The purpose of one dance in particular, the Myal
medicine dance, was unification, i.e.
We see innovation in ancient India, be it in the architectural monuments, literature, traditional knowledge,
medicine dance, astronomy etc.
The Storm with its beguiling, agile, melodic curves, the darker-shaded Moonbeam Monkey with a lyric that sounds as if it's been plotted by Tim Burton and an arrangement plucked from some Native American
medicine dance, and the closing brooding The Shadow are testament to that.
Hidden in the appended Comanche tribal summary is a reference to the Deer Dance (ibid., 229), a diffused
medicine dance employing the mescal bean that Curtis discusses with great interest in his section on Wichita ceremony (ibid., 64-72).
Terry Riley's Good
Medicine Dance from Salome Dances for Peace, folky patterns over repetitious elements evoking unwitting memories of the greatness of medieval isorhythmic composers; and George Crumb's Black A ngels, "an electric string quartet" which certainly fascinates in its recondite sound-explorations, tuned wine-glasses, ritualistic chanting of numbers and all.