Dancing

stepping to music in a gliding or lively fashion. It is believed that dancing of some sort is practiced by all peoples. Among the Mohammedans, the Hindus, the North American Indians, and many races, the dance is a religious exercise. Thus we hear of the war dance, the rain dance, the ghost dance, the medicine dance, the buffalo dance, and many others. The Greeks danced in honor of their gods and in their gymnastic exercises. King David danced before the Ark of the Covenant, but the Romans deemed it undignified for a man to dance. The English Cavaliers and the Virginians danced, but the Puritans of England and the New England colonists deemed dancing a sin. Many families and churches still frown on the practice--especially dancing in a promiscuous assembly of strangers. Of modern nations, those of southern Europe are the more famous for dancing. The fandango is a rustic Spanish dance; the minuet and quadrille are French; the galop, German; the polka, Hungarian; the waltz, Bavarian; the schottische, Bohemian; the reel, fling, and strathspey are Scottish; the breakdown is African; the jig, Irish; and the breakdown is African; the jig, Irish; and the ballet, a pantomime dance, is thought to be Roman. See Puritan