Ring Dance performed in legend by Apollo and the Muses
Greece
The ancient choruses, dances, and songs of the dithyramb of Greece displayed the familiar pattern of a dignified, circular dance around the altar of Dionysus in the theater’s orchestra ((Sticklor, Susan. “Primitive and Sacred Dance.” The VRI Slide Library of Dance History: Survey. Visual Resources, inc., et al. New York: Visual Resources, inc., 1976)). In fact, the term orchestra originally meant the circular dancing place of the theater ((Kraus, Richard G., Sarah Chapman Hilsendager, and Brenda Dixon Gottschild. History of the Dance in Art and Education. 3rd ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1991, 43)). In addition, the terms carole and chorus, also originally Greek, meant a sacred ring dance, men and women holding each others hands ((qtd. in Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas, and Clare Goodrick-Clarke. G.R.S. Mead and the Gnostic Quest. Berkeley, Calif.: North Atlantic Books, 2005, 153)). LDS scholar, Dr. Hugh Nibley reminds us that the creation was often acted out in these Greek dance dramas:
The Greek play has a chorus. Well what does chorus mean? It’s a ring dance; it’s a circle. Same as our word curve; Latin: curvus; going around. The chorus sings, and the chorus of the muses sings the poiema, the creation song . . . When they sing together, it’s the poiema, the song of the creation. It’s a glorious thing. It’s a round dance like the Egyptian maypole. ((Nibley, Hugh, and Stephen Edward Robinson. Ancient Documents and the Pearl of Great Price: Personal Development 80. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, Division of Continuing Education, 1986, 2))
Nibley takes it one step further to explain that all the arts originated from the ancient temple dramas. “So poetry, music, and dance,” he tells us, “go out to the world from the temple-called by the Greeks the Mouseion, the shrine of the Muses” ((Nibley, Hugh, Don E. Norton, and Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies. Temple and Cosmos: Beyond this Ignorant Present. Vol. 12. Salt Lake City, Utah; Provo, Utah: Deseret Book Co.; Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1992, 23)). Again he states that, “All the arts and sciences began at the temple. Dance, music, architecture, sculpture, drama, and so forth-they all go back to the temple” ((Nibley, Hugh, and Gary P. Gillum. Of all Things!: Classic Quotations from Hugh Nibley. 2nd, rev. and expand ed. Salt Lake City, Utah; Provo, Utah: Deseret Book Co.; Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1993, 45)). Kraus supports this claim of a ritualistic connection between the arts when he informs us that Native American ceremonies and sacred dances are “part of an elaborate drama which embraces all the arts” ((Kraus, Richard G., Sarah Chapman Hilsendager, and Brenda Dixon Gottschild. History of the Dance in Art and Education. 3rd ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1991, 34)).
Hebrews
Round dances can be seen in the history of the Hebrews. The dance by the Israelites around the Golden Calf has been described as a circular, or ring dance ((Kraus, Richard G., Sarah Chapman Hilsendager, and Brenda Dixon Gottschild. History of the Dance in Art and Education. 3rd ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1991, 41)). Philo states that the festivities after the Israelites miraculously passed safely through the Red Sea included “both men and women, together . . . forming one chorós [ring dance]” who “sang of joyful thanks to God” ((qtd. in Taylor, Margaret Fisk. A Time to Dance: Symbolic Movement in Worship. Philadelphia: United Church Press, 1967, 75)). In fact, the Hebrew word for festival, or chag, originally meant a ring dance around a sacred altar ((Catmull, Laraine. “Jewish Religious Dance.” Focus on Dance X: Religion and Dance. Dennis J. Fallon and Mary Jane Wolbers, eds. Washington, D.C.: AAHPERD, 1982, 41)).
Christians
Early Christian texts are full of references to sacred rituals including round or ring dances. G.R.S. Mead informs us that “The idea of a sacred dance – a heavenly carol or chorus – of utmost holiness goes back to the earliest times of Christianity” ((qtd. in Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas, and Clare Goodrick-Clarke. G.R.S. Mead and the Gnostic Quest. Berkeley, Calif.: North Atlantic Books, 2005, 153)). Certain early Christian sects called the Therapeutae often fled into the wilderness to avoid persecution and assembled on the Sabbath to perform ring dances and sing hymns ((Kraus, Richard G., Sarah Chapman Hilsendager, and Brenda Dixon Gottschild. History of the Dance in Art and Education. 3rd ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1991, 54)). In their writings, a number of early Christian bishops mentioned the ring dance as part of the worship and doctrine of the Church.
Today, very meaning and etymology of the word church in English is said to have been derived from the ancient Greek work circe (by the Middle English chirche or kirke, and the Old English cirice) because of the practice of the earliest worshipers gathering in a circle to “dance the Davidic dance” or when “priests and priestesses gathered in a ‘circle’ to worship” the sun-goddess Circe ((“Where Did the Word ‘Church’ Come From?”, http://www.familybible.org/Teaching/Messianic/Church.htm)). The assemblage of Roman worshipers under Constantine became known as “the circle” because of this practice, and such a group of worshipers thus came to be rendered as church in our modern English Bible ((ibid. Incidentally, the worship of the sun is also where our English word for Sunday originates.)). One commenter even believes the origin of the word church refers to the “‘inner circle’ of the Babylonian Mystery Religion”, or in other words, that select group that was initiated into the mysteries or sacred rites ((ibid.)).
The practice of worshiping in a ring dance continued. Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis on Cyprus in A.D. 367, described Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem – “For behold, once again the King approaches . . . once again perform the choral dances . . . leap wildly, ye Heavens; sing Hymns, ye Angels; ye who dwell in Zion, dance ring dances” ((ibid., 54)). And Basilius, Bishop of Caesarea, once said, “We remember those who now, together with the Angels, dance the dance of the Angels around God, just as in the flesh they performed a spiritual dance of life and, here on earth, a heavenly dance” ((Backman, E. Louis. Religious Dances in the Christian Church and in Popular Medicine. London: Allen & Unwin, 1952, 24-25)).
Clement of Alexandria even declared that those who were not initiated in the temple “mysteries” were those who could not sing or dance. These worshipers were forced to refrain from joining in the ring dance; only once you were inducted into the “mysteries” could you perform a ring dance around the altar ((Taylor, Margaret Fisk. A Time to Dance: Symbolic Movement in Worship. Philadelphia: United Church Press, 1967, 73-74; Backman, E. Louis. Religious Dances in the Christian Church and in Popular Medicine. London: Allen & Unwin, 1952, 19)). Lucian adds that you cannot find a single ancient teleten, or “mystery,” that does not include a dance ((Nibley, Hugh. “Abraham’s Creation Drama.” Maxwell Institute. 6 Apr 1999. 19 Nov 2006. Brigham Young University. http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?table=transcripts&id=72)). An insightful reference comes from Gregory Thaumaturgus, another early Christian bishop, who said that “The ring dance of the angels encircles him [Jesus Christ], singing his glory in heaven and proclaiming peace on earth… Today Adam is resurrected and performs a ring dance with the angels, raised up to heaven” ((Taylor, Margaret Fisk. A Time to Dance: Symbolic Movement in Worship. Philadelphia: United Church Press, 1967, 74)).
One of the most interesting references to the ring dance is contained in one of the earliest of the apocryphal texts called the Acts of John presumably written around 120 AD, which describes a ring dance or prayer circle that Jesus Christ performed with his apostles during the Last Supper ((ibid. 70)). This text has been expounded on extensively by Hugh Nibley in “The Early Christian Prayer Circle,” and Max Pulver in “Jesus’ Round Dance and Crucifixion.” We will explore this ancient text more in the pages to come.