OCR Text |
Show RISE AND PROGRESS OF DANCING. 39 NOTES. 1. Vide Reinesius, Gruter, Gudio, &c. 2. Genesis Ch. IV. v. 21 and 22. 3. Read Lucian's Dialogue upon Dancing. 4. The ancients gave a proof of their taste and judgment in making the distinctions that subsist between the various styles of theatrical dancing ; of this Lucian haB informed us. They saw that it was requisite to have different kinds, and they accordingly divided them in the following manner :-the Cordax, the Sicinnis, and the Emmeleta. The Emmeleta was a sort of tragic movement or ballet, of which the elegance and majesty were greatly celebrated by Plato, and other eminent men who make mention of its use. The Sicinnis was a dance so called from the peculiar shaking of the body, and violent motion of the limbs, practised in it. {Vide Athenceus.) This dance must be considered of the grotesque style. The Cordax was a loose kind of dance introduced into comedies, performed by persons elevated with wine. {Vide Ath.) This dance was void of all dignity and decorum ; its movements were gross and ridiculous ; those who executed it made the most indecent motions with their backs, hips, and loins. This exhibition, therefore, I suppose, may be compared to the Dythy-rambic dance of the Bacchanals. In short, certain songs of a violent and infuriated character were suug in honour of Bacchus, and, at the same time, accompanied by dances of the above description. Besides these three sorts of dances, there was also another, called the Pyrrhic or warrior dance. (Vide Meursius Antiq. Grace, de Salt, verbo. niPPIXH.*) This dance imitated those movements and positions of the body, by the aid of which the wounds or darts of any enemy were avoided, that is, by bending * " Pyrrhicam. Ea Saltationis species est, nomen ab iuventore sortita, quern alii Pyrrhum Achillis (ilium, alii Pyrrhum quemdam Cretensem, vel etiam a ratione Saltandi quod Pyrrichii pedis modulo soleret agitari, de quo pede, Quint. Lib. IX. Cap. 14. Haec fuit Saltatio, ut plures existimanto armat, pro juvenibus ad militarem disciplinam exercendis : varii enim illius motus et flexus, vitandu vel in ferendae plagae reddebant idoneos."-CASAUB. 3* |