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Dancing with Greek Vases


As gods dance, women twirl in choruses, and men leap in kōmos revels on Athenian red-figure vases, their animate bodies must be made to conform to the rounded shape of the vessels. Occasionally, these vases are even included in the images themselves, particularly within the kōmos revel, where the participants incorporate vessels into their dance as props, markers of space, and tools to engage new dance partners. Positioning these scenes within their potential sympotic context, I analyze the vases held by the dancers according to the ancient viewer’s own possible use of these physical vessels. The symposiasts’ own dextrous interaction with the objects echoes the dancers’ behaviors, so that human and ceramic bodies come together in shared movement. The handling of vases thus suggests a tactile, embodied experience shared between dancers and viewers; by evoking viewers’ familiarity with handling similar vessels, the vase-paintings invite viewers to join in the dance.