Structural Framework of 34 Non-Western Dances

Claude Lévi-Strauss' Structural-Aesthetic Framework for Non-Western Dance

1. Bricolage and Mythical Thought

Lévi-Strauss conceptualizes mythical thought as a form of bricolage—the intellectual art of using "whatever is at hand" to create meaning. This is in contrast to scientific or engineering reasoning, which begins with a conceptual goal and builds from abstract universals. Mythical thought builds structures from events, synthesizing the detritus of lived experience into symbolic wholes. Non-Western dance traditions, especially those rooted in community ritual, perform this exact function: they are bricolage, using body, rhythm, history, and myth as fragments to be recomposed into embodied structure.

2. Structure and Contingency

Art for Lévi-Strauss is the tension between structure (timeless form) and event (historical accident). Aesthetic power arises when this tension is resolved into an equilibrium. Non-Western dance often embodies such synthesis: ancestral myth (structure) emerges in response to seasonal change, war, or social transformation (event), and the dance becomes a transhistorical aesthetic object.

3. Art Between Science and Myth

Lévi-Strauss sees art as a middle space between science and myth. Science moves from structure to create events (e.g. technologies), while myth moves from events to reconstitute structure. Art integrates both, creating works that reveal structure through symbolic embodiment of events.

4. Primitive Art as Dialogue with Matter

Primitive art is not less evolved; rather, it engages most fully in a dialogue with materiality—what Lévi-Strauss calls "the raw" or bricolé. The dancer’s body, earth, costume, sound—all materials—are interlocutors. The essence of dance, then, is to shape structure from the resistance, rhythm, and contingency of matter.

5. Ritual and the Social Order

Dance as ritual (versus mere performance) reveals its mytho-political role: organizing society, mediating with the divine, or reconciling life and death. In this, dance becomes a mythic system enacted through time, a living embodiment of structure made visible through choreography.

This framework visualizes the shared mythic logics, ritual structures, and binary oppositions across cultures, allowing us to perceive these dances not as isolated artifacts, but as nodes in a global mytho-choreographic cosmos.

Structural Framework of 34 Non-Western Dances

Based on Claude Lévi-Strauss’s Philosophy of Myth, Bricolage, and Binary Opposition

I. Structural Rhythm Archetypes

These are recurring ritual choreographic logics:

Archetype                                    Dances Exemplifying It     

Circle → Spiral → Return           Powwow, Bon Odori, Tamure, Mā‘ulu‘ulu, Mapouka, Bangladeshi Contemporary   

Linear Processional                    Yakshagana, Wayang Wong, Seungmu, Aboriginal Dreamtime   

Ecstatic Ascent / Trance            Samā’ (Sufi), Butoh, Dreamtime, Maloya, Moko, To'ere, 

                                                     Faridah Fahmy’s Folk Dance   

Dialogic Counterpoint               Dancehall vs. Slackness, Bhangra Gender Duets, Khaleegy, Soran Bushi   

Fragmented Reinscription         Butoh, J-Pop Idol, Bollywood, Contemporary Cambodian Apsara, 

                                                     Mapouka Afrobeat Fusion

II. Bricolage: Myth Reconstructed from Cultural Material

Each dance reuses cultural elements—movements, symbols, tools—into new symbolic systems:

Mode of Bricolage                                            Representative Dances     

Sacred Object into Ritual Instrument           To'ere Drum Dance, Khaleegy, Yakshagana Props, Lathi Khela,  

                                                                           Apsara Dress   

Gesture as Memory Fragment                        Mapouka, Butoh, Bangladeshi Contemporary, Bon Odori   

Sound as Mythic Grammar                             Sufi Samā’, Powwow, Maloya, Agbekor, Sabar, Faridah Fahmy   

Body as Totemic Archive                                Moko, Aboriginal Dreamtime, Apsara, Seungmu, Shika   

Fusion as Cultural Recovery                           Mapouka Afrobeat, Bollywood, J-POP Idol, Maloya, Dancehall, 

                                                                          Bangladeshi Contemporary, Contemporary Apsara

III. Binary Oppositions and Their Structural Resolutions

These are the primary oppositional tensions Lévi-Strauss believed were mythically reconciled via symbolic form:

Binary Opposition                                        Examples of Resolution in Dance     

Tradition / Modernity                                  Bollywood, J-POP Idol, Maloya, Contemporary Apsara, 

                                                                       Bangladeshi Contemporary   

Sacred / Profane                                           Samā’, Dancehall, Mapouka, Powwow, Butoh, Seungmu   

Stillness / Motion                                         Butoh, Apsara, Tamure, Maloya, Moko, Sufi   

Spirit / Flesh                                                 Sufi, Mapouka, Seungmu, Aboriginal Dreamtime, 

                                                                       Faridah Fahmy’s Dance, Apsara   

Self / Collective                                            Mā‘ulu‘ulu, Powwow, J-POP Idol, Bon Odori, Soran Bushi, Bollywood   

Colonial Erasure / Cultural Survival          Maloya, Mapouka, Butoh, Bangladeshi Contemporary, 

                                                                       Aboriginal Dreamtime, Apsara

IV. Cosmological Encodings: Body as Ecological Myth

These dances perform ecological and cosmological knowledge in motion:

Ecological Symbolism                                                                     Dances     

Sea / Island Topography                               Tamure, To'ere, Mā‘ulu‘ulu, Bon Odori   

River / Delta Life                                          Bangladeshi Contemporary, Maloya, Sabar, Agbekor, Apsara   

Volcanic / Tectonic Pulse                             Moko, To'ere, Aboriginal Dreamtime, Mapouka   

Flora & Fauna Movement                            Wayang Wong, Soran Bushi, Shika, Seungmu, Maloya, Yakshagana   

Celestial / Spiritual Axis                              Apsara, Samā’, Powwow, Seungmu, Sufi Samā’, 

                                                                       Contemporary Cambodian Apsara

V. Functions of Dance as Mythic Machine

Each dance is a structure performing specific mythic and sociocultural functions:

Musical Grammar in Choreography              Dances     

Call & Response                                              Powwow, Maloya, Shika, Sabar, Moko, Agbekor, 

                                                                          Bangladeshi Folk Elements   

Polyrhythmic Layering                                   To‘ere, Sabar, Mapouka, Dancehall, Agbekor, Bhangra   

Ritual Silence / Pausing                                  Butoh, Samā’, Contemporary Apsara, Bon Odori   

Spoken Word + Movement                             Bollywood, Bangladeshi Contemporary, Wayang Wong, Yakshagana, 

                                                                          J-POP Idol (fan chants)   

Breath as Rhythm                                           Seungmu, Butoh, Aboriginal Dreamtime, Maloya

VI. Mythic Structures in Music + Movement

Lévi-Strauss saw music as the architecture of myth. Each of these dances choreographs music as mythic syntax:

Musical Grammar in ChoreographyDancesCall & ResponsePowwow, Maloya, Shika, Sabar, Moko, Agbekor, Bangladeshi Folk ElementsPolyrhythmic LayeringTo‘ere, Sabar, Mapouka, Dancehall, Agbekor, BhangraRitual Silence / PausingButoh, Samā’, Contemporary Apsara, Bon OdoriSpoken Word + MovementBollywood, Bangladeshi Contemporary, Wayang Wong, Yakshagana, J-POP Idol (fan chants)Breath as RhythmSeungmu, Butoh, Aboriginal Dreamtime, Maloya

VII. Key Structural Insights Across All 34 Dances

1. All are mythic systems: Every dance expresses cosmology, ecology, or sociopolitical memory through aesthetic form.

2. Gesture = Language: Across cultures, hand, foot, and pelvic gestures constitute a syntax—structurally analogous to mythic language.

3. The circle returns: Most dances use circular structure—ritual entry, transformation, exit—mirroring cosmic and social cycles.

4. Bricolage ensures survival: Cultural resilience occurs not by static preservation but by creative recombination.

5. Myth transcends spectacle: Even in globalized or commercialized forms, mythic structure endures through choreography, sound, and space.