Convent & Stuart Hall | With Permission

The Latin lecture was delivered by Prof. Sarah Olsen, a Classics professor at Williams College. This tradition has been ongoing for eight years, with each lecture focusing on a different topic from the Ancient world of Greece and Rome.

On Mar. 26, Latin students, faculty and classics enthusiasts gathered at the Mother Williams Library for the 8th Annual Latin Lecture, hosted by Convent & Stuart Hall’s Modern & Classical Languages Department. This year’s guest speaker, Sarah Olsen, Associate Professor of Classics at Williams College, engaged the audience with her insights into the often-overlooked yet integral role of dance in Ancient Greek society.

She began the lecture by referencing the Cinderella ballet, illustrating how small visual details—such as the pointe shoes or the gracefulness of movement—can signify social standing or power. The fact that Cinderella wore pointe shoes from the very beginning subtly indicated her future importance in the story, as the most significant female characters were typically portrayed in pointe shoes. She explained that this concept was deeply rooted in Ancient Greek culture, where dance served to both reflect and reinforce power structures.

“I had a ballet background, but it wasn’t until college that a professor pointed out something that really redirected my thinking about my interests,” Olsen said. “My interests in gender, movement and the body was in fact something I had been doing since I was little — dance.”

Olsen then turned to The Iliad, particularly the Shield of Achilles, which features elaborate imagery of dance as a display of wealth and order. These depictions, she noted, were not just ornamental but symbolic, showing how movement could define one’s place in society.

She further explored Maiden Choruses, in which young women performed ritual dances while holding hands. This simple gesture, often seen in Greek artistic representations, signified harmony, discipline and preparation for adulthood. Yet, while these performances may have seemed celebratory, they also reinforced strict societal roles—who could participate, what they wore and how they moved were all dictated by tradition and hierarchy.

Beyond its role in status and social organization, dance could also be used to control and capture. Olsen pointed to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, where dance was not just an offering to the god but a means of submission. According to ancient accounts, Apollo would have people dance for him before ensnaring them in his power, blurring the lines between devotion and domination. Dance, in this case, became an instrument of divine authority, transforming performers into captives of the gods.

This theme extended to male dancers as well. The Pyrrhic — Pyrrhichios in Latin — war dance, performed by warriors, demonstrated physical power and military readiness. Dancers wielded shields and spears, executing precise, agile movements that mimicked battle maneuvers. While the Pyrrhic dance was strictly for men, we were introduced to a pattern where individuals, before they were ready for marriage, would dance in a co-ed setting. However, after participating in a dance like the Maiden Chorus — similar to a modern-day debutante ball — they would then strictly dance with others of their own gender.

“There is certainly a limitation to this research, as we cannot fully recreate the dances I have been studying,” Olsen said. “However, through primary art sources and historical accounts, we can uncover so much about Ancient dance and have such a deep understanding of its historical significance.”

Although the exact choreography of these Ancient dances has been lost, Olsen emphasized that literature, art and repeated metrical patterns provide valuable clues. By studying these sources, scholars can recover the deeper significance of dance as an expression of identity, hierarchy and control.