ABSTRACT
Many people of our age have lost touch with the subjective experience of the living body, and dance is one of the links that can take us back to a time when this was not so. Some folk dances have evolved in unbroken tradition from ancient religious cults. A dance still performed in some Greek villages is thought to derive from a Minoan ritual connected with the Theseus story. It is danced in a spiral, a form that has deep roots in nature and that is also associated with the labyrinth. Ritual labyrinths may have originated as danced figures. Accompanied by images posted on the Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism (ARAS), this chapter explores the symbolism of dance, the spiral, and the labyrinth, particularly in Minoan culture.
