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The Origin of Dance

The definition of dance as taken from the Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition dated 2008 is as follows:

Dance [Old High Ger. danson =to drag, stretch], the art of precise, expressive, and graceful human movement, traditionally, but not necessarily, performed in accord with musical accompaniment. Dancing developed as a natural expression of united feeling and action.

The earliest history of human dance is of yet still vague but from the evidence of illustrated ceramic fragments, some archaeologists have speculated that dance originated some 5,000 to 9,000 years ago in early agricultural cultures through a path running from modern Pakistan to the Danube basin. Not all feel confident that this source provides an accurate picture. Theory aside, specific knowledge of prehistoric dances is lacking, and thus many experts have based their conclusions of dance history from the preserved ritual dances of various undeveloped societies.

Dance does not leave behind clearly identifiable physical artifacts such as stone tools, hunting implements or cave paintings. It is not possible to say when dance became part of human culture. Dance has been an important part of ceremony, rituals, celebrations and entertainment since before the birth of the earliest human civilizations. Archeology delivers traces of dance from prehistoric times such as the 9,000 year old Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka paintings in India and Egyptian tomb paintings depicting dancing figures from circa 3300 BC.

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 "love making." Before the creation of written languages, dance was one of the ways of passing these stories down from generation to generation.

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