Dancing

Dancing is the act of moving the body in rhythm, usually in time to music. It seems natural for people to express themselves through rhythmic movement. Young children jump up and down when they are excited and sway gently when content or at rest.

Dancing is both an art form and a form of recreation. Dance as art may tell a story, set a mood, or express an emotion. Some dances consist of symbolic gestures that tell a story completely through movement. As recreation, dancing has long been a people's source of fun, relaxation, and companionship. In earlier times, square dances gave families a welcome chance to socialize. Today dancing at a party or other gathering remains a popular way for people to enjoy themselves and to make new friends.

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 say when dance became part of human culture. Dance has certainly 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 9,000 year old Bhimbetka rock shelters 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 production of written languages, dance was one of the methods of passing these stories down from generation to generation.

The signification of dance, is predicated of the affection of spiritual truth, and signifies its pleasantness or gladness. In ancient times gladness of heart was attested not only by musical instruments and songs, but also by dances. For joys of the heart, or interior joys, burst forth in the body into various acts, as into songs, and also into dances. And as in ancient times the gladnesses which excelled all others were spiritual gladnesses, that is, were from the affections of spiritual loves, which were those of good and truth, therefore also it was then allowed to add dances to the songs and musical harmonies, and in these ways also to testify joy. It is from this that dances are mentioned in the Word, and by them are signified gladnesses of the affections of truth or of faith, from good or charity, as in these passages.