The origin of dance during the Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greekand Ancient Roman periods were similar. However, despite some similarities inthe origin and purposes, dance also had its differences in purpose in thesethree different cultures. In Ancient Egypt, dance was mainly used for religiousworship to honor Apis, one of the most powerful Egyptian Gods and for funerals,as death is an important concept in the Egyptian civilization. However, asentertainment slowly became one of the functions in the Egyptian civilization,slaves were trained to dance professionally to perform for the upper classduring their private events. In Ancient Greek dance was a highly respected form of art,because dance was believed to be a gift from the Gods. As dance was highlyregarded, Ancient Greeks believed that those who honor the Gods mostbeautifully in dance are the best in war, resulting in war-like dance duringAncient Greek.
In Ancient Greek they also believed that dance was the idealintegration of the body and soul, which is a good means for Moral traininghence, dance was not only used for religious worship but also used in education.Gradually, dance was also incorporated in Greek theatre and a part ofentertainment for guests after dinners and events. Eventually, dancers werewidely found and were highly specialized with amazing skills. During the Ancient Roman period, dance had much lessermeaning to the Romans than the Greeks whom they borrowed most of their culturefrom. However similar to the Greeks, the Romans had war dances where warriorsand priests performed weapon dances to worship the God of War, Mars. The Romans also used dance duringreligious festivals and in their Roman theatre in a form of Pantomime, anon-verbal form of theatre.
Early dance dating from Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greek andAncient Roman periods were all used for similar reasons. Dance resulted becauseof religious believes hence dance was used for religious worship in the variouscultures. Similarly, in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greek and Ancient Romans, dance graduallyevolved into becoming a form of entertainment for the people, whether it’s inthe form of theatre like in Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman or as anentertainment during events and dinners in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greek. In conclusion, dance in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greek andAncient Roman served similar purposes as dance was mainly used due to theirreligious believe as dance was used to please and as a form of worship to theirvarious Gods. However, each culture had their differences as well, for example,in Ancient Egypt dance was used during funerals because of the importance offunerals in the Egyptian civilization, while in Ancient Greek dance was usedfor education and incorporating dance in Roman theatre as a form of Pantomimein the Ancient Roman era. All three cultures had their similarities in the useof dance, but the difference was what made each cultures dance so distinct andmore unique. (494words) Greek dance: an ancient link – a living heritage.
(n.d.).Retrieved January 28, 2018, from http://www.helleniccomserve.
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