The dances of today owe much to rites and work of the past, but something also to changing taste in castles, courts, and ballrooms where dancing was an elegant pastime. Dance steps borrowed from uncultured peasants were adapted to suit refined courtly manners. Leaps became curtsies. A lively folk dance, tamed, became the famous minuet.

Clothes too, which differ in different lands and times, play their part in the story of the dance. To cure sickness or bring rain, witch doctors recommended the dancers of the savage tribe-don the dress and mask they think will represent a spirit bringing health or rain. They and their audience believe the dancer becomes the spirit that he imitates. He "sheds" his own body for a body and mind of superhuman power.

In 17th-century palaces, the dancers were the courtiers. To entertain and delight their prince or king they put on masks and costumes. No one believed the courtier became the black moor whose dress he wore. But costume lent extra excitement to the entertainment of the dance. It plays the same important part in ballet today. In ballet, steps are ordinary movements changed by rhythm and emotion into art. The ballet story may consist of ordinary events selected to make an artistic tale. Ballet costume helps the dancer to lift both steps and story from everyday life into another world: one of artistic make-believe.

Through the centuries, costume has not only lent excitement to dance, it has helped to create dance steps. Traditional everyday dress, often heavy in colder climates, scanty in the tropics, plays its part in shaping folk dance, which affects all other social and spectacular dances.

Full skirts give rise to thrilling, whirling movements; heavy skirts and wooden shoes to stamping steps. Austrian mountaineers' shorts encourage the thigh-slapping schuhplattler dances.

Thus the story of dancing is not just a catalog of steps or a museum of costumes. To understand it we must know where people live, how they live, and why they change their ways of life.

Read the following articles to continue reading about dancing:

Story of Indian Dancing

Classical Dances of India