Dance in Pharaonic Egypt

 

Dance in Pharaonic Egypt

 

The art of dance in Egypt began since the dawn of history and had many purposes and types. Sociologists and anthropologists unanimously agreed that dance is one of the oldest means of expressing human feelings, and archaeological evidence indicated the link between dance and faith, as they believed that it achieves magical purposes and with the succession of families and development Which reached its peak in the era of the 18th and 19th families, the arts of dance and music flourished and it became a well-established art with several rules. There were many reasons for resorting to dance as a means of entertainment to spread joy and pleasure. They took it as a kind of worship and drawing close to the worshipers (deities) as they used it on the walls of tombs so that the deceased would be happy in the second life The scenes of dance appeared in prehistoric times in a cave in Wadi Hammamat in the Eastern Desert and in individual tombs such as the cemetery (Dabhan) and it dates back to the Fourth Dynasty in Giza. It depicted women performing acrobatic dancing, as well as the tomb of (Kajmni) and the minister (Ra Mas) in the tombs of the nobles in Luxor. There are several types of dance

Acrobatic dance

It is considered one of the most difficult types of dance because it requires flexibility and great mastery, and it was loved in large official celebrations.

Quiet dance

It was based on calm rhythm and the use of hands in most of the movements and spread in the tombs of the Fifth Dynasty, such as the tomb of Ti-Ptahhotep

Woman dancing

Where the girls and each girl holding a woman with one hand and a clapped hand in the other hand, and each girl faces her consort, as in the cemetery (Mara Roca), where the woman was one of the important elements in making offerings

Simulation dance

It is a dance that simulates the environment from animal movements or natural phenomena, and this dance was found in one of the tombs of Beni Hassan in Minya

Funeral dance

According to what we noticed from the depiction of scenes in the tombs, it was divided into three types. The first type was the ritual dance, which was an integral part of the funeral rites.