The act of lamentation
As humans, the conscience of mortality is so meaningful and revealing as the conscience of being alive. Along the history, birth and death are part of the vital cycle that almost every culture and community commemorate. Every second, millions are born and others are gone, ironically, the number of deceased is getting closer and closer to the range of newborns. Meanwhile, many cries of happiness and many others as part of the grief and sorrow.
Here, it is presented a tentative documentation of a few numbers of communities where dancing is a pivotal practice of the funeral rituals. The idea is to keep gathering data about other places and societies around the world, that supports the execution of the curatorial project and other possible projects a long term round.
Afro-descendants from Pacific Coast
(Colombia- South America)
In Afro-Colombian communities, during the funerals, it is important to perform a choir of harmonic prayers and solemn chants.
Parallel, there are a series of rhythmical steps and very distinctive actions, sometimes very slow and some others, seizure-like movements are said to represent the suffering of lost life.
Often in Afro-Colombian rituals, people will go into a trance-like state when dancing. As opposed to other celebratory ceremonies in which joy is the focus of dancing, here the more you show you feel pain through dancing, the better it is.
Lugbara communities, West Nile
(Uganda- Africa)
In Lugbara society, death is never considered just a natural event or another stage of life. The death of one individual is the most terrible and irretrievable tragedy for families and clans; this is a deprivation of endless profits that the deceased could bring for them, and mourners need to find the responsible, the causes and the retribution for their irrevocable loss.
Their dances are displaying their anger, resentment, and violent feelings. By jumping and throwing arrows the mourners want to fright death and keep it far away.
Personal archive//Eloisa Lamilla Guerrero, 2017
Ssitgim-gut (씻김굿)
(Korea- Asia)
This Korean Ritual is performed mostly for a female shaman (Mundang), who has the difficult task of purifying the deceased soul and transforming negative emotions of the mourners into meaningful ones. She is considered a mediator between life and death, healthiness and sickness, serenity and conflict.
Her dance is often an improvised piece, however, circular dancing in the same direction is the main pattern of the dance, meanwhile, Mundang is singing.
When they are dancing, shamans hold a fan,
bell, and flowers to embody the image of the tree of life or axis mundi.
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Further info
Dancing pallbearers
(Ghana, Africa)
Nowadays, choreographic funerals are part of the typical ceremonies in Ghana. The new trend is to hire a group of dancing pallbearers to carry on the coffin, meanwhile, they perform a great and wild dance.
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The objective of these singular funerals is to celebrate the life of the deceased and enjoy the last farewell.
