DANCE, or Dancing, as at present practised, may be defined an agreeable motion of the body, adjusted by art to the measures or tones of instruments, or of the voice. But, according to what some reckon more agreeable to the true genius of the art, dancing is the art of expressing the sentiments of the mind, or the passions, by measured steps or bounds that are made in cadence, by regulated motions of the body, and by graceful gestures; all performed to the sound of musical instruments or of the voice.

There is no account of the origin of the practice of dancing amongst mankind. It is found to exist amongst all nations whatever, even the most rude and barbarous; and, indeed, however much the assistance of art may be necessary to make any one perfect in the practice, the foundation must certainly lie in the human constitution itself.

As barbarous people are observed to have the strongest passions, so they are also observed to be the most easily affected by sounds, and the most habitually addicted to dancing. Sounds to us the most disagreeable, the drumming of sticks upon an empty cask, or the noise made by blowing into reeds incapable of yielding one musical note tolerable to us, is agreeable music to them. Much more are they affected by the sound of instruments which have any thing agreeable in them. Mr Gallini informs us, that “The spirit of dancing prevails almost beyond imagination among both men and women in most parts of Africa. It is even more than instinct, it is a rage, in some countries of that part of the globe. Upon the Gold Coast especially, the inhabitants are so passionately fond of it, that in the midst of their hardest labour, if they hear a person sing, or any musical instrument played, they cannot refrain from dancing. There are even well-attested storiee of some negroes flinging themselves at the feet of an European playing on a fiddle, entreating him to desist, unless he had a mind to tire them to death; it being impossible for them to cease dancing while he continued playing.”

The same thing is found to take place in America, though, as the inhabitants of that continent are found to be of a more fierce and barbarous nature than the African nations, their dances are still more uncouth and barbarous than those of the negroes. “In Mexico” says Gallini, “they have also their dances and music, but in the most uncouth and barbarous style. For their symphony they have wooden drums, something in form of a kettledrum, with a kind of pipe or flageolet made of a hollow cane or reed, but very grating to an European ear. It is observed they love every thing that makes a noise, how disagreeable soever the sound is. They will also hum over something like a tune when they dance thirty or forty in a circle, stretching out their hands, and laying them on each other’s shoulders. 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 of 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 proceeded lengths to us absolutely incredible. At Athens it is stated that the dance of the Eumenides or Furies on 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 in keeping up and cherishing the warlike spirit of their youth; but the Romans, though equally warlike with the Greeks, never had any thing of the kind. This may probably be owing to the want of that romantic turn for which the Greeks were so remarkable. The Romans had no heroes among them, such as Hercules, Achilles, or Ajax; nor does the whole Roman history furnish an example of a general who made war after the manner of Alexander the Great. Though their soldiers were as valiant as ever the Greeks could pretend to be, the object with them was the honour of the republic, and not their own personal praise. Hence there was less fury, and much more cool deliberate valour, exercised by the Romans than by any other nation whatsoever. The passions of pride, resentment, obstinacy, and the like, were excited in them, not by the mechanical means of music and dancing, but by being taught that it was their chief honour 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 had 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. Mr 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 that a Christian should dance for joy that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, than that David danced before the ark when it was returned 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 [7:7:614]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 enoplian, 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 insensibly 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. They were both of them 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, Alemaeon, and Dionysodotus. The enoplian or Pyrrhic was danced by young men armed cap-a-pied, 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 pbdisnι 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 dodging, parrying, or avoiding a blow or thrust; the third part, called the homos, 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 tetvacoìnos, 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 all the Greeks, the Spartans were those who most cultivated the Pyrrhic dance. Athenaeus 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 arc 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 Athenaeus, who lived in the second century, that the dancers of the Pyrrhic, instead of arms, carried only flasks, and ivy-bound wands (thyrsus) or reeds.. But, even in Aristotle’s days, they had begun to use thyrsuses 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 simple 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 dy-podium was jumped with both feet close. The hybeslesis was what is called in this country the somerset. Of the geçond kind were that called the wine-press, of which there is a description in Longinus, and the Ionian dances. These last, in the original of their institution, had nothing but what was decent and modest; but, in time, their movements came to be so depraved, as to be employed in expressing nothing except voluptuousness, and even the grossest obscenity.

Amongst the ancients there were no festivals nor religious assemblies but what were 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 kinds of ceremonies, that to express the crime of such as were guilty of revealing the sacred mysteries, they employed the word hheistae, signifying to be out of the dance. The most ancient of these religious dances is the Bacchic, 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 lap pordιematic, 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 daneed 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 characterised it bore a resemblance to those described by cranes in their flight.

Stage- DANCES. The Greeks were the first who united the dance to their tragedies and comedies; not indeed as making part of those spectacles, but merely as an accessary.

The Romans, as usual, copied from the Greeks; but in the reign of Augustus they left their instructors far behind them. At that time two very extraordinary men made their appearance, who invented a new species of entertainment, and carried it to an astonishing degree of perfection. Nothing was then talked of but the wonderful talents and amazing performances of Pylades and Bathylus, who were the first to introduce among the Romans what the French call the ballet d’action, in which the performer is both actor and dancer.

Pylades undertook the difficult task of representing, with the assistance of the dance alone, strong and pathetic situations. He succeeded perhaps beyond his own expectation, and may be called the father of that style of dancing which is known to us by the name of grave or serious pantomime. Bathylus, an Alexandrian, and a freeman of Meccnas, took upon himself to represent such subjects as required a certain liveliness and agility. He was handsome in his person; and the two great scourgers of Roman follies, Persius, and especially Juvenal, speak of him as the gallant of every woman in Rome. The latter, in his cynic style, even goes so far as to say, that when Bathylus performed the dance called, after the name of a celebrated female dancer, Cheromenos-Leda, the gravest matron was turned off her guard, and the young virgin longed for the dancer’s addresses.

Nature had been exceedingly partial to these two men. They were endowed with genius, and with all the exterior accomplishments which could captivate the eye. By their study, application, and the desire to establish a lasting[7:7:615] reputation, they displayed to the greatest advantage all the resources which the art of dancing could supply. But, like two phenomena, they disappeared, and the world did not look upon their like again. Government withdrew its protection; the art gradually sunk into obscurity, and, on the accession of Trajan to the empire, became even entirely forgotten.

Thus buried with the other arts in entire oblivion, dancing remained uncultivated till about the fifteenth century, when ballets were revived in Italy at a magnificent entertainment given by a nobleman of Lombardy at Tortona, on account of the marriage between Galeas Duke of Milan and Isabella of Aragon. Every resource that poetry, music, dancing, and machinery could supply, was employed and exhausted on the occasion. The description given of so superb an entertainment excited the admiration of all Europe, and roused the emulation of several men of genius, who improved the hint by introducing amongst their countrymen a kind of spectacle equally pleasing and novel.

It would seem, however, that at first the women had no share in the public or theatrical dance; at least we do not find them mentioned in the various entertainments given at the opera in Paris till the 21st of January 1681, when the then dauphiness, the Princess of Conti, and some other ladies of the first distinction in the court of Louis XIV. performed a ballet in the opera called Le Triomphe de l’Amour. This union of the two sexes served to enliven and render the spectacle more pleasing and more brilliant than it ever had been at any other period; and it was received with so much applause, that on the 16th of May following, when the same opera was acted in Paris at the theatre of the Palais Royal, it was thought indispensable for the success of that kind of entertainment to introduce female dancers. They have continued ever since to be the principal support of the opera.

A ballet perfect in all its parts, says Noverre, in his treatise on this subject, is a picture drawn from life, of the manners, dresses, ceremonies, and customs of all nations. It must therefore be a complete pantomime, and speak, as it were, through the eyes, to the very soul of the spectator. If it wants expression, or if it be deficient in point of situation and scenery, it degenerates into a spectacle equally flat and monotonous.

A ballet, in whatever style it may be conceived, should, according to Aristotle, be composed, as well as poetry, of two different parts, which he calls parts of quality and parts of quantity. Nothing exists in nature without matter, form, and figure; the ballet therefore becomes a mere nonentity if it be deficient in any of those essential parts which mark and constitute the being of any one thing, animate or inanimate. The matter here is the subject intended for representation; its form consists in the ingenious distribution of the plan, and the various component parts constitute its figure. The form therefore contains the parts of quality, and the extent the parts of quantity.

Thus it appears that ballets are in some degree subject to the rules of poetical composition. They, nevertheless, differ from tragedies and comedies, in that the former are not subject to the three unities of time, place, and action. Yet they require an unity of plot, in order that the various scenes may meet and terminate on the same point. The ballet, therefore, may be termed the brother of the drama, though not restrained to its stricter rules, which only serve to cramp the imagination, check its flight, and confine genius, and which, if adhered to, must set aside all thought of composition of ballets, by depriving them of their chief ornament, pleasing variety.

Noverre considers tragedy as the subject most suitable for the art of dancing. It abounds in noble incidents, situations, and character, and these produce the best stage effects. Besides, the passions are more forcibly expressed by great characters than by common men; the imitation is of course less difficult, and the action in the pantomime more significant, natural, and intelligible.

“The business of a skilful master,” he observes, “is to foresee, as it were at one glance, the general effect that may result from the ensemble, and never give the preference to one single part over the whole. The only way for him to bestow his thoughts on the greatest number, is to forget for a while the principal characters of the drama; if his whole attention should entirely be occupied with the parts of his first dancers of both sexes, the action is suspended, the scenes are slow in their progress, and the whole performance must fall short of its desired effect.

“In the tragedy of Merope by Voltaire, the principal characters are Merope, Polifonte, Egiste, and Narbas. But although the parts of the inferior actors are not of equal importance, yet they all concur to the general action, and to the progression of the drama, which would appear deficient in some parts should either of those characters be wanting in the representation. No useless personage should be obtruded on the stage. Every thing therefore that may tend to weaken the effect of the drama ought to be carefully avoided, and only that number of actors introduced which is barely requisite for the execution of the performance.

“A ballet is a production of the same kind. It must be divided into acts and scenes, each of which, as well as the act itself, must have its beginning, its middle, and its end; that is, in other words, exposition, plot, and denouement.”

Noverre, in considering the knowledge necessary for attaining perfection in the present art, observes, that mythology, ancient poetry, and chronology, ought to be the primary study of a ballet-master, who ought also to possess a genius for poetry and painting, since the art borrows all its charms from a perfect imitation of nature. A slight knowledge of geometry cannot but prove very advantageous, as it will help the master to introduce his figures in due proportion, to calculate exactly, and execute with precision. By means of that unerring guide, he will retrench every superfluous accessary, and thus enliven the performance. Taste will introduce elegance, genius create variety, and judgment direct the whole.

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 placing themselves opposite one to another begin a figure.

Rope- Dancer (schoenobates), a person who walks, leaps, dances, and performs several other feats upon a small rope or wire. The ancients had their rope-dancers as well as we, and these had four several ways of exercising their art: the first vaulted or turned round the rope like a wheel round its axis, and there hung by the heels or neck; the second flew or slid from above, resting on their stomachs, with the arms and legs extended; the third ran along a rope stretched in a right line, or up and down; and the fourth not only walked on the rope, but made surprising leaps and turns thereon. They had likewise the cremnobates or orobates ; that is, people who walked on the brinks of precipices. Nay more, Suetonius in his life of Galba, Seneca in one of his Epistles, and Pliny in his eighth book, make mention of elephants which were taught to walk on the rope.

Dancing -Girls are employed all over the East, as affording great diversion at all public entertainments.

These dancing-girls, whether in a settled or unsettled [7:7:616]condition, live in a band or community, under the direction of some superannuated female of the same profession, under whom they receive a regular education, and are trained up in all the arts of love and pleasing, like scholars in an academy. Thus they acquire the art of captivating the affections of the other sex to such a degree, that nothing is more common than for one of the princes or chief people of the country to take a liking to one of these girls, and waste immense sums on her, though at the same time his own haram maybe stocked with beauties far superior, and who are besides possessed of the natural modesty of the sex, to which the others have not the smallest pretensions. Thus some of these girls acquire immense wealth.

With regard to the performances of these women as dancers, we have various accounts. The author of a work entitled Memoirs of the War in Asia, acquaints ns, “that their attitudes as well as movements are not ungraceful. Their persons are delicately formed, gaudily attired, and highly perfumed. By the continuation of wanton attitudes, they acquire, as they grow warm in the dance, a frantic lasciviousness themselves, and communicate, by a natural contagion, the most voluptuous desires to the beholders.” Mr Ives seems to have been more cool on this subject. “I could not,” says he, “see any thing in their performance worthy of notice. Their movements are more like tumbling or showing postures than dancing. Their dress is thin and light; and their hair, necks, ears, arms, wrists, fingers, legs, feet, and even their toes, are covered with rings of gold and silver, made after a clumsy manner. They wear two rings in their noses; and, by their staring looks and odd gesticulations, you would rather suspect them to be mad women than morris-dancers. The band of music that attends them is not less singular in its way; it is chiefly composed of three or four men, who hold two pieces of bell-metal in their hand, with which they make an incessant noise; another man beats what he is pleased to call a drum; and that they may not want vocal music to complete the band, there are always two others appointed to sing. These last generally lay in their mouths a good loading of betel-nut before they begin, which, after having been well chewed, tinges the saliva with such a redness, that a stranger would judge them to bleed at the mouth by too violent an exertion of their voice. These gentry are called ticky-taw boys, from the two words ticky taw, which they continually repeat, and chant with great vehemence. The dancing-girls are sometimes made use of in their religious ceremonies, as when the priests bring forth the images of their gods into the open fields on a car ornamented with lascivious figures, these girls dance before the images amidst a great crowd of people; and having been selected for their superior beauty, are very profitable to their masters the priests, who are said to prostitute them to all comers.”