Conversations on Ancient Dance is an initiative of the ICTMD Study Group on Music Archaeology, coordinated by Laura Gianvittorio-Ungar, conceived as a series of annual online study days dedicated to the study of dance in antiquity from a range of perspectives, including iconographic, textual, archaeological, anthropological, choreomusicological, and practice-based approaches.

Our first session explores ancient dance as a multisensory practice in the Graeco-Roman world, where movement, sound, gesture, rhythm, and spectatorship are deeply intertwined. Through case studies ranging from ritual and spectacle to pantomime, percussive dancing, ancient dance theory, and contemporary artistic re-enactments, the session examines how dance creates meaning across bodies, instruments, texts and images.