"Free" Translation by Dér Stépanos Dingilian, Ph. D. © 2003

    Before turning to the subject that we have selected for today, I feel the responsibility to explain the significance of children’s singing upon their cultural and educational future. Singing is the movement of muscles, which originates from the corresponding emotions. Whatever emotion the child may be experiencing, he or she expresses it with certain songs. The song is one of the means to express one’s spiritual state, and therefore it literally is a movement. In addition since dance is also a movement, singing and dancing become complementary and inseparable movements. Thus the direction in which the feelings move, singing and dancing follow suit and show visible expression in the same direction. Consequently, one can recognize the importance of connecting spiritual movement with the physical expression of singing and dancing.

    It should be noted that all forms of art, such as music, sculpting, architecture, etc., are all movements. Consequently, as a movement, dance has a very important role in the future scholastic and artistic development of a person. There is movement and therefore dancing in every aspect of life. Anyway, isn’t the whole life in the universe a dance? In human experiences, there are two forms of dance – the joyous and the sad. Even though people today perform joyous dances, but in previous times, sad dances were also performed. Examples of the latter are the dances for the dead that were conducted during burial services. These dances gave the mourners the opportunity to bring forth and express their grieving feelings and allow them to be expressed through movements. In most civilized societies today, the remnant of these dances of lament remain only in opera performances.

    The most familiar form of dancing is the family dancing, in which we express intent and feeling. If we are happy then we move cheerfully, and if we are sad, again we express it in our movements. We are affected by the external circumstances, and through our movements affect others around us. In turn others move or dance and affect others, and the process continues. We would have been more restful had we not been emotionally affected and moved by others. Nevertheless, in this manner, in the family circle, one gets up, dances, and performs movements of hands, feet, eyes, and facial muscles. Others being affected by these movements begin to clap, and consequently a joyous environment is created. On the one hand, the unrefined dance is simple and reflects the lifestyle from which it originates; it is only directed towards self-preservation and to earn a living. On the other hand, the refined and graceful dance reflects a corresponding refined and advanced culture. To reiterate then, music, dance, movement, and every artistic expression is the outward manifestation of a person’s or a people’s spiritual being and state.

    Bar (the Armenian word for dance) which means shúrchan (turn, cycle or circle) is seen most visibly in the wedding dance where forty persons join hands. This dance has developed to such a naturally harmonious form, that it seems that forty people move together as one person. Even the most educated person, in order to move as one in such a group, must be able to spend a great deal of time and effort practicing these movements. The mental development is not sufficient by itself – there has to be an intentional and methodical development in one’s ability to physically perform the dance movements individually and collectively. This is another reason as to why a nation’s standard of cultural refinement is directly related to the development of its dance movements. Those people who are always sitting are weak and cannot do anything physical. Do you think that a weak person can participate in a struggle or defend a country? That is why it is imperative to remember the saying: “Healthy mind in healthy body.” Since singing and dancing strengthen and tune the body, and all artistic expressions are in the form of movements, then how important it must be for singing and dancing to be carefully and intentionally taught and refined in children, both for the sake of the spiritual and cultural progress of the individual as well as the nation.

    What is education or the intent of schooling? The child does not necessarily have a clear understanding of philosophy and morals. Therefore, in order to give a youngster a balanced sense of education and affect his or her way of thinking, he or she must be taught the appropriate behavior and movements through comprehensible means - (as for example) through singing and dancing. Often we try to teach our children moral, philosophical, and educational songs, the meaning of which they do not understand. We do not comprehend the youngster’s spiritual needs and way of thinking. So our textbooks do not contain age-appropriate information for them. Our textbooks may be filled with information that is philosophically correct, but cannot be comprehended by children. The child does not say “Hagop,” rather he or she says “Ago.” Who among you has taken pebbles in his or her mouth for own satisfaction? Yet for the sake of entertaining children we have done it numerous times. We do not have too many teachers who can truly teach the children. We try to make them learn through the mental process that we use. But if the child does not learn, it is not his or her fault. Rather the fault is yours because you were not able to understand his or her being. You have to lower yourself to the child’s spiritual level and spiritually raise him gradually with you. It is the result of incorrect education that many who could have become geniuses actually turn out to be thieves. It requires intelligence to avoid the law and punishment, and creativity to try to escape from prison. (Yet, all the intelligence and creativity of these people have been wasted.) Even after leaving prison, how many ex-convicts have you seen who have subsequently learned to use their creative intelligence properly and have become geniuses?

    The child does not have a lack of natural rationality and creativity if he or she is properly inspired. The extent to which a child’s family is educated and refined in areas such as singing and dancing, is the extent to which a child’s talents and abilities are revealed and utilized, and consequently it is to that extent that a people and a culture are refined and advanced.

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