Dancing

Dancing (nacca) is movements of the body, particularly the feet, meant to express happiness and usually done to the accompaniment of music. At the time of the Buddha dance had not yet developed into an art and was most often associated with drunkenness, sexual license or war. One of the eight Precepts that devout Buddhists will try to observe at least twice a month is abstain from dancing (Anguttara Nikaya 4. 250). In Tibet and Bhutan during religious festivals, Jàtaka stories and events from Buddhist history are re-enacted by masked dancers.

References

• Buddhism A to Z. Ven. Dhammika, 2007.