Chapter 2 | THE POLONAISE
The polonaise is a very cheerful dance ritual in which you walk behind each other in a string, with your hands on the shoulders of the person in front of you. The polonaise is often danced during carnival. A special example of such a dance is a drawing by Amos Bad Heart Bull, an Oglala Lakota Indian who lived from 1868 to 1913. With these Indians the dance had a ceremonial/religious meaning; perhaps they believed the dance brought good weather, peace and enough food.
EXTRA 1: draw a polonaise. Make up your own fantasy figures or choose this model figure as a basis.
In a beautiful drawing for the NRC by the Dutch illustrator Leonieke Fontijn, the figures have enormous legs and hands and very small heads.
Perhaps Leonieke Fontijn’s drawing was inspired by a 1568 painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder: five men walk in a row, holding each other by the shoulder or with a stick. A sixth man, the “leader,” has fallen, and the one behind him is also stumbling from the pushing and shoving. Brueghel’s depiction isn’t a cheerful conga line; rather, they depict blind men from a biblical story struggling to find their way. Unfortunately, they fail. The meaning is that one shouldn’t blindly follow leaders, as that can lead to bad outcomes.
EXTRA 2: Draw a polonaise that goes terribly wrong. The figures push or pull each other. Use the figures from Leonieke Fontijn’s drawing if necessary. The back of the line may still be walking upright, but those at the front have already (almost) fallen over from the pushing and shoving.