The important place of women in dance can be traced back to the origins of civilization. Cave paintings, Egyptian frescos, Indian statuettes, ancient Greek and Roman art and records of court traditions in China and Japan all testify to the important role women played in ritual and religious dancing from the start. In the Middle Ages, what has become known as ballet had its beginnings in Italian court festivals when women frequently played the parts of men. It was however in late 17th-century France that the Paris Opera produced the first celebrated ballerinas. While women began to dominate the ballet scene in the 18th century, it was with the advent of Romantic ballet in the 19th century that they became the undisputed centre of attraction with stars playing the leading roles in the works of Marius Petipa, appearing in theatres across Europe from Milan's La Scala to the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg. More recently, women have played a leading role in developing various forms of modern dance including flamenco and expressionist dance.
Lithograph by A. E. Chalon of (left to right) Carlotta Grisi, Marie Taglioni, Lucille Grahn and Fanny Cerrito in Pas de Quatre, 1845
Dancing women, El Cogul caves, Lérida
Dancing girl statuette from Mohenjo-daro, 2500-1500 BC
Ancient Egyptian dancer, c. 1200 BC
Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which includes dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was considered to have been developed as a rejection of, or rebellion against, classical ballet, and also a way to express social concerns like socioeconomic and cultural factors.
Martha Graham in 1948
Isadora Duncan in 1903
Dancer at the Laban school, Berlin 1929
Martha Graham and Bertram Ross in 1961; photo by Carl van Vechten