The People Have Never Stopped Dancing: Native American Modern Histories by Jacqueline Shear Murphy - Book Report/Review Example

Task: Annotated Bibliography on History of Dance The People Have Never Stopped Dancing: Native American Modern Histories by Jacqueline Shear Murphy This book has focused on background history of dance both in the pre historic times and in the modern world. Most of the contents in the book consist of how dance became part of the culture of the contemporary Native Americans and how its performances have been diversified by common influences. Dance is ultimately characterized by its context meaning it can be defined according to its location, social and artistic contexts. Most historians have focused on getting the background of dance in a way that they can relate it with appropriate circumstances while relating it to prevailing attitudes and ideas so that the context is understood both widely and in its own terms. Dance exists in manifold contexts thus there is a tension between studying it at depth and doing it within its wider and immediate contexts. The study of the background history of dances goes way back to the prehistoric times since through doing this is when researchers are able to trace the gradual changes that it has undergone. Dance can be referred to as the moving of one’s body part rhythmically or in a specific pattern which in most cases is done in accompaniment of music. This can also be defined as a pattern of movement using improvised gestures and steps. Dance is done for musical enjoyment especially when someone is excited and wants to express their particular state. Dance can also be done to express one’s sentimental feelings. There are many different types of dances in the modern world and all these types of dance are used to express what an individual or a group of people feel about a certain situation. Dance can be used to express contentment and in most cases this can be seen when an individual has undergone a particular situation that calls for celebration like passing an exam, a football team has won the match or when one has won lotto. It is not very clear for one to state when dance became part of the human culture because there are no specific artifacts that one can use to make claims. There are many stories of how people used to celebrate in the medieval era but in all these stories there are no clear indications of whether people used to dance or not thus the background history of dancing still remains unknown to date. Dance has been considered as a very important part of any given ceremony both in the modern world and in the previous years before civilization. Even though there is no much evidence of dance in the pre-historic times concerning dance, people have always known about dances and this has happened naturally due to the fact that people have always been performing rituals and celebrations. Some archaeological sites in parts of India and Egypt tend to depict images of dancing people with claims that they were in existence in approximately 3300 BC thus this means that the art of dancing has come a long way and human beings have been embracing it naturally. One of the ways in which dances was used in the previous years was through storytelling sessions and myths since through performing dances the myths would sound more interesting and the people being told these myths would become more convinced that whatever they are being told really happened. Dances are very effective in many ways since there are people who pass messages through dancing out their personal feelings. There are different types of dancing that bring out the sentimental feeling of a person; there are those dancing styles that show somber mood, there are those that portray a happy person and so on. There different styles of dancing in different parts of the world and all these dances have a specific meaning to diverse communities. When you go to a country like for example, you will be introduced to a dancing style that is meant to express love between two people and you are shown how it is done and the same case happens when you go to any other country where the dance culture is highly appreciated. In some countries in Africa such as the democratic republic of Congo, dance is part and parcel of their culture thus anyone who does not know how to dance is seen as an outcast because this is like a basic thing in the country. Analysis Critique: Strengths: Jacqueline Shear Murphy tries to bring out the responsibilities that historian should have in the society and how they should implement their knowledge in order to impact the society at large. The descriptive and comparative study of the history of Dance that has been done by Jacqueline Shear Murphy on dance has been made clear to the reader that some factors such as ignorance and uncertainty among other factors can also contribute a lot to the loss of dance history. The book has brought out a comparative study that will help the historians to improve their work on the manner in which they carry out research on the background history of Dance. Weaknesses: Jacqueline Shear Murphy does not bring out the discussion on how other forms of research contributes to the loss of the background of dance clearly in different styles of music and rhythm and means that the author must have done very minimal research on the topic. The book is also biased on the research that has been done and this is because it only focuses on the history of dance from European countries and leaving out other parts of the continents like Africa. Moving History/Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader by Ann Dils The book talks about how teaching affects the background history of dance in the modern world since the teaching materials in the fields of dancing are not very clear. Ann looks at all the possibilities of using teaching materials that can be beneficial to students who want to learn more about dance and she focuses on how dance has development in parts of the world like in America and other parts of the globe. The reader is bound to think deep about the history of dance through looking at different practices and theories, dance traditions of different communities and its global contexts. The book brings some historical readings that encourages the reader to make thoughtful analysis and gives them an opportunity to engage themselves with the texts in a critical way. Analysis Critique: Strengths: The author has brought out her discussion on the topic very clearly thereby convincing the reader to implement what is required in order to reduce uncertainty in the study of dance in the modern world. The results done in reference to the discussion by the author is very convincing and is very interesting since it was given after many people were consulted about the topic and this is one of the reasons as to why the reader might find it impressive to study the topic. Ann has also brought out the findings in her book clearly in a way that one is able to find most of the answers to the questions they have upon reading it. The discussions on how teaching materials can be effective in bringing out the meaning of dance has also been very helpful since most people do not know how efficient these materials can be to the students in the modern world. Weaknesses: Ann has focused so much on the history of dance in America and this means that other societies are not able to be associated with the book. She has incorporated too much survey in her research and has focused on providing too much data in the explanation of her topic and this has made the discussion a little boring and inconvenient to the reader. Too much statistics has been given and this means that the topic might end up confusing the reader. Upcoming dancers may not acquire much skill from this book because the author has not outlines the types of dances in the modern world and how they can be differentiated. The reader is eager to know more about dancing styles and how they came into existence but the book does not explained deeper. Work Cited Dils, Ann. Moving History/Dancing Cultures: A Dance History. Wesleyan: Wesleyan University Press, 2001. Fishkin, Rebecca Love. Dance: A Practical Guide to Pursuing the Art. New York: Capstone, 2010. HDoubler, Margaret N. Dance: A Creative Art Experience. New York: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998. Murphy, Jacqueline Shear. The people Have Never Stopped dancing: Native American Modern dance Histories. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 2007. Read More