Friedrich Nietzsche And His Philosophy Of Dance And Its Message
Dance is an influential form of art that varies in style, presentation, and ties groups of people together. Dance consistently relays a message to its audience regardless of its type or category. One significant figure who believed that dance had a message even if one could not relate to the message or did not understand it was Friedrich Nietzsche. He was not a dancer but understood it as an important part of life that allows people to express themselves. He wholeheartedly believed that the best thing a person could do in life was achieve their full potential, and both metaphorically and literally dancing to the beat of one’s own drum is a part of it. Friedrich Nietzsche was an intellectual peacemaker and philosopher with radical beliefs who wanted people to embrace who they are at their core and conveyed this through his writing and statements about expressing oneself through activities like dancing.
Nietzsche grew up to become an educated man who developed strong and controversial opinions and unfortunately his life was cut short due to illness. Friedrich Nietzsche was born in October of 1844 in Rocken, Germany to his mother and his father who was a Lutheran minister. His father died when Nietzshe was very young and as a result he grew up surrounded by his mother, aunts, and his sister. He attended the University of Bonn and the University of Leipzig. He realized he was interested in philogy and philosophy at a young age. He studied philogy, Greek scholars, and philosophers and eventually became a professor of Greek language and literature. In 1870, Nietzsche temporarily left his position as a professor to volunteer as a medical orderly during the Franco-Prussian war. He quickly became ill during this time and had to leave due to the decline of his health. These illnesses would prove to drastically affect his health and he would continue to decline until his iconic breakdown later in life. He first set himself apart from other philosophers in terms of beliefs with his first book he published in 1872, titled The Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Music. In this work he expressed his belief that if art is objectively analyzed then people would not be able to understand artists who create through a subjective lens. His contentious opinions led to him losing many of his closest friends. He moved around a lot after his health began to decline and in the decade before his mental break, he created many famous works in which he expressed his philosophies. In Italy in the year 1889, it is believed that Nietzsche saw a man beating his horse in the street and he collapsed. After this, he was described as insane and wrote several strange letters to his friends. He eventually lost his ability to communicate and lived for 11 years until his death in 1900 under the care of his sister. It is believed that his breakdown was facilitated by untreated syphilis.
Friedrich Nietzsche developed his philosophy over time, but it began with his interest in philosophy and he eventually wrote about his belief in perspectivism, the “master morality” versus the “slave morality,” will to power, the Ubermensch, and nihilism. Nietzsche believed in perspectivism, which is the concept that everything is relative because humans can only conceive what is within the limits of their thought. This means that people are limited in their opinions and faith because they could not possibly see all of the other possible aspects of life. He argued that, therefore, people cannot be certain that what they know and believe is true and so it cannot be determined whether certain things are definitively right or wrong. This is connected to his belief of will to power, which he explained as ones need to grow and expand, overcome resistance, and preserve oneself. It involves self-overcoming, and one can achieve this through self-criticism, self-improvement, change, and growth.
In On the Geneology of Morality (1887) Nietzsche discussed the concepts of master and slave morality. In master morality “good” is when one has things that increase power and “bad” is related to being poor and weak. In slave morality, “good” is when one is pious and meek. He associated this morality with Christianity and “bad” would be a person who is boastful, wealthy, and worldly. He developed the concept of an “ubermensch” or a superman. He stated that in order to become an ubermensch, one would have to reject the traditional values associated with Christianity and practice their own self-awareness. Nietzsche might be most well-known for believing that the world he was living in was nihilistic. He was concerned that there was a loss of moral values associated with the transition from Christianity to science. This is where his famous quote “God is dead” came from. With this quote, he meant that Christianity had fallen as the sole source of morality. He believed that the downfall of Christianity proved that the beliefs of the church had crumbled with it. Essentially, he believed that life is meaningless and purposeless without something like a God to believe in. One of his controversial opinions that set him apart from other philosophers was that all conscious thought is an instinct, which went against what philosophers of his time believed in. Some of Nietzsche’s most famous works are The Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Music (1872), Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883), On the Geneology of Morality (1887), and Twilight of the Idols (1889).
While Friedrich Nietzsche had controversial beliefs during his lifetime, people now look back at how he approached life and can see that he was a peacemaker with good intentions and only wanted people to reach their greatest potentials. Unlike other philosophers, he believed that morality is flexible, not rigid, and that it would be close minded to believe that there is only one way to approach and interpret situations. This abolishes the idea that people are only “good” or “bad” and forces people to look at situations from different perspectives instead of immediately judging. Many philosophers and intellectuals who were alive when Nietzsche was judged him and rejected him because they did not understand his philosophy and thought he was strange. This was because his beliefs and written work did not fit in with the time period he was living in. He demonstrated forward thinking in his ideas as opposed to conforming to the beliefs of his fellow philosophers at the time. He has largely influenced literature and modern scholars throughout the years, and they will often spin his concepts in different directions to fit their own beliefs. He produced many quotes that demonstrated his beliefs as a peacemaker and individual.
Friedrich Nietzsche is believed to have once said “And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. ” This quote is a metaphor for when people judge others for their beliefs just because they do not understand it. To break the quote down into a basic explanation, he is basically saying that people who believe in a given concept (the music) understand it and recognize its value (represented by dancing). The people who are on the outside cannot understand the concept (or cannot hear the music) and therefore think that the people who are dancing are insane. This relates to Nietzsche’s belief that there is no definite right and wrong. Everyone is dancing and listening to different music and just because people may not be listening to the same songs does not mean that they should not be dancing. This relates back to the idea that every form and style of dance relays a message to its audience. A dance will always mean something to someone regardless if everyone else understands what it is about.
Friedrich Nietzsche emphasized the importance of become the best version of oneself, so a folk danced based upon his beliefs would aim to invoke a feeling that the dancers are growing and developing as the dance progresses. The music will start off slow and melancholy and then later become faster and more upbeat. The dancers will start off by dancing in sync and then break out into different individual dances as the music picks up in speed. They will cross each other as they each move from one part of the stage to another while dancing by themselves. They will start by dancing slowly. The dancers will often put their heads down and curve their backs simultaneously to make themselves look smaller. These movements will be combined with facial expressions that show sadness and pain. As the music speeds up and becomes more upbeat, the dancers will break apart from each other and move faster across the stage, eventually leaping and making themselves appear larger. Much of the second half of the dance will involve reaching their arms out and elongating their bodies to imply growth. The slower music and dancing represent people before they embrace themselves and overcome the limitations of rigid morality. The upbeat music and faster dancing represent how people will feel when they realize that there is no set right or wrong in the world and that it is okay to change, to be different, and to experience pain.
Dance is an integral part of many cultures and has been used for relaying ideas and information for a long time. Friedrich Nietzsche was a creative man who stated what he believed in regardless of the consequences from his peers. He believed everyone should be themselves and one of the ways people can do that is through dance. Nietzsche was a well-educated professor and philosopher who stood out from the crowd of philosophers during his lifetime because he opposed some of the things, they believed in. He did this by supporting the idea that morals are relative and therefore truth is difficult to achieve, and he also believed that the new age of science was ruining the foundations that were put in place by Christianity. His belief that everyone should be who they truly are and that people cannot be only bad or good is what set him apart as a peacemaker. When Nietzsche made a quote about dance, it embodied his belief that everyone experiences life in different ways and that is how it should be. His philosophy that everyone can reach their full potential if they embrace themselves can be demonstrated through a folk dance with a progression from slow music and slow dancing to upbeat music with fast-pace dancing to represent the growth of the individual. Nietzsche is an inspirational man who was not afraid to isolate himself and lose relationships to speak his truth about life, and dance is a form of self-expression that enables people to do the same thing in a different form.
