Endangered Dance

ENDANGERED DANCE

Peling Nga Cham (Drum Dance) Yungdrung Choeling Bhutan

"As the Tibetan diaspora bled out, and people fled, and monks and monasteries were displaced into India,
Nepal, America and Europe, the dance went with it. Ancient Dance was on the run. Dance was in Diaspora."
CoC Director Joseph Houseal

Dance is humanity's oldest expression

Today, there are living dance traditions with unbroken transmissions from dancer to dancer
extending back in time hundreds and even thousands of years.
Some of these dances are older than spoken language and the advent of writing.
These ancient dances are endangered with extinction.
Threats to the continued transmission of ancient dance practices include war,
political instability, religious fanaticism, diaspora, lack of documentation and survival strategies,
lack of public interest, boisterous popularism of pop culture,
rampant capitalism, the passing on of masters, uninterested youth,
rural drain (The movement of youth from the countryside into the cities),
economic hardship, lack of resources, very little historical archiving,
poor and improperly formed university curricula,
and the lure of quick money to be made by dancing for tourists.

"The Rinpoche informed me that among his order,
there remain only three old monks, all in their sixties,
who know all the steps to the dances.
He guesses they have about five more years of performing left."

Joseph Houseal CoC Director on Ladakh

“Soon we will not even know what Nepalese dance really means.
We will think it is the dance from the latest Bollywood film.”

Bina Joshi Nepalese Dance Teacher

Lopon Sangay Tshering pioneering the Lama Cam (the camera rests between the skull diadems of his mask)

Dance is a living art, a true indicator of the health of a culture. Unlike painting and sculpture, dance exists in time, not through time. Once it stops, it is over. Dead and gone; extinct. Cannot our vast wealth be brought to ensure the dancing does not stop? Can't we assure the locals of the magnificence, not the poverty, of their cultures? Can we understand that the full and ancient splendor of a Himalayan Buddhist dance treasure now resides in the bodies of three old men?

Vanishing Dance In Ladakh

by CoC Director Joseph Houseal

The body is able to transmit its own story and life without the word. Dance is pre-verbal and pre-literate human expression.

It is a living and practiced art, passed on from teacher to student, a fluid, constantly evolving tradition.

"Dance is a form of cultural expression. It reinforces and transmits cultural traditions and values."
Dr. Sangita Shresthova

There are many, many dances where the remaining practitioners are elderly and very few in number. Dances are like people in that when they die they are gone forever. When the last practitioner of a dance dies, there are no remaining traces left behind, no way to recreate their existence of forms requiring life itself. When a dance that has never been documented dies, it is as if it has never been. It is already too late for hundreds, maybe even thousands of dances. For the rest, the time is now.

Lam Pemala shows Karma Tshering an ancient Cham text

READ MORE: WHAT IS ENDANGERED DANCE?

The mission of Core of Culture
is to assure the continuity of dance traditions in endangered cultures where they originate
and for world culture as a whole, to advocate for the importance of preserving ancient dance traditions,
and to be a resource for dancers, scholars and the general public.
The mission is carried out by identifying, researching, documenting, and archiving these dances;
creating innovative approaches to education, and to performance ethnography;
curating and presenting these dances for public audiences;
and consulting to other organizations and institutions that have similar or overlapping goals.

Core of Culture Dance Preservation is an organization committed to safeguarding Intangible World Heritage,
with an emphasis on ancient dance and endangered movement traditions.
Core of Culture manifests a new appreciation in the world
for the seriousness and significance of indigenous dance as cultural heritage.
We place indigenous dances and their practitioners at the center of all our strategies
to ensure the long-term viability of dance as a cultural heritage.

Core of Culture approaches ancient dance and its practitioners with humility and respect.
We are passionate about ensuring these dances do not become extinct and believe that the collaboration of local peoples,
dancers, partners and even tourists can strengthen those dances, bring peace and express fundamental identities.

Victoria & Albert Museum, London ~ photo jonathan greet

"Among the cultural acheivments of
the Lamaist world, the origin and history
of the sacred dance are perhaps
the least documented. "
Michael Aris
Leading Authority on Himalayan Culture

“The ancient Tibetan religious dances
which were handed down through the centuries
are pitifully degraded in their own places.
Their survival is now in question.
However, CoC fortunately has hatched out a project to save this endangered tradition.
It has already worked in Ladakh and in Bhutan. This project therefore constituents a timely rain.”
Samten Karmay
Director of Research Emeritus,
French National Centre of Scientific Research
Former President,
International Association of Tibetan Studies (IATS)

Recognizing that we are indeed living in a period of unprecedented rapid change and interdependence,
CoC deploys culturally sensitive, action-oriented interventions
to ensure the survival of ancient dance practices.

"The world needs sources of enduring virtues and values that live and find a place in global society."
TRIBAL REALISM an article by Roger Sandall

Buddha statue at Basgo Monastery in Central Ladakh ~ photo nathan whitmont

"The future of ancient dance is in the children who will carry it on or not.
My belief in these children is strong and their task will require the strengths they are developing now.
I always ask myself: what strengths can we be developing to play a part
in the integrated preservation of humanity’s oldest living traditions? "

CoC Director Joseph Houseal