ABSTRACT
The major cause of the lack of any significant theatrical activity and development in America prior to the mid-eighteenth century and, therefore, by implication, the latent development of professional art dance, is often attributed to Puritan denunciations of the arts and entertainment (Cole 1942, Kraus and Chapman 1981). In New England in the seventeenth century the Puritans ruled with the stern hand of Calvinism, the principles of which were founded on the doctrine of predestination; that is, the idea that individuals are saved or damned before they are born and that only a few are ‘chosen’ (predestined for salvation). Although not all colonists in New England were Puritans, they were the most dominant group and often those who did not agree with their rules were either banished or severely punished.
