This book explores the many traces of ancient Greek and Roman dance—the impressions, reimaginations, and imprints of bodily movement and choreography evident in the literary, visual, and material sources of Greek and Roman antiquity. By placing ancient representations and realities in dialogue with the fields of Dance and Performance Studies, the analyses contained herein offer a range of new approaches and fresh perspectives.

After providing a general introduction, this volume surveys Greek and Roman ideas about dance through a set of concepts that have proven to be central to the recent and ongoing development of dance theory and practice. Taking up “Geography,” “Space,” “Body,” “Audience,” “Movement,” “Objects,” “Politics,” and “Gods” in turn, the book provides tools and models for understanding ancient dance from a variety of angles. Each chapter considers both Greek and Roman sources, and draws from both literary and material evidence, thereby illustrating the wealth of possibilities for the continued study of related questions across the various subfields of Classics. The volume orients scholars of contemporary performance within the world of ancient Greek and Roman dance, while also deepening classicists’ engagement with interdisciplinary frameworks and me­thods for the study of dance and performance.

Imprints of Dance in Ancient Greece and Rome demonstrates the centrality of dance to ancient culture and society, and underscores its value as an avenue of scholarly investigation. Its eight authors invite further conversation and debate on the themes of this volume and look forward to new developments in the fields of ancient dance and performance studies.