In Laws, Plato writes that dance should be taught to both boys and girls as an integral part of their education, and suggests that dancing masters be provided for the boys and dancing mistresses for the girls.
In Book Seven of Laws, two sorts of dancing are discussed: decent and dubious. There are two kinds of beautiful, or decent dances, the warlike Pyrrhic and the peaceful Emmeleia.. ThePyrrhic which represents the "motion of fighting, and ...of fair bodies and brave souls engaged in violent effort", is devised to impart courage. The Emmeleia , or pacific dances, signify "the motion of a temperate soul living in a state of prosperity and moderate pleasures." (Major,"The Moralization of the Dance in Elyot'Governor ,p.32).
Indecent dances concern ugly bodies and mentalities inclined toward comic laughter. Plato considers it important for citizens to see these types of dances in order to learn what is ridiculous, "for the sake of never doing or saying anything ridiculous through ignorance." However, he insists that "we must order slaves and payed foreigners to imitate such things, and never make anything of them at all, nor permit the appearance of any free citizen, whether man or woman, who has learned them, but it should always appear that there is something strange about these representations." (Plato, Laws 814-16e, written c.350 BC from the Context of Ancient Drama).
In Laws, Plato also addresses regulations for female performances and male performances, based on gender differences. These state that rhythms and modes of the musical accompaniment must be appropriate to the characteristics of each sex.
It would be terrible if the words failed to fit the mode, or their metre were at odds with the beat of the music, which is what will happen if we don't match properly the songs to each of the other elements in the performance - elements must therefore be dealt with, at any rate I outline, in our legal code...So an elevated manner and courageous instincts must be regarded as characteristic of the male, while a tendency to modesty and restraint must be presented- in theory and law alike - as a peculiarly feminine trait.(Plato,Laws vii,pp.290-91)
To see the influence of Plato's writings on Renaissance dance and dance literature click dance treatises and comportment.
(Click here to return to main text, Le Balet Comique de la Reine : An Analysis, Part II)