Dancers in Ancient Egypt
Women in Ancient Egypt had just about the same rights as men, with the ability to have their own jobs, earn their own money, and if desired divorce their husbands.
A very popular job amongst women was dancing - dancing, while including men, was done chiefly by women during festivals, celebrations, and ceremonies. In most depictions of dancing in murals, women dance only with other women, usually wearing revealing clothes. Dancing was in fact such a highly considered job that a performing duo of women, named Hekenu and Iti, were so celebrated and commemorated that an accountant by the name of Nikaure had them on a stela in his tomb. This is notable for several reasons, the main being that it was a rather unusual honor for a person unrelated to the deceased to he mentioned in any part of a private tomb.
A rather interesting aspect of this specific painting are the cones atop the women’s heads. While it is an icon commonly shown in Egyptian artwork, historians have long debated its’ purpose and even if it ever existed. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time something was shown in artwork that didn’t actually exist, and was rather drawn as a representation of something. Fortunately evidence has been found that they did in fact exist.
The reason as to why it’s taken so long to find any evidence is because, unlike previously assumed, the cones were made of beeswax, essentially being hollowed cones wrapped in fabric. This discovery was found in the cemeteries of Armana in 2009 by members of the Armana project, a project led by the University of Cambridge.
While not yet certain, historians hypothesize that the cones were worn by women as a symbol of sensuality, and a token worn by one who wishes to increase her fertility. These answers have come about mainly from the fact that head cones are worn chiefly by women in Egyptian art, and the body on which the first head cone was found was a woman.
There are several types of dances found today that ancient Egyptians performed:
1. The purely movemental dance. A dance which was little more than an outburst of energy, where the dancer and audience alike simply enjoyed the movement and its rhythm.
2. The gymnastic dance. Some dancers excelled at more strenuous and difficult movements, which required training and great physical dexterity and flexibility. These dancers also refined their movements so as to move delicately.
3. The imitative dance. These appeared to be emulative of the movements of animals, only obliquely referred to in Egyptian texts while not actually being represented in art.
4. The pair dance. Pairs in ancient Egypt were formed by two men or by two women dancing together, not by men dancing with women. The movements of these dancers were executed in perfect symmetry, indicating, at least to the author of this treatise, that the Egyptians were deeply conscious and serious about this dance as something more than just movement.
5. The group dance. These fell into two sub-types, one taking place with perhaps at least four, sometimes as many as eight, dancers, each performing different movements, independent of each other, but in matching rhythms. The other sub-type was the ritual funeral dance, performed by ranks of dancers executing identical movements.
6. The war dance. These were apparently recreations for resting mercenary troops of Libyans, Sherdans, Pedtiu (peoples who formed parts of the so-called Sea Peoples) and other groups.
7. The dramatic dance. From the examples used herein, the author is considering a depicted familiar posture of several girls as being performed to commemorate a historical tableau: a kneeling girl represents a defeated enemy king, a standing girl the Egyptian king, holding the enemy with one hand by the hair and with the other a club.
8. The lyrical dance. The description of this dance indicates it told its own story, much as a ballet we may see today. A man and a girl dancer using wooden clappers which gave their steps rhythm danced in harmonious movement, separately or together, sometimes pirouetting, parting, and approaching, the girl fleeing from the man, who tenderly pursued her.
9. The grotesque dance. These were apparently primarily performed by dwarves such as the one Harkhuf was asked to bring back to dance "the divine dances".
10. The funeral dance. These formed three sub-types. One was the ritual dance, forming part of the actual funeral rite. Then there were the expressions of grief, where the performers placed their hands on their heads or made the ka gesture, both arms upraised. The third sub-type was a dance to entertain the ka of the deceased.
11. The religious dance. Temple rituals included musicians trained for the liturgy and singers trained in the hymns and other chants.
(Marie Parsons)
Dance was an enjoyment of life. I feel like people tend to forget Egyptians didn’t have an obsession with death; they had a love for life, a love so intense that all they wanted was to continue living, which was the essential idea of the field of reeds. Either way, dancers were important, as they symbolized the vitality of Egypt, and a rich culture that to this day draws many people towards it.
