1) The document discusses the history of dance from ancient Greece and Rome to modern times. It describes how dance was used in ancient Greek society in religious rituals honoring gods like Dionysus as well as for entertainment. 2) Early Christians had mixed views of dance, disapproving of dances like those performed for the Golden Calf but some dances were allowed if modest. In the late 1600s, some Protestant preachers condemned certain dances as lewd or devilish. 3) The earliest forms of partner dancing in Western culture emerged in 12th century Provence, involving brief touching between a man and woman but were still controversial and sometimes banned. Most Western dance since has expressed secular rather than religious themes

1. Understandin
g Dance
Prof. Runelo Piñero

2. History of Dance
Trance Dance
( Bali, Indonesia )
Line Dance
( Greeks and
Romans )
Dionysian
Dance
( Greeks )

5. Beginnings and
historical accounts of
Dance
From the notes of Western civilization
started among the Greeks and the Romans,
as found in various archaeological and
historical facts. The analysis of great
philosophers of ancient times pointed out
the significance of dance into the live of
the people during this period. Plato (427-
347 B.C.) and Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) left
an elaborate literature of dance theory and
criticism. They unanimously agreed in
recognizing the powers of dance (bot
positive and negative) in Greek society.

7. From among the Greeks, dancing was
associated with Dionysian merrymaking, as
evidence on vase paintings and stone
carvings as presented by scientist of the
time. Dionysus, the nature god, is identified
with the wine. According to Greek
mythological past, the infant Zeus, (first
among Olympian gods) owed his very life
in the cult dancing rites of Dionysus after
he was hidden from his father trying to kill
him. His cries were supposedly drowned by
the clashing shields and wild dancing of
the devotees.

9. The early Christians
included in their teachings
a love-hate relationship to
the body, as they could not
accommodate the dancing
body to their worship.
Christianized body
dancing disapproved the
example performed by
Salome to the Golden Calf
which for them was done
wrongly at the wrong time
and the wrong purpose.

10. In the late 1685, a track against Mixt or
Promiscuous Dancing, the New England
Puritan divine Increase Mather
permitted that “sober and grave
Dancing of Men with Women, or of
Women with Women was allowed “in
due reason, and with moderation”. But
as for lewd dancing of any kind , and
especailly “Gynecandrical dancing”,
Mather had no doubt that this was
literally the creation of the Devil.

11. There was no record of the exact date and place,
but it might have been in twelfth-century-
Provence- home of troubadours and the
birthplace of country love- that Western-style
couple dancing began. A man and a woman
might break from formation of a line or circle
dance or from the stately procession of a court
entertainment, to execute few steps in unison
with perhaps a brief touching of the hands to
help coordinate their movements, before
rejoining the formation, to be followed by
another couple and then another.

12. This public dancing in couples were not only
extraordinary in the Judeo-Christian tradition;
it was something that would have been
discouraged in many parts of the world as a
violation of public decorum. Inevitably, there
were successful attempts throughout Western
Europe to ban couple dancing. From the
renaissance onwards, dance in Judeo-
Christian societies typically expressed secular
rather than religious concerns. This is not to
say that West’s long history of ambivalence
about dancing body left no mark on the
aesthetic of Western dance.

13. Prof. Runelo Piñero