DANCING. 
religious tribute ; the apostate Israelites 
danced round their golden calf; and at tlie 
more improved period, when King David 
composed his inspired lines, the Supreme 
Being received public homage in solemn 
movements, and that monarch, affected by 
the most lively joy at the return of the sa- 
cred ark from captivity, danced before it 
with the greatest fervour in the grand pro- 
cession which restored it to tlie lawful pro- 
prietors. 
Plato classes the dances of antiquity un- 
der three heads: the gymnopedique, per- 
formed by naked cliildren, which were pre- 
paratory to the enoplian, or pyrrhic, danced 
by young men armed, in which they were 
taught the movements necessary for attack 
or defence ; the Spartans decreed by law, 
that all male youths who had attained their 
fifth year, should be trained to these mili- 
tary dances. The second class mentioned 
by Plato, was solely for amusement ; amongst 
the variety under this head, they had some 
extremely simple, particularly the asco- 
liasmus, performed by jumping with one foot 
on oiled and distended bladders to the sound 
of voices, and the kybeslesis, now known 
in England as the somereet ; but those, and 
others of their dances degenerated into vo- 
luptuousness and indecency. The third 
class, or the religious, were considered in- 
dispensable in the celebration of all their 
mysteries ; the most ancient was the bac- 
chic, the most solemn the hyporcheniatic, 
suited to the accompaniments of a lyre and 
the voice. Plutarch mentions a dance com- 
posed by Theseus, and performed by him 
and a number of youths round the altar of 
Apollo on his return from Crete, which con- 
sisted of the strophe, the antistrophe, and 
the stationary, in the first, the movements 
were from the right to the left ; in the se- 
cond, the reverse ; and in the last, the pei-- 
formers danced a slow movement befoi-e 
the altar. 
The Greeks made dancing an appendage 
to their dramatic representations, and were 
imitated, and even excelled by the Romans, 
particularly in the Augustan age, when 
Pylades danced and used such action and 
gesticulation as expressed all the pathetic 
emotions of tragedy, and Bathylus, his con- 
temporary, was equally happy in exhibit- 
ing the more lively passions. In short, 
such were their excellence in ballet or pan- 
tomimic dancing, that as they had brought 
the art to its acme, so it declined with them, 
nor was it revived till the celebration of 
fhe marriage of Galias, Duke of IVIilan, 
with Isabella of Arragon, in the 15th cen- 
tury, when a Lombard nobleman exhibited 
a ballet at Tortona of the most splendid 
description, that excited the warmest ap- 
probation throughout Europe, and served 
as a model for imitation. Since the above 
period, almost every civilized nation has 
adopted stage dancing, which is now ar- 
rived to great perfection in England, nor 
has private dancing experienced less at- 
tention, as many treatises have been writ- 
ten on the subject, amongst which is 
“ Weaver’s Essay towards an History 
of Dancing and Tomlinson, a celebrat- 
ed dancing master in the reign of Queen 
Anne, published an entertaining work, 
in which he terms dancing a science, 
and described the steps by printed cha- 
racters; to those may be added, Nover- 
re’s, Gallini’s, and Peacock’s observations 
and instructions ; the latter gentleman de- 
clares “ The fondness the Highlanders have 
for this quartett, or trio, (the Scotch reel) 
is unbounded ; and so is their ambition to 
excel in it. This pleasing propensity, one 
would think, was born with them, from the 
early indications we sometimes see their 
children shew for this exercise. I have 
seen children of theirs, at five or six years 
of age, attempt, nay even execute, some 
of their steps so well, as almost to surpass 
belief. I once had the pleasure of seeing, 
in a remote part of the country, a reel danced 
by a herd boy and two young girls, who sur- 
prized me much, especially the boy, who 
appeared to be about twelve years of age. 
He had a variety of well chosen steps, and 
executed them with so much justness and 
ease, as if he meant to set criticism at de- 
fiance. Circumstances like these plainly 
evince, that those qualities must either be 
inherent in the Highlanders, or that they 
must have an uncommon aptitude foi- imi- 
tation.” The music and dancing of Scot- 
land is greatly admired in England, in truth, 
there is something so exhilirating, and lively 
in the sounds of the former, that the wri- 
ter of this article has frequently observed, 
the heads and feet of a large audience sud- 
denly set in motion by the unexpected per- 
formance of one of their favourite airs. 
Sensible of this predilection, it is not un- 
common for the London professors of danc- 
ing to visit Edinburgh, in order to obtain 
a thorough knowledge of the steps and in- 
flections used in the reels, and other dances 
peculiar to Scotland. Many modern vota- 
ries of this art have acquired the greatest 
precision in the movements and figures, to 
