India, China, and Ancient Greece are among the first civilizations with recorded anecdotes of dance. Many used dance for religious purposes, and all required skill, grace, and stamina. Ancient Greece furthered the theatrical history of dance by using dance in dramas and Greek theatre.
Movement ranging from processional walks to acrobatic tricks - evolved to include isolated hip & schoulder movement, swaying, and belly dances; Accompaniment
Overview
The history of dance is difficult to access because dance does not often leave behind clearly identifiable physical artifacts that last over millennia
Cultural traditions
An early manuscript describing dance is the Natya Shastra on which is based the modern interpretation of classical Indian dance (e.g
The late 20th and early 21st centuries
After the explosion of modern dance in the early 20th century, the 1960s saw the growth of postmodernism
See also
• History of ballet• History of figure
Further reading
• Adshead-Lansdale, J. (ed.) (1994). Dance History: An Introduction. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-09030-X
India, China, and Ancient Greece are among the first civilizations with recorded anecdotes of dance. Many used dance for religious purposes, and all required skill, grace, and stamina. Ancient Greece furthered the theatrical history of dance by using dance in dramas and Greek theatre.
Origins in antiquity: The earliest historical records showing the origins of dance are cave paintings in India dating to about 8000 BCE Egyptian tomb paintings also depict dance in about 3300 BCE These early dances may have been religious in nature, and by the era of ancient Greece, people were incorporating dance into celebrations of the wine god Dionysus (and later the Roman god Bacchus) and into ritual dances at the ancient...
Many historians believe that social, celebratory, and ritual dances are essential factors in the development of early human civilizations. The earliest findings have pinpointed the origins of ancient dances in
9000-year-old India or 5300-year-old Egypt.
