The Art of Stage Dancing

MP3 Audio CD. The Art of Stage Dancing

A BIT OF ANCIENT HISTORY


Every age has had its ways of dancing; every people has expressed
itself in some form of rhythmic motion.

The dance originally was the natural expression of the simple emotions
of a primitive people. Triumph, defeat, war, love, hate, desire,
propitiation of the gods of nature, all were danced by the hero or the
tribe to the rhythm of beaten drums.

Over six thousand years ago Egypt made use of the dance in its
religious ritual. At a very early period the Hebrews gave dancing a
high place in their ceremony of worship. Moses bade the children of
Israel dance after the crossing of the Red Sea. David danced before
the Ark of the Covenant. The Bible is replete with instances showing
the place of the dance in the lives of the people of that time.

Greece in its palmy days was the greatest dancing nation the world has
ever known. Here it was protected by priesthood and state, practiced
by rich and poor, high and lowly born. One of the nine muses was
devoted to the fostering of this particular art. Great ballets
memorialized great events; simple rustic dances celebrated the coming
of the flowers and the gathering of the crops. Priestesses performed
the sacred numbers; eccentric comedy teams enlivened the streets of
Athens. Philosophers taught it to pupils for its salutary effect on
body and mind; it was employed to give soldiers poise, agility and
health.