The history of dance may be as long as the history of humankind. We can only guess how dances looked like in earlier epochs.
In European culture, one of the earliest records of dancing is by Homer, whose "Iliad"; describes chorea Fascination with the roots of dance has long interested writers, and this online collection begins with M. Burette's 1746 short essay published in Venice. Originally printed in 1736, Prima, e seconda memoria per servire all istoria del ballo degli was primarily concerned with ancient Greek and Roman dance. One of the earliest and more exhaustive attempts at writing a dance history was Louis de Cahusac's 1754 La danse ancienne et moderne. In three volumes Cahusac emphasized the importance of the study of theories of all the arts and the origins of dance, covering Greek, Roman, Turkish, and Egyptian dance, as well as the genesis of French court and theatrical dance. Cahusac's work quoted extensively from the works of Philippe Quinault. As with earlier manuals, and most others written through the turn of the twentieth century.The increasing importance of interdisciplinary understanding in the academy is reflected, happily, in departments of dance, as well as other art forms. Just as philosophy, history, literature, and other humanities disciplines are seriously engaging with dance scholarship, so are faculty from these fields increasingly welcome as teachers in dance departments.
