Mimetic Dance on Greek Vases

The art of dancing presents mimesis in the medium of rhythm without melody; for dancers, through the rhythms which shape their movements, engage in the mimesis of character, emotions and actions.  Aristotle, The Poetics

Fifth Century Greek Drama is dance drama. Too often, in modern productions of Greek plays, the chorus speaks the verse while standing still. This would be like John Travolta standing in one spot and reciting his lines in Grease.

But what did Greek dance look like? No written records of 5th-century drama choreography exist. Nevertheless, in this lesson you will learn both to visualize Greek dance and to choreograph it. 

One way to picture it is to view the dance movements as mime: the dance gestures mirror the words of the choral odes. The names of Greek dances — “Knocking at the Door,” “The Itch,” “Scattering Barley,” “Stealing the Meat,” and “Setting the World on Fire” — suggest that dance was mimetic. When dancers performed “Stealing the Meat” audiences would presumably be reminded of a thief swiping a lamb chop — or whatever — from a shop.  If dance was mimetic, then knowing the words of an ode should help us visualize the dance that accompanied it. Here’s an example of a chorus song from Aeschylus’ The Eumenides with lots of built-in dance cues:

For with a long leap from high

above and dead drop of weight

I bring foot’s force crashing down

to cut the legs from under even

the runner, and spill him to ruin.[1]

[1] Translated by Richmond Lattimore.

It would make sense for the chorus to perform the movements they describe: leaping, stomping, etc. The words would have more impact. In fact, it would look silly if they stood still while singing these lines. Another reason mimetic dance makes sense is because if dance showed the meaning of the words, then people in the back rows who missed a line, wouldn’t miss the point. They could see it.

Nevertheless, many scholars feel we do not have and never will have an accurate picture of Greek dance. But, in fact, we do have pictures of dancers on Greek pottery — whirling and kicking, crouching and leaping. These images of theatrical performance are better than those of any other age until the coming of photography. Dance and theater were favorite subjects of vase-painters. From the vases, it is easy to see that Greek dance was vigorous and athletic.[2] In Aristophanes’ comedy The Wasps, there is a scene in which an old man shows off his skill in the athletic “old-style” of dancing.  [By ‘old-style” Aristophanes means dances typical of the age of Sophocles and Aeschylus.] He twists his ribs, crouches, twirls about and kicks his legs high in the air.

Another choreographic aid is the rhythms of the words; they tell us the dance beat, because they determine it. If the words are heavy or ponderous, then the dance was slow and perhaps ominous. Compare the long, solemn lines of the beginning of the fifth ode of Antigone with the short, quick lines of the second ode. The overall mood of the second ode is optimistic. The mood of the fifth is mournful.

[2] Look at the final scene of Zorba the Greek, in which Anthony Quinn dances his exuberant feelings. The vigor in his dancing, will give you a sense of the high energy of traditional Greek dance even in modern times.

Odes

Fifth Ode

Patient Danae waits.  Heavenly sunshine

Darkened.  Prison has shut. Bronze-fitted chains.

Walls, walls.  There on the bedrock

Secret forging of links occurred. Couplings.

Oh!  There!  Family honor!

What a thing!  Child!  Child!

She took charge of the golden…

Of the seed raining from Zeus.

Second Ode

Miracle nature, then a man,

Rarest miracle nature owns.

Watch him crossing the sea’s  expanse,

Oceans grey with the winter wind,

Row, sail on depth-tossing waters

Beyond, beyond the waves.[1]

[1] Translated by Leo Aylen.

Ode to Man

In every play we know what was spoken, what chanted and what lines were sung. We can tell by the rhythm. Spoken lines used in the dialogue scenes used an iambic line (soft beat followed by hard beat as in the word a-fraid). There are three rhythms with strong beats used for chants. Here’s an example of one of them from Aeschylus’s The Eumenides:

Over the beast doomed to the fire

this is the chant, scatter of wits,

frenzy and fear, hurting the heart,

song of the Furies

binding brain and blighting blood

in its stringless melody. [1]

It has the feel of one of the witches’ chants in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The rhythms for the lyrics, on the other hand, were more graceful, indicating that they were sung. We do not possess the tunes (except for a couple fragments from Euripides’ plays), but we know the beat.

Knowing the beat is just a step away from knowing the dance that accompanied a  song. The Greeks used patterns of long and short syllables (think of an English long vowel, as in “low” and a short vowel as in “at”). We can also think of long and short syllables in musical terms — as half notes (long) and quarter notes (short). In dance terms, this translates to long step, quick step. Armed with this information, and assuming that tragic dance was mimetic as Aristotle indicates, we should be able to find clues in the choral lyrics that tell us how they were choreographed.

Before we look at some examples, let’s examine the structure of the odes. They consist of pairs of matching stanzas called strophe and antistrophe. Remember, the Greeks loved balance and symmetry. The lyrics in the strophe and antistrophe have the same rhythm; therefore, we assume they are accompanied by the same music and dance choreography. A surviving music fragment from Euripides’ Orestes supports our hypothesis, showing that the melody was exactly the same in strophe and antistrophe. With this in mind, we can begin to reconstruct the choreography. When we look at the words of the strophe and antistrophe, and try to find a choreography that will fit both, we narrow the range of possible dance moves. In other words, to find one mimetic dance to fit two different verses, greatly limits our range of choices.  This helps us gain a clearer picture of the dance.

[1] Tr. by Richmond Lattimore.

Choreographing Ode to Man

ODE TO MAN

in Antigone, the “Ode on Man” (2nd ode) the dancers would logically imitate the motion of waves for lines 3-6 in both Strophe 1 and Antistrophe 1:

STROPHE:

Watch him crossing the sea’s expanse,

Oceans grey with the winter wind,

Row, sail on depth-tossing waters

Beyond, beyond the waves. Then first

Of gods, and womb of gods — Earth,

Ageless, invincible earth he is grinding at,

Year after year shoving plow  furrows into her,

Horse-plod turning loam-clods over.

ANTISTROPHE:

Hunts down beasts of the woods and hills

Drags sea fish in a swarming catch.

Those nets, that well-twisted rope work,

The mastermind—a man, who rides,

With harness well devised, wild

Beasts of the mountain, obliges the mane-tossing

Stallion to stoop to collar that breaks him in,

Yokes hill bull’s untamed endurance.[1]

How would you choreograph the last three lines of strophe 1 and antistrophe 1 in the “Ode to Man,” using symmetrical mimetic movement?  First you must find similarities in the two sets of lines, similarities of mood or thought or image.  Then come up with a dance movement that visually conveys the ideas in both sets of lines.

[1] Translated by Leo Aylen.

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