The Dance

Æsthetic basis of the dance; national character expressed in dances; ‘survival value’ of dancing; primitive dance and sexual selection; professionalism in dancing--Music and the...

Earliest Egyptian records of dancing; hieroglyphic evidence; the Astral dance; Egyptian court and temple rituals; festival of the Sacred Bull--Music of the Egyptian dances; Egyp...

Lack of art sense among the Hindoos; dancing and the Brahmin religion; the Apsarazases, Bayaderes and Devadazis; Hindoo music and the dance; dancing in modern Indian; Fakir danc...

Influence of the Chinese moral teachings; general characteristics of Chinese dancing; court and social dances of ancient China; Yu-Vang’s ‘historical ballet’; modern Chinese dan...

Biblical allusions; sacred dances; the Salome episode and its modern influence--The Arabs; Moorish florescence in the Middle Ages; characteristics of the Moorish dances; the dan...

Homeric testimony; importance of the dance in Greek life; Xenophon’s description; Greek religion and the dance; Terpsichore--Dancing of youths, educational value; Greek dance mu...

As with all their arts, the ancient Romans borrowed their dancing from the Greeks. A nation raised in adoration of military and aristocratic ideals, conceited, and with a strong...

The mediæval eclipse; ecclesiastical dancing in Spain; the strolling ballets of Spain and Italy; suppression of dancing by the church; dances of the mediæval nobility; Renaissan...

Louis XIV and the ballet; the Pavane and the Courante; reforms under Louis XV; Noverre and the _ballet d’action_; Auguste Vestris and others; famous ballets of the period--the R...

The rise of nationalism--The Spanish folk-dances: the Fandango; the Jota; the Bolero; the Seguidilla; other Spanish folk-dances; general characteristics; costumes--England: the...

Since we have devoted a chapter to the folk-dances, it will be fitting to describe a few of the most noted dances of the nobility in order to complete our comparative treatment...

The end of the Napoleonic wars marks the beginning of a new era of European art, particularly of the ballet. To this period belong the great ballet masters, Taglioni, Bournovill...

The French ballet dominated civilized Europe for centuries, as did the French fashions, manners, language, art and social traditions. The high society of every country was outsp...

Nationalism of the Russian ballet; pedagogic principles of the Russian school; French and Russian schools compared--Begutcheff and Ostrowsky; history of the Russian ballet--Dide...

During the last half of the nineteenth century the art of dancing reached such a low level that Max Nordau said: ‘It is a fleeting pastime for women and youths, and later on its...

The ‘return to nature’; Isadora Duncan--Duncan’s influence: Maud Allan; Duncan’s German followers--Modern music and the dance; the Russian naturalists; Glière’s ‘Chrisis’--Picto...

The old ballet: arguments _pro_ and _con_--The new movement: Diaghileff and Fokine; the advent of Diaghileff’s company; the ballets of Diaghileff’s company; ‘Spectre of the Rose...

Jacques-Dalcroze and his creed; essentials of the ‘Eurhythmic’ system--Body-rhythm; the plastic expression of musical ideas; merits and shortcomings of the Dalcroze system--Spec...

We have witnessed the various phases and changes which the art of dancing has undergone during the past centuries. The ancient Egyptians danced the movements of astral bodies, t...