"Simoun. Ballet Philippines. Written and choreographed by Paul Alexander Morales. Music by Jed Balsamo. Ballet Philippines. Cultural Center of the Philippines, October 21, 2016." by Leni de la Rosa Garcia
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Perspectives in the Arts and Humanities Asia

Abstract

Excerpt: The philosopher Suzanne Langer, in Feeling and Form: A Theory of Art (1953), writes that “the primary illusion of dance is a virtual realm of Power—not actual, physically exerted power, but appearances of influence and agency created by virtual gesture.” This gesture, she argues, is symbolic, and originates in the female principle, in fertility rites, in “the ecstatic mystic celebration” of the Earth as Mother. In many ways, dance is the province of women either as the goddesses themselves or as the dancers that seek to please them.

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