Date of Award

5-2026

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Honors Thesis

Department

Dance

First Advisor

Lynne Kvapil

Second Advisor

Christopher Bungard

Abstract

This thesis investigates the evidence for women's public choruses in the polis of Athens and the wider Greek world prior to the 6th century BCE and their decline in Athens following the Kleisthenic reforms of 509/508 BCE. Emphasising analysis of visual sources through Athenian fabric vases in the Beazley archive, and supporting literary evidence, this research seeks to establish a base of evidence for a neglected area of dance and women's research in the classics. Additionally, by analyzing the significance of choral dance in polis social and political life, this research seeks potential reasons for the lack of a culture of women's dithyrambic choral performances in Democratic Athens. I suggest that the decline of women's public choral performance following democratic reforms is related to the enfranchisement of the citizen body, and a shift in social values that no longer emphasized displays of aristocratic power through furnishing public choruses of elite women. This evidence and findings will hopefully support the increased interest in patterns of Women's participation in Ancient Greek society and emphasize analysis of historic dance as an evolving rather than static form.

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