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    Ancient Egyptian Dances
    Ancient Egyptian Dances
    Ancient Egyptian Dances
    Ebook225 pages1 hour

    Ancient Egyptian Dances

    By Irena Lexová

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Dancing was important to the ancient Egyptians. One of the few books available in English on this topic, this carefully researched, profusely illustrated work investigates the origins, nature and role of dance in Egyptian culture. Features 80 figure drawings and illustrations adapted from tomb paintings, reliefs, other authentic sources. New introduction. Bibliography.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateDec 31, 2012
    ISBN9780486148700
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    3.5/5

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    • 3/5
      Good visual references, but it suffers from the attitudes and current knowledge of when it was written (the 1930s).

      1 person found this helpful

    Book preview

    Ancient Egyptian Dances - Irena Lexová

    DOVER BOOKS ON EGYPT

    THE GODS OF THE EGYPTIANS, VOL. 1, E. A. WALLIS BUDGE. (0-486-22055-9)

    LEGENDS OF THE EGYPTIAN GODS: HIEROGLYPHIC TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS, E. A. WALLIS BUDGE (0-486-28022-5)

    AN EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHIC DICTIONARY, VOL. 2, E. A. WALLIS BUDGE. (0-486-23616-1)

    AN EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHIC DICTIONARY, VOL. 1, E. A. WALLIS BUDGE. (0-486-23615-3)

    EGYPTIAN IDEAS OF THE AFTERLIFE, E. A. WALLIS BUDGE. (0-486-28464-6)

    FIRST STEPS IN EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS: A BOOK FOR BEGINNERS, E. A. WALLIS BUDGE (0-486-43099-5)

    THE MUMMY: A HANDBOOK OF EGYPTIAN FUNERARY ARCHAELOGY, E. A. WALLIS BUDGE (0-486-25928-5)

    EGYPTIAN MAGIC, E. A. WALLIS BUDGE. (0-486-22681-6)

    AN INTRODUCTION TO ANCIENT EGYPTIAN LITERATURE, E.A. WALLIS BUDGE. (0-486-29502-8)

    FROM FETISH TO GOD IN ANCIENT EGYPT, E. A. WALLIS BUDGE. (0-486-25803-3)

    THE ROSETTA STONE, E. A. WALLIS BUDGE. (0-486-26163-8)

    THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE, E. A. WALLIS BUDGE. (0-486-23501-7)

    EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE, E. A. WALLIS BUDGE. (0-486-21394-3)

    THE GODS OF THE EGYPTIANS, VOL. 2, E. A. WALLIS BUDGE. (0-486-22056-7)

    TUTANKHAMEN: AMENISM, ATENISM AND EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM/WITH HIEROGLYPHIC TEXTS OF HYMNS TO AMEN AND ATEN, E.A. WALLIS BUDGE. (0-486-26950-7)

    THE EGYPTIAN BOOK OF THE DEAD, E. A. WALLIS BUDGE. (0-486-21866-X)

    BUDGE’S EGYPT: A CLASSIC 19TH-CENTURY TRAVEL GUIDE, E. A. WALLIS BUDGE. (0-486-41721-2)

    EGYPTIAN TALES AND LEGENDS: ANCIENT, CHRISTIAN, MUSLIM, E. A. WALLIS BUDGE. (0-486-42235-6)

    THE DISCOVERY OF THE TOMB OF TUTANKHAMEN, HOWARD CARTER AND A. C. MACE. (0-486-23500-9)

    ANCIENT EGYPTIAN CONSTRUCTION AND ARCHITECTURE, SOMERS CLARKE AND R. ENGELBACH (0-486-26485-8)

    ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DESIGNS AND MOTIFS CD-ROM AND BOOK, DOVER. (0-486-99761-8)

    EGYPTIAN DESIGNS CD-ROM AND BOOK, DOVER. (0-486-99958-0)

    FULL-COLOR EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT CD-ROM AND BOOK, DOVER (0-486-996794)

    EXPLORING ANCIENT EGYPT FUN KIT, DOVER. (0-486-45910-1)

    ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DESIGN, DOVER (0-486-99806-1)

    LIFE IN ANCIENT EGYPT, ADOLF ERMAN. (0-486-22632-8)

    ANCIENT EGYPTIAN POETRY AND PROSE, ADOLF ERMAN. (0-486-28767-X)

    EGYPTIAN DESIGNS, EDITED BY CAROL BELANGER GRAFTON. (0-486-27720-8)

    ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT IN FULL COLOR: 350 PATTERNS AND DESIGNS, RENÉ GRANDJEAN AND GUSTAVE JÉQUIER. (0-486-44348-5)

    READY-TO-USE EGYPTIAN MOTIFS, MAGGIE KATE. (0-486-40105-7)

    ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DANCES, IRENA LEXOVÁ. (0-486-40906-6)

    EGYPTIAN DESIGN GIFTWRAP PAPER, GREGORY MIROW. (0-486-27235-4)

    NILE AND EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION, MORET, ALEXANDRE. (0-486-42009-4)

    EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY, W. MAX MÜLLER. (0-486-43674-8)

    LEGENDS OF ANCIENT EGYPT, M.A. MURRAY. (0-486-41137-0)

    EGYPTIAN TEMPLES, MARGARET A. MURRAY. (0-486-42255-0)

    SEE EVERY DOVER BOOK IN PRINT AT WWW.DOVERPUBLICATIONS.COM

    Ancient Egyptian Dances

    Irena Lexova

    Copyright

    Copyright © 2000 by Dover Publications, Inc.

    All rights reserved.

    Bibliographical Note

    This Dover edition, first published in 2000, is an unabridged republication of the work originally published by the Oriental Institute, Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1935. Fold-outs among the dance drawings have been slightly reduced and reprinted as turn pages. To identify drawings on pages 85–161, the abbreviation Fig. replaces the original Obr. throughout.

    Diane Bergman’s introduction was written specially for the Dover edition.

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

    Lexová, Irena.

    [O staroegyptském tanci. English]

    Ancient Egyptian dances / Irena Lexová ; with drawings made from reproductions of ancient Egyptian originals by Milada Lexová ; introduction to the Dover edition by Diane Bergman ; English translation by K. Haltmar. — Dover ed.

    p. cm.

    Originally published: Praha, Czechoslovakia : Oriental Institute, 1935.

    Includes bibliographical references.

    9780486148700

    1. Dance — Egypt. 2. Egypt — Social life and customs — To 332 B.C. 3. Dance — Religious aspects. I. Title.

    GV1613 .L413 2000

    793.3’1932 — dc21

    99-051617

    Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation

    40906603

    www.doverpublications.com

    Table of Contents

    DOVER BOOKS ON EGYPT

    Title Page

    Copyright Page

    INTRODUCTION TO THE DOVER EDITION

    PREFACE.

    I. THE TREATISE

    INTRODUCTION.

    NATURE OF THE MATERIAL AND WORKING METHODS.

    CLASSIFICATION OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DANCES.

    THE ELEMENTS OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DANCE.

    COSTUMES OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN WOMEN AND MEN DANCERS.

    ANCIENT EGYPTIAN WOMEN AND MEN DANCERS.

    NOTE ON THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ART OF DANCING.

    NOTE ON THE EGYPTIAN DANCES, AS PERFORMED BY MODERN WOMEN DANCERS.

    SUPPLEMENT

    BIBLIOGRAPHY.

    II. SKETCHES

    LIST OF PICTURES AND THEIR ORIGIN.

    A CATALOG OF SELECTED DOVER BOOKS IN ALL FIELDS OF INTEREST

    DOVER BOOKS ON MUSIC AND MUSIC HISTORY

    INTRODUCTION TO THE DOVER EDITION

    Ancient Egypt has been a source of fascination to the modern world since its rediscovery two hundred years ago by Napoleon Bonaparte and his savants. Everything about the pharaonic Egyptians has inspired close study. It started with the visible and obvious like temples and pyramids. Champollion expanded the range of study and in fact gave birth to the scientific field of Egyptology with his decipherment of the hieroglyphic writing of the Egyptians using the Rosetta Stone as the key. Eventually, every minute aspect of ancient Egyptian life became the subject of close scrutiny. Religious worship, burying the dead, slaughtering beef, brewing beer and all other human activities were examined.

    The study of dance was no exception to this. The early-published sources on dance are listed by Lexová herself in her introduction. All of these are rather broad in their scope, containing either short sections on dance or scattered references throughout those books. Lexová’s book is the first monograph devoted entirely to dance in ancient Egypt. It consists of a corpus of seventy-eight illustrations organized chronologically from the Predynastic Period through the New Kingdom with a few images from the Saite Period, the twenty-sixth Dynasty. The author also includes two images of Etruscan dancers at the end of the book for the purpose of comparison.

    Lexová accesses the pictorial material through classification. She catalogs the images into ten types ranging from pure movement to religious and funerary dances. The discussion concludes with the musicians and musical instruments that accompany the dancers.

    No book exists in a vacuum and every book is indeed enhanced by its relationship to other books of the same or related topic. Here are collected the most useful publications on dance in ancient Egypt that appeared after the work of Lexová:

    Brunner-Traut, Emma. Tanz. IN: Lexikon der Ägyptologie 6. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1985.

    Brunner-Traut, Emma. Der Tanz im alten Ägypten nach bildlichen und inschriftlichen Zeugnissen, dritte, erweitere Auflage (Ägyptologische Forschungen 6) Glückstadt: Verlag J.J. Augustin, 1992. Revision of the two earlier editions of 1937 and 1958.

    Decker, Wolfgang, and Herb, Michael. Bildatlas zum Sport im alten Ägypten: Corpus der bildlichen Quellen zu Leibesiibungen, Spiel, Jagd, Tanz und verwandten Themen (Handbuch der Orientalistic I: Der Nahe und Mittlere Osten) Leiden: Brill, 1994.

    Vandier, J. La Danse. IN: Manuel d’Archéologie égyptienne 4. Paris: Picard, 1964, p. 391–486.

    Wild, Henri. Les danses sacrées de l’Égypte ancienne. IN: Les danses sacrées (Sources orientales 6) Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1963.

    The monograph by Brunner-Traut is the most detailed and complete of this bibliography. The material was refined over many years with unquestioned scholarship. In Brunner-Traut’s book are many quotations of the Egyptian literature that accompanied the ancient illustrations, and, in addition to drawings, many photographs of monuments depicting dancers. Lexová’s work was written virtually simultaneously, but its form is different and serves as a useful complement to Brunner-Traut.

    The fact that the Lexová book is translated into English greatly increases the accessibility to its information. This is the only major work on ancient Egyptian dance in English. Its seventy-eight illustrations are rendered in line drawing making it very clear to see the positions, especially for the recreation of the dance steps.

    Much research has been done in the field of ancient Egyptian dance, as in all aspects of Egyptological study, since 1935. Some of Lexová’s interpretations have yielded to new insights and understanding, but her drawings remain unsurpassed. There is much overlap of illustrated scenes among Lexová, Brunner-Traut and Decker. If desired, they can be used in conjunction to get a total impression of the steps and positions with the aid of the photographs of the original representations.

    In my capacity of Wilbour Librarian, I have had many occasions to introduce students of dance and choreographers to this book. The Wilbour Library is one of the few libraries in the New York metropolitan area that holds a copy. Only seventeen libraries in the United States list it among their holdings in the Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN).

    The reaction to seeing this book, especially on the part of choreographers, has been to want to photocopy many of the images. I shall now be able to refer them to this reprint which I heartily welcome.

    Diane Bergman

    Wilbour Librarian

    Wilbour Library of Egyptology

    Libraries and Archives

    Brooklyn Museum of Art

    New York

    PREFACE.

    Some years ago I saw some modern dancing girls perform Egyptian dances. The common characteristics of all these dances were the insipid, jerky movements, unaesthetic postures, and abrupt turns of limbs. Although some of the girls asserted that it was the ancient Egyptian pictures of Egyptian dancers which they copied, I could not recollect seeing such movements and postures on any ancient Egyptian pictures. At that time I intended to write a treatise on ancient Egyptian dances, but my philological work did not then permit me to carry the idea

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