The Oldest Dances in the World
As Gene Kelly noted in the classic 1952 musical Singin’ in the Rain, sometimes people just gotta dance. Whether it’s an impromptu shaking of the hips or a complex routine dashed off by a professional like Kelly, dancing is a gift available to people of any skill level who feel inspired to move their limbs to a beat. And although many of us prefer to display our rhythmic limitations in private, dancing is unquestionably a social activity, and has been from time immemorial.
While most traditional dances seem old-fashioned to us nowadays, many well-known forms, including the polka, foxtrot, and waltz, are relatively modern creations from the past one to two centuries. Other dances, however, are far older, with roots that hearken back to the world’s formative civilizations.
Determining which dance forms are the oldest is an inexact science, since many morphed and were incorporated into other styles as they shimmied across cultures and eras. Nevertheless, here’s a look at some of the oldest dances in human history.
Grass Dance and Other Indigenous Rituals
Some Indigenous cultures today proudly display moves learned from their ancestors to celebrate deities and mark the cycles of life. Although their traditions date back thousands of years, potentially making them the oldest dances known to humans, the preponderance of oral storytelling over written records in these cultures renders it impossible to determine just how old these dances are.
Native Americans, who first set foot in North America as many as 23,000 years ago, are known in part for the array of dances performed in communal powwow gatherings. One of the older examples is the grass dance, said to have originated with the Omaha people in the Northern Plains, in which performers stomp their feet and twirl to the thumping beat of a drum.
The Aboriginal people of Australia, with a history that dates back some 75,000 years, also have a communal gathering known as a corroboree, a ceremonial combination of dancing, singing, and narration to relate the origin stories of the Dreamtime (Aboriginal mythology). Their dances include the Warren Jarra, which entails the continuous motion of pivoting bent legs inward and outward, and the Ngukum, with participants waving leaves to simulate fending off mosquitoes.
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Classical Indian Dances
In Central India, the discovery of what appears to be dancing figures amid the Mesolithic-era cave paintings of the Bhimbetka rock shelters underscores the long history of dance on the subcontinent. While it's unknown what particular moves the artist was documenting, the survival of the Naṭyashastra, a Sanskrit treatise on art that may date back to at least the third century BCE, offers better insight on early Indian dances.
Spawned in Southern India, Bharatanatyam was originally a Hindu temple dance performed by solo women. Broken down into the divisions of nritta (technical dance), nritya (expressive dance), and natya (storytelling), Bharatanatyam is characterized by squatting legs and counter-rhythm footwork, its performances lasting up to two hours.
From the eastern part of the country, Odissi also originated as a temple dance performed by women. Compared to Bharatanatyam, its movements are generally slower and subtler, and feature more of the elaborate hand gestures known as mudras.
Kathak developed among nomadic storytellers of North India, so this dance is also strongly built around narrative principles. Not limited to either gender, performers showcase balance and grace with an upright posture and techniques that include chakkars (spins), tatkar (foot strikes), and paltas (patterns). Unlike the country’s other native dances, which date back more than 2,000 years, Kathak came into its modern form by way of combined Hindu and Muslim influences.
Hula, Dragon Dance, and Siva Samoa
In Hawaii, residents have been performing the hula for centuries. This world-famous dance, which involves the swaying of hips and corresponding wavelike arm movements, comes with an array of backstories that tie its roots to differing regions and mythological figures. While such folklore makes hula’s origins nearly impossible to pinpoint, The Encyclopedia of World Folk Dance estimates the dance dates back to around 300 CE.
The encyclopedia also points to a similar dance from a neighboring geographical region with even earlier beginnings. The Siva Samoa, introduced by the Lapita people around 800 BCE, is perhaps the oldest dance of the Polynesian islands. Mainly performed by women at social gatherings, the Siva Samoa incorporates side-to-side swaying, graceful arm movements, and facial expressions to relay the emotions of its performer.
From China, the dragon dance has endured as a tradition of Chinese New Year since the Han dynasty in the third century BCE. Initially performed as a means to worship ancestors and pray for rain, this good luck dance requires the use of multiple performers to coordinate the swirling and sweeping motions of a multipart dragon puppet to the rhythms of cymbals, gongs, and a drum.
Dabke and Belly Dancing
Considering Mesopotamia in the modern-day Middle East is known as the “cradle of civilization,” it follows that some of the world’s oldest dances were nurtured in this region. One such dance is the dabke, or dabkeh, which, according to The Encyclopedia of World Folk Dance, can be traced back to the Canaanites or Phoenicians around 2000 BCE.
Performed by a group of people in a line or circle, the dabke is an energetic dance marked by stomping, kicking, and twirling items such as handkerchiefs. While the dabke has increasingly assumed the status of a protest dance in recent years, it remains a means of celebration at festivals and weddings across Palestine, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.
Like the hula, the belly dance is a widely recognized performative art with no consensus origin story. One starting point can be found in the Indus Valley in 3000 BCE, where midwives helped prepare expectant mothers with abdominal exercises. Migrating to the Middle East and North Africa, belly dancing took on differing names and variations of the torso-focused thrusting and shaking that distinguished it from other dances. Belly dancing has endured as a highly developed form of expression, and is often credited as the oldest known dance in the world.
