DANCING may be defined in a general way as the expression of inward feelings by means of rhythmical movements of the body, especially of the lower limbs, usually accompanied by music. Dancing may almost be said to be as old as the world, and prevails in rude as well as in civilized nations. Children, and also the lower animals, dance and gambol as by instinct. Our early records, sacred and profane, make mention of dancing, and in most of the ancient nations it was a constit uent part of their religious rites and ceremonies. They danced before their altars and round the statues of their gods. The Greek chorus, " in the oldest times, consisted of the whole population of the city, who met in the public place (ehoros, the market-place), to offer up thanksgivings to their country's god, by singing hymns and performing cor responding dances." The Jewish records make abundant mention of dancing. Moses and Miriam danced to their song of triumph, when the Israelites passed through the Red sea as on dry land; David danced before the ark. It is certain that the primitive Christians danced at their religious meetings, though we have no mention of this in the New Testament. The Greeks made the art of into a system expressive of all the different passions, the dance of the Eumenides, 'or Furies, especially, creating such terror, that the spectators seemed to see these dreaded deities about to execute heaven's vengeance on earth. The most eminent Greek sculptors did not disdain to study the attitudes of the public dancers for their art of imitating the passions. In Homer, we read of dancing and music at entertainments. Aristotl' ranks dancing with poetry, and says, in his Poetics, that there are dancers who, by rhythm applied to gesture, express man ners, passions, and actions. In Pindar, Apollo is called the dancer; and Jupiter himself, in a Greek line, is represented as in the act of dancing. The Spartans had a law obli ging parents to exercise their children in dancing from the age of five. This was done
in the public place, to train them for the armed-dance. They were led by grown men, and all sang hymns and songs as they danced. The young men danced the Pyrrhic dance, in four parts, expressive of overtaking an enemy and of a mock-fight.
Dancing, as an entertainment in private society, was performed in ancient times mostly by professional dancers, and not by the company themselves. Among the sedate Romans, in fact, it was considered disgraceful for a free citizen to dance, except in con nection with religion. Having professional dancers at entertainments is still the prac tice among eastern nations. In Egypt there are dancing and singing girls, called aline, who improvise verses as in Italy. They are highly educated, and no festival takes place without them. They are placed in a rostrum, and sing during the repast ; then descend, and form dances that have no resemblance to ours. All over India there are miutch girls or bayaderes (q.v.), who dance at festivals and solemnities.
It is among savage nations that the passion for dancing is most strongly mani fested. Their dances are mostly associated with religion and war; and the performers work themselves into a state of frantic excitement—a kind of mechanical intoxication. As civilization advances, dancing—amateur dancing, at least—assumes a more and more subdued character. As a social amusement and a healthful exercise, dancing has much to recommend it; the chief drawbacks are the ill-ventilated and overheated rooms in which it is generally performed. By many, it is unfavorably regarded in a moral point of view; but this seems a relic of that outburst of puritanism that characterized the 17th c.. and which saw sin in every joyous excitement. Dancing is doubtless liable to abuse, hut not more so than most other forms of social intercourse. Connected with the subject of dancing, See ACROBATS, BALLET, PANTOMIME, COUNTRY-DANCE, QUA DRILLE. POLKA, etc.