TRANSIT AT DORIS HUMPHREY'S BENNINGTON SCHOOL OF THE DANCE IN 1939, THE AUTHOR, REAR, POSES WITH MISS HUMPHRIES, WHO SITS IN FOREGROUND WITH TOM-TOM. 20 INVITATION TO DANCE by Ida Stewart Brown DANCE. Now that seems like a common enough word. It isn't one of those abstract, indefinable words like "love" or character" or "truth." Dance is just taken for granted. Everyone uses the word once in a while, but the meanings attached and the feelings involved are indeed diverse. On the one hand may be found the stammering youth with his, "May I have the pleasure of this dance," and on the other the dervish poet Rumi who writes, "Whosoever knoweth the power of the dance dwelleth in God." The dance referred to in these two statements is no more the same than is the painting of a kitchen cupboard and a masterpiece of Rembrandt. The difference lies in the use to which the medium is put. It may be used for an utilitarian purpose, to meet daily requirements, to satisfy the fancy, or as the stuff of art. Dance, to the many, has become an activity indulged in purely for entertainment. Through all stages in history, mankind has danced as a part of his celebrations. The dances of all peoples have come down to us in the form of folk dances, but it was not of this celebration type of dance that Rumi write, or of which Christ said, "Whosoever danceth not, knoweth not the way of life." In this second connotation dance stands alone as one of the most powerful and all-inclusive of the creative arts. Every age has had its dance, and the fact that dance has lived is evidence of its value. Among primitive peoples, dance has always held a paramount place in tribal culture. The earliest expressive acts of man could have been none other than random, impulsive movements, unorganised except as they followed the natural laws of his functioning body structure. They were probably characterised by a passion for rhythm. Later in his development man acquired a group status. He began to realise that groups could live and work together with greater results than lone individuals could achieve. This uniting with his fellows in the common tasks of daily life became evident in the way he danced. His dancing reflected an ever widening range of experience, interests and adventure. Primitive man, uninhabited by a dictating social code burned up his creative energy in the mild, pulsating, rhythmic movements of his dance. He danced, his love, hate, fear and anger, and together with the others of his group he danced his faith, hope, prayers in short his religion. Dance was an integral part of tribunal life. There was dramatic presentation of love and war, religious dances invoking the favors and blessings of the deity; in fact, every event of importance, birth, death, the coming of maturity, and marriage were celebrated or solemnised through ritualistic dance. Primitive life is exultant. It loves to jump and yell and fling its arms and legs about. Early man communicated his belief in the gods, and the experiences of his own daily life by stamping, clapping, swaying, shouting, grunting and crying with noise as well as with motion. In this way the dancer was enabled to enter a realm of a super-being. The autointoxication of rapturous movement brought him into a self-forgetful union with the not-self that the mystic seeks. Somewhere during the progression of life from that of the primitive man conditions became such that the need for the early socialising influence of dance was no longer felt, or at any rate it was suppressed. Man ceased to dance his love and hate and fears. He was finding new channels through which to communicate his thoughts and feelings. Music and poetry became the language of the emotions, but alas they were used not by the masses, but only by individual artists. Dance was destined to lose for a while its function as an integral part of STUDENTS IN "MODERN DANCE" LEARN GRACE AND POSTURE THROUGH EXERCISES SUCH AS THIS.