What is the origin of dance? According to one distinguished authority, dance precedes speech, precedes thinking, precedes feeling itself. Dance is the very first art of being human. The distinguished authority I have in mind is Ludwig van Beethoven, who described the beginning of his ballet The Creatures of Prometheus as follows:

Prometheus has shaped clay into a man and a woman, and animated them with the fire that he stole from heaven; but he is disappointed that they are just zombies, brainless creatures capable only of blank, uncertain movement. The music that Beethoven wrote to accompany their coming to life is startling: first we hear a vague, rhythmless prelude, then Prometheus’ temporary pleasure in his new creation. How are these half-baked gingerbread figures to be turned into a man and a woman capable of reason and affection? Prometheus ponders the problem and decides to take them to Parnassus, where Apollo and the Muses will instruct them how to be human by means of music and dance. As the scenario puts it:

The intelligent and moving scenario was devised by the great choreographer Salvatore Viganò, who commissioned the music from Beethoven and danced the role of the male Urmensch. By means of various dances from Terpsichore, the Graces, and Bacchus, the new man and woman learn the arts of pleasure and the arts of war.