This study investigates what literature, drama, the visual arts, and music may reveal about the place of dance in society through the early sixteenth century. Its emphasis is on attitudes, emotions, and beliefs connected with dance, rather than on dance history. For purposes of this investigation, dance is examined as the subject of works of art and the symbol of human values rather than the primary object of study. / Dance music and manuals through the fifteenth century are examined to determine the state of scholarly consensus regarding performance practice prior to the sixteenth century. The study of musical instrumentation is shown to be a particularly rich source of material concerning the behavior supposedly encouraged by the loud, wind instruments often used to play for dances. / Preaching manuals of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and other moralizing materials are surveyed for references to dance; they reveal a generally negative attitude toward dance, and specifically warn against the wiles of dancing women. Other religious writings of the Middle Ages, including poetry such as Dante's Commedia, refer to the dance of souls into and in Heaven. / Literature and the visual arts from the period between 1250 and 1525 have been surveyed for references to dance. Those references illustrate the role of dance in social institutions, as entertainment, emotional expression, and communication. Dance in literature and the visual arts before 1530 is found to represent the drive of sexuality, the compulsion to sin, inescapable death, the harmonious order of good government, and the active love of Heaven. / The results of the analysis and comparison among the arts reveal a rich variety of conflicting attitudes toward dance. Dance was an indispensable social skill and, at the same time, an activity dangerous for the soul. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-01, Section: A, page: 0010. / Major Professor: S. Douglass Seaton. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76830 |
| Contributors | Maynard, Susan Watkins., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 288 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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