To find the sources of pleasure in dancing we must go back to the
common ground of satisfaction in obeying the impulse for motion, yet it
is not easy to assign a general explanation for the peculiar charm of
rhythmical movement. Spencer holds that passionate excitement naturally
manifests itself in rhythmic repetition; while Minor, on the contrary,
sees in it the expression of a prudential instinct to restrain the fury
of passionate feeling.[188] As Schiller, too, says:
“Es ist des Wohllauts mächtige Gottheit,
Die zum geselligen Tanz ordnet den tobenden Sprung,
Die der Nemesis Gleich, an des Rhythmus goldenem Zügel
Lenkt die brausende Lust und die verwilderte zähmt.”[189]
This view is quite plausible when applied to the social effect of
dancing, as Grosse has pointed out. Rhythm does subdue and order
“riotous lust,” and afford a harmless outlet to the general need for
some expression of it. Yet it would be a mistake to suppose that its
effect is always subduing, since, as a matter of fact, it often leads
to the wildest tumult. “Oh, thou bold gamester,” an old song runs,
“Make for us a long row, Hip, hip, hurrah! how he can go! Heart, lungs,
and liver he will overthrow.”[190]
Spencer’s remark makes it clear, from the other point of view, that
rhythm is a most suitable instrument for the expression of passionate
emotion, be it sad or joyful, but fails to explain why it is in itself
intensely exciting and pleasurably so. Grosse justly says of Spencer’s
view: “According to this theory the rhythm of dancing movements seems
to be only a sharply and strongly intensified form of locomotion. It
does not at all explain the pleasurable quality of rhythm, and if we
are unwilling to accept description in lieu of explanation we can only
regard this statement of fact as introductory to further investigation.”
Since Darwin’s theory, mentioned above, has as yet found little
substantial proof, the intoxicating effects of rhythmic motion must
find some other explanation here. Such movements are employed among
most peoples as a means of producing ecstatic conditions. Selenkas
gives a simple instance from Borneo: “The candidate [for the office of
doctor] was led before the Manangs as they squatted on the ground. The
Dekan, or spokesman, addressed him, and, rising, anointed his forehead
with oil and ordered him to go around the ring bearing a lance to
which was hung a medicine bag. The Dekan followed him at a trot, and
their speed was constantly increased as the accompanying song of the
others grew louder, until at last the novitiate, gasping and stumbling
as if hypnotized, broke down.”[191]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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