2.1 Between sacred and profane
At the time of early Christianity, the Church had an ambivalent attitude towards dance, as also towards music. Referring to the Jewish tradition, which saw dance and music as an expression of religious exultation, he considered it a means of spiritual elevation, almost a form of prayer. There existed, however, the mystery and Bacchic dance and that of the actors and jesters, from which the Church had to distance itself.
In the Early Middle Ages some forms of dance were represented in painting, in sculpture, on church windows, as a practice of participation in the life of the spirit and in the celebration of death. But soon the pagan element that had characterized the most ancient dance events re-emerged. The rites of pagan origin which included dance performances continued to survive especially in the Celtic world. In France the first Sunday of Lent was called Dimanche de brandons, the day in which the farmers, holding a torch (brandon) in their hands, walked through the fields dancing for propitiatory purposes. On the occasion of the feast of San Giovanni, naked dancers performed in the streets until they fell exhausted. The Council of Nicaea in 680 spoke against the excesses of processional dances and prohibited them. The ban, however, did not achieve the desired effect, nor did other ordinances issued in subsequent centuries.
Starting from the 4th century the ecclesiastical authorities, in an attempt to stem the plurality of cults that had developed within the various Christian communities, began to consider the presence of dance in sacred places a sign of the devil, as an expression of the body that had to be mortified to exalt the soul. Music was also gradually expelled from the official liturgy which, in addition to the human voice and the bell, only allowed the sound of the organ.
Despite having been banned in sacred places, dance, however, continued to survive outside, becoming part of the "sacred drama", a theatrical genre which represented episodes from the life of Christ and which was performed in churchyards.