ABSTRACT
This chapter provides background information crucial to the understanding of costume for dance. As far as historians can determine, the practice of dance is nearly as old as humanity. The urge to embellish the dancer followed soon after the practice began. Early dance performances used costumes adapted from day-to-day clothing, but also tasked artists with imagining and producing entirely novel structures, materials and surface decoration that would surprise and delight the viewer. The environment of a dance also became important for some cultures. Many cultures evolved a tradition of formal dance performances. Tribes of the northern plains in America performed dances to mark events, welcome visitors, for spiritual rituals and for entertainment. By the twentieth century, concert dance diverged into multiple forms that used design in varying ways.
