On Int'l Dance Day, Get to Know If Pharaohs Performed Dance

Dr. Hussein Bassir, the Antiquities Museum director of Alexandria Library said that the sources that dealt with dancing in ancient Egypt are very rare. It was considered to the ancient Egyptians that it is not necessary for his book to express something familiar to them.

Bassir explained that it is noted that there are many words in the ancient Egyptian language that carried the meaning of "to dance", most notably the word "epa". Likewise, other terms have emerged that describe specific dances or movements, but they come in contexts that narrate little or even describe scarcely the nature of dances.

Bassir continued: "Dancing was a common practice in popular culture in ancient Egypt, so it is rare to describe it. There are many obstacles that meet one to find out the purpose of dance and the contexts during which dancing was in ancient Egypt, especially with regard to the reenactment of any of the movements that were performed.

He pointed out to the available drawings of dancers from ancient Egypt, two-dimensional, and their source is the walls of temples, tombs, or even scenes drawn on pieces of ostraca or papyrus.

According to Bassir, the photographed scenes were not intended to record with the aim of informing the viewer of the dances or their nature but were intended for further purposes such as expressing ritual acts of worship to God, or as a ceremony to facilitate the passage of the world to the other.

He concluded, "Although the majority of the remaining scenes of dance from ancient Egypt express religious rituals or funerary rituals, this is not conclusive evidence that it was confined only to these rituals but rather necessarily had a fundamental presence in the daily life of the ancient Egyptian." "It appeared in a number of scenes the dancers in the banquets dance to the tunes of the musicians, and the dancers appeared wearing necklaces, bracelets, and earrings, as well as they, appeared wearing eyeballs and their expressions seemed to be professional."

Contributed by Ahmad El-Assasy