Chorea (dance)

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Chorea (choreia, khoreia, χορεία) is a circle dance (χορεύω σε κύκλο) accompanied by singing (see chorus, khoros), known in ancient Greece. Homer refers to this dance (χορεία) in his epic poem, the Iliad.

Although Greece was not the sole originator of circle dances, derivatives of the name are used to describe circle dances in a number of other countries: Khorovod (Russia), Hora (Romania, Moldova, Israel), Horo (Bulgaria).

Chorea is also the name of a disease, so named by Paracelsus to describe the rapid, jerking physical movements of medieval pilgrims traveling to the healing shrine of St. Vitus.

[edit] See also

• Greek dance