The circle, or ring, dance was seen as an earthly counterpart of the heavenly dance of the angels, which was itself a celebration of the resurrection.

In many parts of the world-including Polynesia, north Africa & the Middle East-public dancing that focused on a physically linked couple would have been unthinkable, a violation of communal propriety.

By dancing in a socially approved way with their peers, individiuals proclaim their allegiance to society as a whole.

Dance, which displays the body in public, is one of the channels of communication used to pass along important social skills from one generation to the next.

The one unbreakable rule of couples dancing is that the partners must move inter dependently, as a unit.

A physician who treated mental cases says that he based his diagnosis on the way his patients moved: "The body never lies" was his maxim.

To know something about trees-about even one tree-is to know something profound about the nature of the world and our place in it.