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Old 09-10-2021, 09:07 AM   #689
jason taylor
 
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: 'Imperial Culture' (non-canonista)

Gestural Dance Poetry:

Among the people I center on there is an ancient tradition of poetry by gestural dances. According to stories the language used is an elaboration of hunting signs by native hunter-gatherers and has a similar niche to infantry signals. Using it at home or in camp created the luxury of making it into a more stylized art form as did contact with urban dwellers, and eventually spacefarers. In point of fact some dances purport to be actual "after action reports" of hunts or war expeditions long ago and were used for the mundane purpose of training (in the militia they still are as they are by the descendants of said native peoples). Others are full scale epics or mythical/allegorical representations of any aspect of life.

The native forms of dance are still used for this. But the gestural poetry traditions can be attached to many styles including some imported from Ancient Terra. As often a system of gestures is effectively another language there is usually a reader card provided to members of the audience. A chanter also accompanies the dance. Various musical instruments are used, some of them universal among Humaniti (like the drum) and some highly specialized (like the lyre or the bagpipe).
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