History of dance

The history of dance may be as long as the history of mankind. We can only guess how dances looked like in earlier epochs. In European culture, one of the earliest records of dancing is by Homer, whose "Iliad"; describes chorea (khoreia).

The early Greeks made the art of dancing into a system, expressive of all the different passions. For example, the dance of the Furies, so represented, would create complete terror among those who witnessed them. The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, ranked dancing with poetry, and said that certain dancers, with rhythm applied to gesture, could express manners, passions, and actions. The most eminent Greek sculptors studied the attitude of the dancers for their art of imitating the passions