From the Egypt of the Pharaohs to Dionysius, bequests writings, relief’s, mosaics.. Allow us to know the world of dance in ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman. In ancient Egypt, the ceremonial dances were instituted by the pharaohs. These dances, culminating in ceremonies representing the death and reincarnation of the god Osiris were becoming more complex to the point that they could only be performed by highly skilled professionals. In ancient Greece, the influence of Egyptian dance was brought about by the philosophers who had traveled to Egypt to expand their knowledge. The philosopher Plato, a catalyst for these influences, was an important theorist and supporter of the Greek dance. The ritual dance of the Gods

and Goddesses of the Greek pantheon has been acknowledged as the origins of contemporary Western theater. About Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and intoxication (also known as Bacchus), women's groups were called maenads night to the mountains where, under the influence of wine, celebrated his orgies with ecstatic dances. These dances included, eventually, music and myths that were played by actors and dancers trained. At the end of V century BC these dances became part of the social and political scene of ancient Greece. Among the Romans, the acceptance of dance by the government was declining. Until 200 BC the dance was part of Roman processions and festivals. However, from 150 BC Roman all dance schools closed their doors because the Roman nobility that the dance was considered suspicious activity and even dangerous. However, the strength of the movement did not stop and under the reign of Emperor Augustus (63 BC 14 AD) came a dance form known today as mime or pantomime in which the communication is without words, through stylized gestures and movements and became non-verbal language in multicultural Rome. The Christianization of the Roman Empire ushered in a new era in which the body, sexuality and dance were united and were the subject of controversy and conflict. Dance in the middle Ages The attitude of the Christian Church to dance, from the fourth century and throughout the Middle Ages was ambivalent. On one side we find the rejection of dance as a catalyst for sexual permissiveness, licentiousness and ecstasy by Church leaders such as S. Augustine (354-430) whose influence continued throughout the Middle Ages. Moreover, ancient Fathers of the Church tried to incorporate the dances peculiar to the northern tribes, Celts, Anglo-Saxons, Gauls .. Christians in worship. Seasonal celebration dances were often incorporated into Christian holidays to coincide with ancient rites at the end of Winter and celebration of fertility with the arrival of Spring. In the early ninth century Charlemagne forbade dancing, but the command was not respected. The dance continued as part of the religious rites of the peoples of Europe though disguised with new names and new purposes. During this time there arose a secret dance called the dance of death, prompted by the ban of the church and the emergence of the Black Death. Originally created as a secret and ecstatic dance during the eleventh and twelfth centuries the dance of death began in response to the Black Death that killed more than 50 million people in 200 years. This dance spread from Germany to Italy in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and has been described as a dance based on jumps in and yells which convulsed with rage to throw body disease. The Renaissance and the birth of the Ballet The advent of the Renaissance brought a new attitude towards the body, art and dance. The courts of Italy and France became the center of new developments in dance through the patrons to dance teachers and musicians who created large-scale social dances that allowed the proliferation of celebrations and festivities. At the same time the dance became the subject of serious study and a group of intellectuals calling themselves the Pleiades worked to recover the ancient Greek theater, combining music, sound and dance. In the court of Catherine de Medici (1519-1589), wife of Henry II Italian were born the first forms of Ballet master of the brilliant Beauyeulx Baldassare. In 1581, Balthazar led the first court ballet, a dance which has idealized the story of a mythical legend combining spoken texts, assembling and elaborates costumes and stylized dance group. In 1661 Louis XIV of France authorized the establishment of the first Royal Academy of Dance. In the centuries following the ballet became a formal artistic discipline and was adapting to the changing political and aesthetic of the time. The partner social dances like the minuet and the waltz began to emerge as dynamic performances of greater freedom and expression. In the nineteenth century, the era of romantic ballet reflected the cult of the ballerina and the struggle between the earthly world and the spiritual world that transcend the earth, exemplified in works such as Giselle (1841), Swan Lake (1895), and Nutcracker (1892). At the same time, the political powers of Europe colonized Africa, Asia and Polynesia where banned and persecuted the dances and drums considering them crude and sex. This lack of dance in other cultures seems to change at the end of World War I and the dances of African and Caribbean origin create new forms of dance in Europe and America. Dance in the Twentieth Century After World War I, the arts in general do a serious questioning of values and seek new ways to reflect individual expression and a way of life more dynamic. In Russia there's a renaissance of ballet led by the most brilliant choreographers, composers, visual artists and designers. People worked in this company as Anna Pavlova, Claude Debussy, Stravinsky, Pablo Picasso ... Parallel to the revolution arose Ballet the first manifestations of modern dance. In reaction to the stylized movements of ballet and the gradual emancipation of women was a new way of dancing that promoted free expression. One of the pioneers of this movement was Isadora Duncan. As the dance was gaining ground, was breaking all the rules. From the 20s to the present day new freedoms in the movement of the body was the trigger for the change in attitudes toward the body. The music with Latin influences, African and Caribbean inspired the proliferation of dance halls and dances like the rumba, samba, tango or cha cha cha. The revival of Harlem aparicón led to the other dances like the lindy hop or jitterbug. From the 50s took over more individualistic other dances such as rock and roll, twist and the so-called free-style, then came the disco dancing, breakdancing ... Dance, capitalized, remains part of our lives as it did in our ancestors. It's something that evolves with the times but is inherent to human nature.