askra
07-20-2014, 04:59 AM
Sardinian dances are disciplined, strict and repetitive and generally danced in circles, often hundreds of people attend them contemporary, during the main festivities, creating big cirlces constituted sometimes by many rings.
The dancers maintain the stiff bust and they take their hands, dance around, they go forward and back … a rhythmic dance that goes on in a flow of circles and figures.
At least in the past, the manner of holding hands was very important and followed strict rules. Married or engaged couples could hold hands palm to palm with fingers entwined, but a man could not do this with a young girl or another man's wife. If a stranger entered the circle, he had to do so to the woman's right so as not to come between her and her husband.
In northern and central Sardinia, the dance is lively and animated with leaps and agile movements and usually accompanied by a choir of three or more singers in the center of the circle. In other areas, the dance is done to launeddas and the shepherd's sulittu but the accordion had also made its appearance by the 19th century. The Introduction is in 2/4 time but the dance itself is done in 6/8.
Dances in Sardinia are also an important moment of social aggregation, and not only an amusement.
The most common kind of dance in Sardinia is the so called Ballu Tundu, in english means "round dance".
These dances bring to the mists of time. It's theorized that they were danced since the prehistory to celebrate a favorable hunting, a good harvest, and propitiate the gods.
There is also a relation between these dances and the pagan cult of the Sun and the fire. The round dance symbolizes probably the passage of time and the changing of seasons, that was important in the old rural societies whose economies were based on agriculture and transhumance breeding . The remains of pots dated 3000 Years BC (Dating Back To The "Culture Of Ozieri") depict a dance similar to the current sardinian ballu tundu.
The dancers maintain the stiff bust and they take their hands, dance around, they go forward and back … a rhythmic dance that goes on in a flow of circles and figures.
At least in the past, the manner of holding hands was very important and followed strict rules. Married or engaged couples could hold hands palm to palm with fingers entwined, but a man could not do this with a young girl or another man's wife. If a stranger entered the circle, he had to do so to the woman's right so as not to come between her and her husband.
In northern and central Sardinia, the dance is lively and animated with leaps and agile movements and usually accompanied by a choir of three or more singers in the center of the circle. In other areas, the dance is done to launeddas and the shepherd's sulittu but the accordion had also made its appearance by the 19th century. The Introduction is in 2/4 time but the dance itself is done in 6/8.
Dances in Sardinia are also an important moment of social aggregation, and not only an amusement.
The most common kind of dance in Sardinia is the so called Ballu Tundu, in english means "round dance".
These dances bring to the mists of time. It's theorized that they were danced since the prehistory to celebrate a favorable hunting, a good harvest, and propitiate the gods.
There is also a relation between these dances and the pagan cult of the Sun and the fire. The round dance symbolizes probably the passage of time and the changing of seasons, that was important in the old rural societies whose economies were based on agriculture and transhumance breeding . The remains of pots dated 3000 Years BC (Dating Back To The "Culture Of Ozieri") depict a dance similar to the current sardinian ballu tundu.