Walt Medicis Dance Studio in Syracuse, New York
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Walt Medicis Dance Studio in Syracuse, New York
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Historical Development of Social Dance

By VINCENT J. SAMAR, Ph.D.
Loyola University Chicago

Europe
     Throughout the cultural history of man, dance has played an important part in the religious and social activities of many ethnic groups. In particular, dance has been used by many early people to express thanksgiving, praise, supplication, and humiliation; to express joy at the departure of winter; and as an incantation to frighten away evil spirits.
     Among the earliest forms of religious dancing were the festivals to Dioysis, the Greek god of deliverance, from the cold season. These took place chiefly in Attica, the Grecian Archipelago, and Asia Minor, and were supposed to symbolize the people’s joy at the passing of winter. Of essentially a more religious nature was the dancing ceremony to the Roman god, Mars. It was in his honor that two shrines were built, the Quirinal and the Palatine, in which were stationed twenty-four priests, the twelve of Palatine being called salli or dancers.
     Although the Ancient Greeks and Romans dance systems were far more elaborate and organized than those of any contemporary nation, it is to the Egyptians that we ascribe the honor of being the mother-country of all civilized dance. This art was carried over to Greece and Italy, where it was polished up and refined. It is this art that the great Greek poet Homer describes as the "sweetest and most perfect of human enjoyments".

America
     With the arrival of the Puritans in the 1620s, dancing found little place among the toil and hardship faced in the new country. Dancing, however, was not held in disfavor with the Puritans. In particular the Reverend John Cotter did not condemn mixed dancing so long as it could be justified by the Bible. The first dance masters in New England, however, were not of the most reputable characters and hence were looked upon with wrath by the Boston Ministers.
     Nonetheless, dancing was taking root and with it the ideas of formal balls and social mixers. This was disapproved by the great Puritan leader, Cotton Mather, but little could be done to stop the new social tide that was developing in New England.
     In Southern colonies the status of dancing differed from that of the Northern colonies. To the wealthy of gentlemen class, dancing was a necessary part of one’s education, while to the servant and slave it was simply an enjoyable form of recreation. As a result, 17th-century America laid the foundation that was to prove that dancing was here to stay.