Beautifully written and extremely interesting. ( )

Elizabeth Wayland Barber writes about much more than dance in this surprisingly fascinating book. I expected it would be a quick read, glancing at the many figures and skimming a few passages. Instead, I read it through, entertained and enlightened about history, anthropology, folkways, language, the lives of women, and dance.

Barber takes us from current-day Balkan people back through medieval times to the Romans and Greeks back to Neolithic and Paleolithic times. She piles on evidence from linguistics and folktales and archeology and anthropology, showing how belief in spirit aids was important to herders and farmers all over the world.

The book concentrates on beliefs in Willies, the dancing goddesses, who were invoked to help nurture crops. Much of the work is theory, and Barber admits she does not yet have the whole story, but it is a very nice trip to follow all the strands of her reasoning.

The book ends with sections about how the mind is wired for narrative and rhythm and how important dance has been in making us the kind of humans we are. ( )