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This book studies the most important form of theatre in the entire Roman empire—pantomime, the ancient equivalent of ballet dancing. Performed for more than five centuries in hundreds of theatres from Portugal in the West to the Euphrates, Gaul to North Africa, solo male dancing stars—the ancient forerunners of Nijinsky, Nureyev and Baryshnikov—stunned their intercultural and cross‐class audiences with their erotic costumes, gestural delicacy, and dazzling athleticism. In sixteen specially commissioned and complementary studies, the leading world specialists explore the all aspects of the ancient pantomime dancer's performance skills, popularity, and social impact, while paying special attention to the texts that formed the basis of this distinctive art form. The book argues that the core elements that underlay pantomime performances were the presence of a solo male dancer, masked, who used his body rather than speech in an evocation of a mythical story, accompanied by music; however, the venues in which pantomime performances took place, their scale, tone, and selection of additional personnel, could vary enormously. The book pays particular attention to the texts or ‘libretti’ of pantomime, which were sung by accompanying choirs, to the impact of pantomime on ancient aesthetics and rhetoric, and the importance of the medium at the time when modern ballet was invented in the Early Modern period. An appendix of key sources in translation, from Xenophon to Macrobius, assists the reader to identify the most important evidential documents, and includes a translation of A Syriac text on pantomime by Jacob of Sarugh.

Pantomime --- Theater --- Théâtre --- History --- Histoire --- Théâtre --- Dramatics --- Histrionics --- Professional theater --- Stage --- Theatre --- Performing arts --- Acting --- Actors --- Dumb shows --- Drama --- Musical theater --- Ballet --- Mime --- Pantomime - Greece - History - To 500. --- Pantomime - Rome - History - To 500. --- Grèce --- Rome --- Antiquité