Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/887

* DANCING. 769 DANCING. ous to describe, liut of greatest iiiiportanec are the religions ones. A universal eustom is the daneing of women while the men are away at war. It is a sort of prayer, for they continue it day and night, believing that by so doing they protect the warriors from evil spirits and from danger. The medicine dances have two purposes — one to ward oil' harmful influences; the other, strange as it seems, to keep the patient awake. This latter motive is explained by the belief of savages that when a man is asleep his soul temporarily leaves his body. When he dies the departure of his soul is final ; if, then, the sick man falls asleep, his soul may take advantage of the opportunity to go away and not return; and consequently the most heroic measures are em- ployed to keep him awake. In t!ie savage mys- teries, as in the Greek, dancing plays an im- portant part; but so great and universal is the secrecy maintained about them that we know practically nothing of the elaborate dances used. One of the most sacred rites is the initiation of a lad to manhood. Sword, snake, and fire dances are especially developed among the American Indians. AxciEN'T D.vxOES. In Egypt daneing reached a state of considerable excellence, for although Egyptian dances were monotonous and unim- aginative, like those of most Oriental peoples, the use of the body and of the hands and arms was carried to great perfection. Their most im- portant dances — those in honor of the dead — were slow and gliding, but they had also many livel.v forms. The pirouelle in particular was developed in Egypt about 4000 years ago. As dancing was never, at least in the early and middle empires, practiced by the higher classes, its cultivation was carried on wholly from the religious and spectacular standpoints ; and thus the social element, which more than any other has helped the art of dancing, was never given any prominence. See Egyptian !Mu.sic. Hebrew dancing was essentially a religious rite. It was an act of praise, and no religious festival or feast was complete without dances. Miriam, leading out the women in a dance, is typical of a form used in Arabia to-day. It should be noticed that each sex danced by itself, and that, in this particular, Hebrew dancing dif- fered from its Egyptian prototype. See Hebrew jMi'sic. * When we' eome to Greece we approach the golden age of the art of dancing. Here for the first time it ranked with poetr}' and music, and, as Lucian expresses it. dancing and music were 'the married pair.' Heretofore dancing had rep- resented emotions; now it was also made to rep- resent ideas, and pantomime arose. Hands and arms were used still more than legs; but an atmospheTe of gayety and expressiveness foreign to Oriental nations was created. The Greeks were a cheerful religious nation whose sense of dignity did not interfere with their dancing, as it did in the case of the Romans ; and as long as their morality remained unshaken the dance rc1,ained its purity. It was at first religious, then educational, and finally popular. There were four great classes of sacred dances — the Emmeleia. the IJyporchema, the Gi/mnopcedia, and the Eiidiimntia. From these four types the latev forms were derived. The characteristics of the first were its gentle gravity, strength, and nobility. It was danced without the support of either a chorus or a voice. The second class w'as danced by both men and women, and was of a dignified, elevated character. The Uym- iinpci'ilia was ii favorite of the Lacedicmonians in the festivals of Apollo. It was danced by youths, and was often a preliminary to the wild I'yrrhic dance. In the last, the Kiidyinuliii, the performers wore most l>rilliant elothes, and this first of all the sacred dances lost its saered character and became merely a pojjular dance. The military dances came later, and were prin- cipally educational. They were divided into two groups: (a) Pyrrhic, and (b) Jlemphitic. The first was really a military pantomime, and was used csjiecially at festivals in honor of -Minerva. It was danced by both men and wom- en, was wild and rapid, and finally degenerated into the rites of Bacchus. The ^lemphitic was less warlike and wild, but its general character was the same. On the Greek .sUige there were tragic, comic, and satiric dances. The costumes and scenic arrangements were often elaborate, and the evolutions were accom])anied by choral song. The forms were multitudinous, and the performers became so adept in (he expression of emotions that the sculptors and painters of Greece selected them as their models. Although the pantomime was introduced first in Greece, it never reached the height of perfection which characterized it among the Romans. Rome had few native dances. The Bclicrepa was a war dance said to have been invented by Romulus. The Salian dance was the original of many later forms, and was danced by the priests of Mars. Later the Romans adopted some forms from Etruria, and still others fronr Greece. One of the most interesting of their dances was the ifay-day dance, which corre- sponded to the flower dance of the Greeks. It is really the original of the old English May-day sports, for, as in England, the youths and maid- ens danced out into the fields, gathering flowers and branches, and returning to the city again to continue their dancing. Upon the deterioration of Greek power, Rome inherited its arts, ami among them its dances, which were modified and increased. In the reign of Augustus the dance was introduced into the theatre. It became wide- ly popular, there being at the time about three thousand foreign ^^■onlen dancers in Rome. At this time pantomime had reached its height, fable, history, poetry all being perfectly expressed in mute action. The most cultured persons stud- ied the art ; but under Nero and his successors the decline began,' and dancing became exaggerat- ed and licentious. E.RLY AND Medieval Dances. After the fall of Rome, dancing as an art practically disap- peared. Christianity at first encouraged it as an inheritance from the Jews; Saint Basil recom- mended the practice' of the dance on earth because it was the principal occupation of the angels in heaven, and sacred dances were given on feast days, and later every Sunday. In reality thcv were hardly so much dances as processions, each sex going through the evolutions separately. Gradually, however, they degenerated from their s(denin character, and in fi02 were expressly for- bidden by the Church, though they still lingered in some localities for a considerable length of time. There are curious sui"'ivals of these old rhurcli dances, such as Lnx flri.icx (q.v. ). which is still performed annually by the choir boys