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.

The basic vehicle of the dance is the human body. When and how people dance is determined by their attitudes towards their body.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.