DANCE. They stamp and jump, and use the most antic gestures for several hours, till they are heartily weary. And one or two of the company sometimes step out of the rings to make sport for the rest, by showing feats of activity, throwing their lances up into the air, catching them again, bending backwards and springing forwards with great agility."
The origin of dancing amongst the Greeks was most certainly the same as amongst all other nations; but as they proceeded a certain length in civilization, their dances were by consequence more regular and agreeable than those of the more barbarous nations. They reduced dancing into a kind of regular system; and had dances proper for exciting, by means of the sympathy above mentioned, any passion whatsoever in the minds of the beholders. In this way they are said to have produced effects to us absolutely incredible. At Athens it is stated that the dance of the Eumenides or Furies in the theatre had so expressive a character as to strike the spectators with irresistible terror. Men grown old in the profession of arms trembled; the multitude ran out; women with child miscarried; people imagined they saw in earnest those terrible deities commissioned with the vengeance of heaven to pursue and punish crimes upon earth.
The Greeks had martial dances, which they reckoned useful for keeping up and cherishing the warlike spirit of their youth; but the Romans, though equally warlike with the Greeks, never had anything of the kind. This may probably be owing to the want of that romantic spirit for which the Greeks were so remarkable. Hence there was less excitement, and much more cool deliberate valour, displayed by the Romans. The passions of pride, resentment, obstinacy, and the like, were excited in them, not by the mechanical means of music and dancing, but by the idea early instilled, that their greatest glory was to fight for the republic. It does not, however, appear that the Romans were at all less capable of being affected in this mechanical manner than the Greeks. When dancing was once introduced, it produced the very same effects at Rome as at Athens.
Amongst the Jews, dancing seems to have formed a part of the religious worship on some occasions, as we learn from some passages in the Psalms, though we do not find either saltation or singing positively enjoined by a divine precept. In the Christian churches mentioned in the New Testament, there is no account of dancing being introduced as an act of worship, though it is certain that it was used as such in after-ages. Gallini tells us, that "at Limoges, not long ago, the people used to dance the round in the choir of the church which is under the invocation of their patron saint; and at the end of each psalm, instead of the Gloria Patri, they sung St Marcel, pray for us, and we shall dance in honour of you." Though dancing would now be looked upon as the highest degree of profanation in a religious assembly, yet it is certain that dancing, considered as an expression of joy, is no more a profanation than singing, or than simple speaking; nor can it be thought in the least degree more absurd than a Christian should dance for joy that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, than that David danced before the ark when it was restored to him after a long absence.
Plato reduces the dances of the ancients to three classes: first, the military dances, which tended to make the body robust, active, and well disposed for all the exercises of war; secondly, the domestic dances, which had for their object an agreeable and innocent relaxation and amusement; thirdly, the mediatorial dances, which were in use in expiations and sacrifices. Of military dances there were two sorts: the gymnopedic dance, or the dance of children; and the enopian, or armed dance. The Spartans had invented the first as an early excitation of the courage of their children, and in order to lead them on in-
sensibly to the exercise of the armed dance. This children's dance used to be executed in the public place. It was composed of two choirs, the one of grown men, the other of children; whence, being chiefly designed for the latter, it took its name. Both classes of performers were in a state of nudity. The choir of the children regulated their motions by those of the men, and all danced at the same time, singing the poems of Thales, Alcmaon, and Dionysodotus. The enopian or Pyrrhic was danced by young men armed cap-a-pie, who executed to the sound of the flute all the proper movements either for attack or for defence. It was composed of four parts. The first, called the podism or footing, consisted in a quick shifting motion of the feet, such as was necessary for overtaking a flying enemy, or for getting away from him when an overmatch; the second, the xiphism, a kind of mock fight, in which the dancers imitated all the motions of combatants, aiming a stroke, darting a javelin, or dexterously parrying or avoiding a blow or thrust; the third part, called the komos, consisted in very high leaps or vaultings, which the dancers frequently repeated for the better accustoming themselves occasionally to leap over a ditch, or spring over a wall; the tetracomos, or the fourth and last part, was a square figure, executed by slow and majestic movements, but it is uncertain whether this was everywhere executed in the same manner.
Of the Greeks, the Spartans were those who most cultivated the Pyrrhic dance. Athenæus relates, that they had a law by which they were obliged to exercise their children in it from the age of five years. This warlike people constantly retained the custom of accompanying their dances with hymns and songs. The following was sung for the dance called trichoria, said to be instituted by Lycurgus, and which had its name from its being composed of three choirs, one of children, another of young men, and the third of old. The old men opened the dance, saying, "In time past we were valiant." The young men answered, "We are so at present." "We shall be still more so when our time comes," replied the chorus of children. The Spartans never danced except with real arms. In process of time, however, other nations came to use only weapons of wood on such occasions. Nay, it was only so late as the days of Athenæus, who lived in the second century, that the dancers of the Pyrrhic, instead of arms, carried only flasks, and ivy-bound wands (thyrsi) or reeds. But even in Aristotle's days they used thyrsi instead of pikes, and lighted torches instead of javelins and swords. With these torches they executed a dance called the conflagration of the world.
Of the dances for amusement and recreation, some were simply gambols, or sportive exercises, which had no character of imitation, and of which the greater part exist to this day. The others were more complex, agreeable, figured, and were always accompanied with singing. Amongst the first or simplest ones was the ascoliasmus, which consisted in jumping with one foot only, on bladders filled with air or wine, and rubbed on the outside with oil. The dypodium was jumped with both feet close. The kybeslesis was what is called in this country the somerset. Of the second kind were that called the wine-press, of which there is a description in Longinus, and the Ionian dances. These last expressed originally nothing but what was decent and modest; but in time their movements came to be so depraved, as to be employed in expressing voluptuousness and obscenity.
Amongst the ancients there were no festivals nor religious assemblies which were not accompanied with songs and dances. It was not held possible to celebrate any mystery, or to be initiated, without the intervention of these two arts. In short, they were looked upon as so essential in these kind of ceremonies, that to express the crime of such as were guilty of revealing the sacred mysteries, they em-
played the word kheista, signifying to be out of the dance. The most ancient of these religious dances is the Bacchie, which was not only consecrated to Bacchus, but to all the deities whose festival was celebrated with a kind of enthusiasm. The most grave and majestic was the hyporchematic, which was executed to the lyre, and accompanied with the voice. On his return from Crete, Theseus instituted a dance, at which he himself assisted at the head of a numerous and splendid band of youths, round the altar of Apollo. The dance was composed of three parts: the strophe, antistrophe, and the stationary. In the strophe, the movements were from the right to the left; in the antistrophe, from the left to the right; and in the stationary, they danced before the altar; so that the stationary did not mean an absolute pause or rest, but only a more slow or grave movement. Plutarch is persuaded that in this dance there is a profound mystery. He thinks, that by the strophe is indicated the motion of the world from east to west; by the antistrophe, the motion of the planets from the west to the east; and by the stationary, the stability of the earth. To this dance Theseus gave the name of geranos, or the crane, because the figures which characterized it bore a resemblance to those described by cranes in their flight.
Stage-Dances are treated of under the head BALLET.
Country-Dance, commonly so written, and hence seeming to imply a rustic way of dancing borrowed from country people or peasants, is, however, merely a corruption of the French Contre-danse, where a number of persons placed opposite each other begin a figure.
Rope-Dancer (schanobates). See ACROBATES.
Dancing-Girls are commonly met with all over the East. Such are the Almés of Egypt, and the Bayaderes of India. See ALMÉ.