To browse Academia. This article will not cover dancing in churches because its focus is activities that were clearly non-devotional; dances were ambiguous activities that were sometimes acts of devotion. Also, the subject of dancing in the Middle Ages-including in churches-has been covered by a good number of competent scholars. Comitatus-a Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, See for example Eugene Louis Backman, Religious. Breaking the Rules: Textual Reflections on Transgression.
Analysis of various sources from Late Antiquity to the early Middle Ages, with a focus on texts by Church Fathers and conciliar norms intended to regulate the dancing practices, enables examination of the formation of Christian prejudice against dancing. A connection can be established between the choreia choral dance of the Ideal City described by Plato and the ideal of harmony that the early medieval Church attempted to impose as a form of social control.
Such reflections, on dancing as well as on harmony β or the lack thereof β thus facilitate an in-depth reflection on the choreutic aspects of demonic possession.
This paper will explore the practice and perspective of dance within the Christian traditions, specifically the emergence of dance as a ritual practice and the conflicting views of dance as sacred or as sinful.
Fieldwork on the Island of Krk in Croatia during research on tanac dances showed how religion is important in the life of communities on the Island.
