The Sardana - a very special Catalonian Dance

The sardana (plural sardanas) is a circle dance associated with the Catalan region of Spain. The people of Catalonia occupy the northeastern corner of Spain spilling over the Pyrenees into French Roussillon. There are two main versions of this dance. The original version was the sardana curta (the short sardana). The modern and more popular version is the sardana llarga (the long sardana). The origin of this dance is unknown though it has been popular since the 16th century. Similar Iberian and Meditarranean circle dances exist but the music for this dance has its own unique patterns. It is a non-performance dance which does not require high levels of fitness. On the occasion I witnessed it I watched in amazement as an elderly genteman, who had been sitting on a newspaper placed on a step, laid his crutch aside and struggled to his feet. He then joined the circle closest to him Other circles had dancers who looked as if they were in their eighties.These older participants were enjoying a relaxing activity which helped their general health. The circles moved at the speed and with the energy levels of the majority of their participants. Some circles had predominately younger dancers and their circles moved with a lively energy. The circles can be entirely of people of the same sex, mixed or with couples only. It is considered bad manners to join a circle made up entirely of couples. When a circle becomes too large, more circles are formed. No special costume is needed, normal day wear is usual. Quite a few dancers were wearing the traditional rope espadrilles. When I first arrived to watch the dance there were just three dancers present. They put their bags and outer clothing in a pile and then formed a circle around the pile. As time went on the number and size of the circles increased. At its' height there were perhaps between 150 and 200 people taking part. People participating join hands together and with them held at shoulder height they dance with very small, precise steps, slowly round and round moving in a clockwise direction. The music for the sardana (also called sardana) is played by a cobla - a wind band. Four of the instruments the tenora, tible, flabiol and tambori are typically Catalan. Some sardanas have sung versions but these are not usually played for dancing. Many Catalans consider the regime to be distinct from Spain and there has been an independence movement for more than 150 years.The spanish dictator General Franco ruled Spain from the late 1940's to 1975. He considered the Catalan desire for independence and their national pride to be arrogant and insolent. Franco enforced crippling laws in a vain attemt to crush the traditions and language of the Catalans. Speaking Catalan was forbidden as was the sardana. Under the Franco dictatorship Catalan was excluded from state education and all other official use. To reverse this decline since 1983 there are laws which attempt to enforce, to protect and encourage the use of Catalan. This is the reason why the sardana is considered by the people of Catalonia to be a powerful symbol of national unity and identity which unites people from different walks of life and different circumstances. To read FREE EXTRACTS of "Dance to Health - Help Your Special Needs Child Through Inspirational Dance"CLICK HERE

Dance to Health is devoted to all aspects of Dance and especially Dance and Movement Therapy for Children with Learning and/or Physical Problems.The emphasis is on the health, creative and spiritual aspects of dance as a therapy.

Big, Beautiful Ballet Dancers

Is this really ballet? I asked myself after watching video clips of the Cuban dance company Danza Voluminosa (Voluminous Dance) most of whose dancers range in age from 23 to 41 and all of them weigh more than 200 pounds. This group was formed in 1996 by Juan Miguel Mas, now its' director and choreographer. He says he is redefining the aesthetics of beauty and raising the awareness of heavy set people. "Although we are obese and dance, we are against obesity. We are always trying to lose weight" said Mr Ma who himself weighs 300 pounds. This statement has caused outrage in certain obese quarters who claim that the statement is self deprecating. To me that is not the case. Surely it's possible to be self-confident and enjoy the beauty of ones very large body while still realizing that health wise it might be better to lose weight.

What I am about to write is not a criticism of Danza Voluminose or any other company with greatly overweight dancers.The number of such groups is growing.

Another dance troupe Big Dance was founded in 1993 in Victoria, BC, Canada with 10 large dancers and the choreographer Lynda Raino.They were well received by audiences but now the number of dancers is declining. Raino has spotted many large women in her area but few in their 20's and 30's who are willing to dance. She says "That's a shame because young women will have decades to enjoy the art form. By about age 50 women are more comfortable in their bodies, and would more readily come out to a class, but they are starting to stiffen up. Knees start to go, as do backs and hips. People should start young, especially if they want to perform."

Helen Rezanowich is program assistant in women's studies at the University of Victoria. "I tried going to a big dance class but it was all too much in my face. I was not ready to look at it, at that point. Even watching teeny tiny women leaving the class before mine was hard. And the dance room is lined with mirrors. I didn't want to admit I was that big. Now I'm 51 and much more comfortable with my body size."

The Big Ballet was founded in 1994 by the choreographer Evgeny Panfilov. The company's aim is to change the conception of large dancers grace and agility. He also wanted to prove that untrained beginners could reach professional standards.

The lower weight threshold has been raised to over 238 pounds. Any dancer falling below this weight is offered the opportunity to regain the extra pounds with the advice of a nutritionist. If they do not want to do this they must give up their place to another larger dancer."They must be eating and eating and eating " said Natalia Liensky the companies director.The troupe consists of sixteen large women aged between 19 and 28 who have not undergone professional dance training and six regular-sized male dancers. They all have day jobs and include doctors, nurses and engineers.The dancers perform in tutus and on point and do pirouttes and plies. The dancers can even manage to do the splits. In some performances female dancers are lifted by male dancers - although it takes four men to get one woman into the air.

In an unusual move the Russian government of Vladamir Putin demanded that the Bolshoi Ballet re-instate a dancer dismissed for allegedly being too heavy and hard for a partner to lift

Marina Wolf Ahmad is the director and founder of Big Moves one of the few organisations in the world dedicated to getting all body types into dance classes and onto the stage. Marina states "There's a need to offer healing, supportive space for these women to get back into dance, and there's a need to start working toward supportive youth programs that train the dance teachers to be accepting of all sizes that come through their classes - right now, dance is not psychologically accessible to most people. Big Moves will take all shapes, all sizes as long as you come to rehearsals, get better and are really dedicated to dancing. Not just fat people - all sizes". Big Move companies have been set up in many parts of the US.

China now has a professional dance troupe called "The Overweight Troupe". The company consists of ten women and four men. They weight from 16stone to 35 stone. The entry requirement is that the dancers weight more than 100 kilos (220lbs or 15.7 stone). The groups founder weighed 11 stone (154 lbs or 70kilos) at the age of eleven.

I truly believe that everyone should dance but I do have a problem with obese dancers performing classical ballet. This is a form of dance where it is well near impossible for a woman who takes up this dance form in adulthood to excel. They are unlikely to be able to manage the challenges of technique. While both dancers and audience may enjoy humorous interpretations of classical ballets this is not enough. They need to have the same level of technique as any other performer. In addition ballet as a style is about defying gravity with lightness and ease.

All dance looks best when the choreography, music, the costuming and most importantly the dancers physique complement each other. Obese women look especially beautiful when performing dances such as those from the Middle East and some forms of African dance for example. In these styles extra large hips and breasts emphasize the earth connection of the dance and its feel for fertility and life as a whole. A skinny woman doing "belly dancing" does not show the dance off to its' best advantage. I well remember a Middle Eastern dance workshop attended by one obese young woman. She moved with a grace and expressiveness which was accentuated by her ample curves. She outshone us all.

An ever larger proportion of the population is aware of the health hazards of obesity which is rapidly increasing in many parts of the world. Obesity is defined as being 20% or more of your ideal weight.Childhood obesity is a major cause of abnormal growth acceleration. Girls who are obese often start menstruating early and go through the menopause early. This problem in boys can lead to both early and delayed puberty. Gynecomastia (excessive development of the male breasts) is another common problem.

In adulthood obesity is a root cause of a number of forms of ill health such as heart disease, stoke, diabetes mellitus, gallbladder disease, high blood pressure and cancer. Gout and in women reproductive abnormalities are common, as is osteoarthritis of the knees and spine in both sexes. Every extra pound which a person gains puts four times the stress on their knees.

What is quite clear is that most of these groups of extremely overweight dancers practise discrimination. A dancer looses weight and he or she is out of the troupe in the same way as in some companies a dancer who is putting on weight is asked to leave - both represent extreme views.

It clearly is not helping dancers health wise to encourage them to put on weight again after they have lost weight through experiencing the health giving effects of dance.The human body clearly was not designed to carry large amounts of excess weight for a lifetime and remain healthy.

Both the anorexic and size zero body and that of massively overweight dancers are not sending out a picture of a long term healthy body. There needs to be a happy medium. I am utterly delighted that overweight dancers are proving that they can be agile, graceful, sensitive and aesthetically pleasing performers who give their audiences great pleasure.In many cases dance has brought feelings of self-worth and confidence to those who formerly lacked these qualities.

I am in total agreement with Marina Wolf Ahmad whose aim is to make dance all inclusive and everyone dances together.I have not had the pleasure of seeing any of the aforementioned groups perform live. For this reason it would be wrong for me to make any comments regarding the repertoire or technique of any of the companies. All my remarks have been of a general nature and not specifically aimed at any company in particular. Let us always allow dance to help us to transform peoples' attitudes and beliefs!

I implore obese dancers who are losing weight to fore go dancing with the company, but to continue dancing classes and losing weight. This is the path to long term health and fitness. Does anyone know of obese people who have reached a Ripe Old Age?

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1000 hands kuan yin dance(Goddess of Mercy) dance

This dance is called "Buddha with thousand hands".
It is performed by
a group of Chinese girls who are both deaf and
mute.They dance by
reading the signs given by the 2 teachers standing
at each side of
the stage, They are so famous now that they are
being invited by
countries around the world at $400,000 a
performance.

The flow of life's energies in dance is a source of endless fascination to me. Here the core energy is very strong and flows through the dancers fingers uniting them as a beautiful whole.

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