The Washington herald., 1913-05-18
DANCING OLD MODE OF EXPRESSION

rected at sisera and his mother (the Oh
Hebrews seem to have known PITY. and
must have been filed with expressive
pantomime.
One cannot help being struck with the
resemblance Of these dances. handicap
ping. and all. to the music Of the planta-
ton camp meeting In the South at the
present time. At a latter epoch the
dances Of the ancient Hebrews clustered
around two species of songs, the bridal
and funeral music. The funeral songs al
! ways were sung by women in the Orient,
although men might Join in the chorus. .
Chinese Long Were Dancers.
The Song of Solomon Is an entire col
lection of popular bridal songs. while the
Book Of Lamentations Is a volume of
funeral days. and both were combinod
with dance effects in the recitation or
chanting.
Probably the acme Of ritualism in the
ancient dances was attained by the Chi
nese. but as the ceremonies do not con-
meet themselves with the Developments
Of the dance in any other countries
passing mention is sufficient.
Among the ancient Greeks the dance
was very highly developed, and our words
chorus" and orchestra both come
from Greek words connected with
dancing
Lucian. in his de Saltatione." xives
a picture of the old Greek and Roman
dancing, almost old enough to be called
contemporaneous with his subject, IN
which there Is abundant proof that
dancing then consisted both of panto-
mime and Of grating and other mo-
tons.
The religious side OF dancing died out
somewhat in the early part of the dark
ages (possiby because the church thought
II smacked OF paganism), yet II did not
die out wholly. One such service sur
wives in Spain today. The few religious
dances of the Middle Ages afford US
startling glances at the history of their
time. In the midst Of the terrible period
of the black death" there existed
weird set of penitential dances called
the "Geisler' or 'Flagellants' There
is a graphic description Of this cycle of
terrific epidemics in the Limburger
Chronicle.
The black death ragged in the middle
Of the fourteenth century and carried
OF more than 5000. 900 victims in Europe
alone. The Flagellants were fanatical
devotees who believed that the hand of
God could be stayed by public penitence.
They, therefore, organized professions
from town to town and at each halt
mingled with fearful hagellations
Altar Boys Danced in Church.
The church viewed sacred dances
askance. but a few exceptions may be
noted. In the Spanish cathedrals on
Holy Thursday the altar boys formerly
danced a slow figure Among the other
few connections Of the church with a
dance 1t may be noted that Leo X IA
vored religious ballots and that the
Council of Trent G5s2) was opened with
a brilliant ball.
Shapespeare Ii full of illusions to the
dances in favor in old England (most
of the illusions are in Twelfth Night
and the pavanne, the 'hornpipe,' the
courant. the passe mezzo, the cinq pas.
and a host of others are mentioned with
more or less misspelling and punning.
Strange to say. in the latter part Of
the eighteenth century a wave of dane
ing craze swept Europe and everybody
seemed to be dancing mad. and, judy
ing from some of the descriptions hand
ed down to US by the historians and
from the old prints. the dances were not
very mild. Some of them make our
own turkey trot and Texas Tommy seem
mild in comparison.