Abstract:
Dance is an activity, which, ever since the Antiquity, has never ceased to be performed in the Hellenic
space. This fact gives a broad margin for the study of dance through many different approaches. From
all the periods, the darkest but also the most controversial one is the Byzantine period. In this period,
in a male-dominated Byzantine society, “women have been placed by law on the margin of public life”
and “have been intentionally set away from the circles of the church. Only a few empresses and
noblewomen made their presence felt”. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the position and the
role of the woman in dance and dance occasions during the Byzantine period. In particular, it will
examine whether women danced, what they danced to and the way they did it during the Byzantine
period, and how this was seen and addressed by the society and the Official Church. Data collection
was based on secondary sources and, in particular, on the principles of the bibliographic and historical
archival research. In conlusion, women in Byzantium skillfully “danced” around the antithetical
relationship “a saint or a prostitute”, and this balance is achieved through their dance. |
