Generally the antique dances were connected with a religious ritual
conceived to be acceptable to the Gods. This connection between
dancing and religious rites was common up to the 16th century. It
still continues in some countries.

In some of the earliest designs which have come down to us the dancers
moved, as stars, hand in hand round an altar, or person, representing
the sun; either in a slow or stately method, or with rapid trained
gestures, according to the ritual performed.

Dancing, music and poetry were inseparable. Dancing is the poetry of
motion, and its connection with music, as the poetry of sound, occurs
at all times. In our own day musical themes are marked by forms
originally dance times, as waltz time, gavotte time, minuet time, etc.

[Illustration: Fig. 2.--Greek figures in a solemn dance. From a vase
at Berlin.]

Amongst the earliest representations that are comprehensible, we have
certain Egyptian paintings, and some of these exhibit postures that
evidently had even then a settled meaning, and were a phrase in the
sentences of the art. Not only were they settled at such an early
period (B.C. 3000, fig. 1) but they appear to have been accepted and
handed down to succeeding generations (fig. 2), and what is remarkable
in some countries, even to our own times. The accompanying
illustrations from Egypt and Greece exhibit what was evidently a
traditional attitude. The hand-in-hand dance is another of these.

The earliest accompaniments to dancing appear to have been the
clapping of hands, the pipes,[Footnote: Egyptian music appears to