SCIENCE AND DANCING , 73 



Greece. It has been seen in mediaeval Europe as the 

 dancing mania and tarantism. The liability to this and 

 similar forms of "mania" lurks beneath the surface 

 among populations which are nevertheless staid and 

 phlegmatic in their usual behaviour. The Romans in 

 ancient times recognized its unhealthy character, and 

 though fond of ceremonial dances and theatrical shows, 

 and even of the performances of dancing girls from 

 Greece and the East, disapproved of dancing on the 

 part of a Roman citizen. Cicero says, " As a rule no 

 one, who is not drunk, dances — unless he is, temporarily, 

 out of his mind." 



Although the mad performances of bacchanalians 

 and dervishes are recognized as unhealthy, civilized 

 peoples in Europe since the fifteenth century have 

 developed and practised dancing as an art in two 

 directions — first, as a popular amusement in which 

 definite combinations of graceful movements are per- 

 formed for the sake of the pleasure which the exercise 

 affords to the dancer and to the spectator, and secondly, 

 as carefully trained movements which are meant by the 

 dancer vividly to represent the actions and passions of 

 other people, and are exhibited by specially skilled 

 performers on a stage. The first kind is what we call 

 " country dances," " popular dances," also " Court and 

 ball-room dances," and has been commended by the 

 philosopher Locke and other writers as a valuable training 

 for both mind and body, and by physicians as a health- 

 giving exercise. The second is " the ballet." 



In the dances of savages and primitive peoples, some 

 kind of music is always found associated with dancing, 

 the one helping and developing the other ; they arc- 

 descendants of one parentage. Very commonly, too, 



