The history of dance is difficult to access because dance does not often

leave behind clearly identifiable physical artifacts that last over millennia,
such as stone tools, hunting implements or cave paintings. It is not possible
to identify with exact precision when dance becomes part of human culture.
Dance is filled with aesthetic values, making it distinct from one society to
another and is shrouded in symbolism that expounds on the cultural heritage
of a community accordingly being unique from one society to another. Dance
can help tell a story, convey feelings and emotions, and connect with others
and ourselves

The natural Impulse to dance may have existed in early primates before they
evolved into humans.[1] Dance has been an important part of ceremony,
rituals, celebrations and entertainment since before the birth of the earliest
human civilizations. Archaeology delivers traces of dance from prehistoric
times such as the 10,000-year-old Bhimbetka rock shelters paintings in India
and Egyptian tomb paintings depicting dancing figures from c. 3300 BC.
Many contemporary dance forms can be traced back to historical, traditional,
ceremonial and ethnic dances of the ancient period.

Means of social communication and bonding

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Dance may have been used as a tool of social interaction that promoted
cooperation essential for survival among early humans. Studies found that
today’s best dancers share two specific genes associated with a
predisposition for being good social communicators.[2]

Also, the term “kinesthetic” is the right term to help understanding how
dance makes communication, and it means recognition of movement of
one’s own body, this word is a combination of two words (kinein=to move,
aesthesis= perception). And dance in communication is like language, you
can understand, feel, see and hear. When someone uses all the body
muscles and feeling in a dance you will send like a message to the audience
or who was watching. So dance moves and background sounds play a big
role too. When there is a group performance by holding hands or shoulders
or even dancing opposite each other makes them feel communicated and
bonded.[3]
As folk celebrations

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Main article: Folk dance

Many dances of the early periods were performed as a ritual to the gods who
ancestors believed needed to be kept entertained for world peace.[4] Dance
used in many celebrations and until now. Throughout history we can notice
that dance had many uses such as also community dance, harvesting and
worship. Dance evolution started as folk origins to court presentations and
now theater or even cinema movies.[5]

In ceremonies and rituals

Edit

Main article: Ceremonial dance

Dance may be performed in religious or shamanic rituals, for example in rain

dance performed in times of drought. Shamans dancing for rain is mentioned
in ancient Chinese texts. Dance is an important aspect of some religious rites
in ancient Egypt,[6] similarly dance is also integral to many ceremonies and
rites among African people.[7] Ritual dances may also be performed in
temples and during religious festivals, for example the Rasa ritual dances of
India (a number of Indian classical dances may have their origin in ritual
dances), and the Cham dances of Tibet.[8]

As a method of healing

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Another early use of dance may have been as a precursor to ecstatic trance
states in healing rituals. Dance is used for this purpose by many cultures
from the Brazilian rai’forest to the Kalahari Desert.[9] Medieval European
danses macabres were thought to have protected participants from disease;
however, the hysteria and duration of these dances sometimes led to death
due to exhaustion.[10]
According to a Sinhalese legend, Kandyan dances originated 2500 years ago
from a magic dance ritual that broke the spell on a bewitched king to cure
the king of a mysterious illness.

As a method of expression

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One of the earliest structured uses of dances may have been in the
performance and in the telling of myths. It was also sometimes used to show
feelings for one of the opposite gender. It is also linked to the origin of
“lovemaking”. Before the production of written languages, dance was one of
the methods of passing these stories down from generation to generation.
[11]

In European culture, one of the earliest records of dancing is by Homer,

whose Iliad describes chorea (χορεία 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.[12] The
most eminent Greek sculptors studied the attitude of the dancers for their art
of imitating the passion.

An early manuscript describing dance is the Natya Shastra on which is based

the modern interpretation of classical Indian dance (e.g. Bharathanatyam).

During the reign of the last Mughals and Nawabs of Oudh, dance fell down to
the status of ‘nautch’, an unethical sensuous thing of courtesans.

Later, linking dance with immoral trafficking and prostitution, British rule
prohibited public performance of dance. Many disapproved it. In 1947, India
won its freedom and created for dance an ambience where it could regain its
past glory. Classical forms and regional distinctions were re-discovered,
ethnic specialties were honored, and by synthesizing them with the
individual talents of the masters in the line and fresh innovations, emerged
dance with a new face but with classicism of the past.

In Sri Lanka, the ancient Sinhalese chronicle Mahavamsa states that when
King Vijaya landed in Sri Lanka in 543 BCE he heard sounds of music and
dancing from a wedding ceremony. The origins of the dances of Sri Lanka are
dated back to the aboriginal tribes, and to the mythological times of
aboriginal yingyang twins and “yakkas” (devils). The classical dances of Sri
Lanka (Kandyan dances) feature a highly developed system of tala (rhythm)
and provided by cymbals called thalampataa.

There is a long recorded history of Chinese dances. Some of the dances

mentioned in ancient texts, such as dancing with sleeve movements are still
performed today. Some of the early dances were associated with shamanic
rituals. Folk dances of the early period were also developed into court
dances. The important dances of the ancient period were the ceremonial
yayue dated to the Zhou dynasty of the first millennium BC. The art of dance
in China reached its peak during the Tang dynasty, a period when dancers
from many parts of the world also performed at the imperial court. However,
Chinese opera became popular during the Song and Yuan dynasty, and many
dances were merged into Chinese opera.[13] The art of dance in women also
declined from the Song dynasty onward as a result of the increasing
popularity of footbinding,[14] a practice that ironically may have originated
from dancing when a dancer wrapped her feet so she may dance ballet-
fashion.[15][16] The best-known of the Chinese traditional dances are the
dragon dance and lion dance. Lion dance was described in the Tang dynasty
in form that resembles today’s dance.[13]

The people of the Iranian plateau have known dance in the forms of music,
play, drama or religious rituals and have used instruments like mask,
costumes of animals or plants, and musical instruments for rhythm, at least
since the 6th millennium BC. Cultural mixed forms of dance, play and drama
have served rituals like celebration, mourning and worship. And the actors
have been masters of music, dance, physical acts and manners of
expression. Artifacts with pictures of dancers, players or actors were found in
many archaeological prehistoric sites in Iran, like Tepe Sabz, Ja’far Abad,
Chogha Mish, Tall-e Jari, Cheshmeh Ali, Ismaeel Abad, Tal-e bakun, Tepe Sialk,
Tepe Musian, tepe Yahya, Shahdad, Tepe Gian, Kul Farah, Susa, Kok Tepe,
Cemeteries of Luristan, etc.[17]

The earliest researched dance from historic Iran is a dance worshiping Mithra
(as in the Cult of Mithras) in which a bull was sacrificed.[18] This cult later
became highly adhered in the Roman Empire. This dance was to promote
vigor in life.[19] Ancient Persian dance was significantly researched by Greek
historian from Herodotus of Halikarnassos, in his work Book IX (Calliope), in
which he describes the history of Asian empires and Persian wars until 478
BC.[19] Ancient Persia was occupied by foreign powers, first Greeks, then
Arabs, and then Mongols and in turn political instability and civil wars
occurred. Throughout these changes a slow disappearance of heritage dance
traditions occurred.[19

Religious prohibition of dancing in Iran came with the spread of Islam, but it
was spurred by historical events.[19] Religious prohibition to dancing waxed
and waned over the years, but after the Iranian Revolution in 1979 dancing
was no longer allowed due to its frequent mixing of the sexes. [19][20] The Islamic
Revolution of 1979 was the end of a successful era for dancing and the art of
ballet in Iran.[18] The Iranian national ballet company was dissolved and its
members emigrated to different countries.[18] According to the principles of
the "cultural revolution" in Iran, dancing was considered to be perverse, a
great sin, immoral and corrupting.[18] As a result, many of the talented Persian
dancers moved to the West and spread out mainly in Europe and the United
States and a new generation of Iranian dancers and ballet artists have grown
up in the Diaspora.[18]

African dance refers mainly to the dance styles of Sub-Saharan Africa, of

which many are based on traditional rhythms and music traditions of the
region. Modern African dance styles are deeply rooted in culture and
tradition. Many tribes have a role solely for the purpose of passing on the
tribe's dance traditions; dances which have been passed down through the
centuries, often unchanged, with little to no room for improvisation. [22][23] Each
tribe developed its own unique style of dance, falling into three categories
based on purpose. The first is religious dancing, which many tribes purport
enhances peace, health, and prosperity.[20] Religious dances often involved
masqueraders, performing as both the spirits and those who placated them.
[22]
Religion and spirituality infused every part of traditional African life, and
continues to affect African dance today. The second is griotic, and was a type
of dance that told a story. It is named after a griot, which is a term for a
traditional storyteller in West Africa. Certain griotic dances were only danced
by the tribe's griot; today, troupes perform the same dances that were once
exclusive to the griot. The third type is ceremonial. These dances are
performed at ceremonies such as weddings, anniversaries, and rites of
passage.[20] However, many dances did not have only one purpose. Rather,
there was often one primary purpose, that blended into many secondary
purposes. Dance was often very important to the maintenance of a ruler's
status in the tribal society. Colonialism and globalization have resulted in the
eradication of certain styles of African dance. Other styles have been
blended together, or mixed with dance styles outside of Africa. [22]
African dance in the context of slavery
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As people were taken from Africa to be sold as slaves, especially starting in

the 1500s, they brought their dance styles with them. Entire cultures were
imported into the New World, especially those areas where slaves were given
more flexibility to continue their cultures and where there were more African
slaves than Europeans or indigenous Americans, such as Brazil. African
dance styles were merged with new cultural experiences to form new styles
of dance. For example, slaves responded to the fears of their masters about
high-energy styles of dance with changing stepping to shuffling. [20] However,
in North America, slaves did not have as much freedom to continue their
culture and dance.[23][20] In many cases, these dances have evolved into
modern dance styles, such as African-American dance and Brazilian dance.
For example, the Calenda evolved in Brazil from tribal dance. The Calenda
then evolved into the Cakewalk, which was danced originally to mock
plantation owners; it then evolved into the Charleston.[20] Capoeira was a
martial art practiced originally in Africa which the enslaved Africans masked
as a form of dance in order to not arouse the suspicion of plantation owners.
[24]