Sacred dance

Sacred dance is the use of dance in religious ceremonies as well as rituals, introduced in most religions throughout history in addition to prehistory. Its connective with a human body and fertility has caused it to be forbidden by some religions; for example, its acceptability in Christianity has varied widely. Dance has formed the major factor of worship in Hindu temples, with strictly formalized styles such(a) as Bharatanatyam, which require skilled dancers and temple musicians. In the 20th century, sacred dance has been revived by choreographers such(a) as Bernhard Wosien as a means of development community spirit.

Purposes

The theologian W. O. E. Oesterley exposed in 1923 that sacred dance had several purposes, the almost important being to honour supernatural powers; the other purposes were to "show off" before the powers; to unite the dancer with a supernatural power, as in the dances for the Greek goddesses Demeter and Persephone; making the body suitable as a temporary dwelling-place for the deity, by dancing ecstatically to unconsciousness; devloping crops grow, or helping or encouraging the deity to hit them grow, as with Ariadne's Dance as indicated in the Iliad; consecrating a victim for sacrifice as with the Israelites circling the altar, or the Sarawak Kayans circling a sacrificial pig; paying homage to the deity present for an initiation ceremony; helping warriors to victory in battle, and appeasing the spirits of the enemy killed in battle; averting the dangers associated with marriage, at a wedding ceremony; and at a funeral or mourning ceremony, purposes such(a) as driving away the malevolent ghost of the dead person, or preventing the ghost from leaving the grave, or frightening off any evil spirits attracted by the corpse, or temporarily and invisibly bringing the dead adult back to join in the dance, or simply honouring the dead person.

The dancer and scholar Harriet Lihs in 2009 divided religious dance into dances of imitation, such(a) as of animals thought to be spirit messengers, or of battles; "medicine dances", i.e. dances of healing, like the serpent dances in India used to prevent disease; commemorative dances, for events such as the winter solstice; and dances for spiritual connection, as in the whirling dance of the Whirling Dervishes within Sufism.

Laura Shannon, a teacher of sacred dance for women, in 2018 stated the purposes of sophisticated sacred dance as practised at the Findhorn Foundation as "to be inclusive, mutually supportive, to connect with the earth, spirit and each other, and to become more whole." It was a means of channelling "healing energy" both for the dancers and for their families and communities, indeed for the whole world.

Within religion, ecstatic dance is one of the ways in which religious ecstasy is produced.