Why do we dance?

Lynn Poole interviews dancer/choreographer Ted Shawn, who maintains that dance is universal. "Show me the dancing of any people, and I will tell you what their king is like" is a Chinese proverb claiming that dance reveals the state of a culture. Shawn says the motivation for dance is that it brings satisfaction. The gamut of human emotions is the basis for dance, as evidenced in the Greek theater, which was based on dance. Dance was originally solo and then social. Shawn shows a film of Australian aborigines dancing their stories and film clips of liturgical dance. Dance has long been a form of religious expression and ecstasy. Shawn shows photos and film clips of some of his dances based on religious themes such as the whirling dervish, St. Francis, and Shiva. He discusses turn of the century dance, which used very sterile technical styles. However, Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis initiated the renaissance of dance and the forerunner of modern dance. Film footage shows St. Denis's 1910 "Incense" and Shawn and St. Denis in "Tillers of the Soil." In 1933 Shawn formed an all-male company that danced American themes, shown in photos and film clips. Contemporary ballets are influenced by these American pioneer dancers, which revealed a vital and vigorous culture.