful. Dancers in modern Highland games are judged on their ability to stay on the spot whilst dancing through complex turns and footwork (the targe however, is no longer used in competitions for - in my opinion - liability reasons). In modern highland dance, there is no set bagpipe tune for the Fling and the dancers will dance to whatever is played - at the piper's discretion. The fling ranges in length from 1.5 to 2 minutes again depending upon the number of steps and the speed of the piper.
Most of the ritual components are absent from modern highland dance, but they still exist in a water down form to the present day. Having danced both the Sword and the Fling more times than I would care to admit, I can say for certain that they are both technically difficult and require a large amount of concentration to execute properly. Both are danced in the kilt outfit (kilt, matching socks, jacket/vest, and dance ghillies), which is a stylized version of highland dress. The fortunes of battles aren't decided by missteps in the modern form of the Sword or the Fling, but I think that there are traces of ritual components even in the watered down versions of the dances presented for public consumption.
Ritual dances: Scotland?
|