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10,000 BCE
Paleolithic era
is a period from around 3 million to around 12,000 years ago. Its when humans first discovered stone tools. -
Period: 8300 BCE to 30 BCE
Ancient Greece
was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. -
3500 BCE
Neolithic Era
is a period from about 12,000 to around 2,000 years ago. When humans started farming -
Period: 900 BCE to 700 BCE
Geometric Period
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Period: 800 BCE to 701 BCE
Roman Empire
The Bacchic dance is taken especially seriously in Ionia and Pontus, although it belongs to Satyric drama, and has so taken hold of people there that, in the festival time, they put aside everything else and sit the day through, watching corybants, satyrs, and shepherds; and people of the best lineage and foremost in every city dance, not in the least embarrassed but proud of it -
776 BCE
First Olympic Games
The ancient Olympic Games were originally a festival, or celebration, of and for Zeus. -
762 BCE
Earliest Greek Poet Homer
His first piece was Iliad which was wrote in 762 B.C. give or take 50 years. It tells a story of the Trojan War. Then his second piece was Odyssey which is dated around 800 BC. -
Period: 700 BCE to 601 BCE
Greek Literature and theatre
The earliest Greek literature was poetry, and was composed for performance rather than private consumption. -
600 BCE
Greco-Punic Wars
The Sicilian Wars, or Greco-Punic Wars, were a series of conflicts fought between Ancient Carthage and the Greek city-states led by Syracuse, Sicily, over control of Sicily and the western Mediterranean between 580–265 BC -
Period: 600 BCE to 501 BCE
Ancient Greece Music and Dance
In the 6th century B.C., Pythagoras accurately determined the numerical relationships between strings that produced tones at different pitches. Ancient Greeks believed dance originated in Crete when Zeus was born. According to a famous myth Rhea's husband Cronus, fearing he would be overthrown by his offspring. So after Zeus was born Rhea deceived Cronus by making a quick switch so that Cronus consumed a stone rather than baby Zeus, who was hidden with Curetes, who danced around him, to hide him -
Period: 500 BCE to 1500 BCE
Medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery -
476
fall of Rome
is generally considered to be the beginning of the medieval period. -
632
The Middle Ages: The Rise of Islam
After the prophet Muhammad’s death in 632 CE, Muslim armies conquered large parts of the Middle East, uniting them under the rule of a single caliph. At its height, the medieval Islamic world was more than three times bigger than all of Christendom. -
800
Pope Leo III
In 800 CE, Pope Leo III named the Frankish king Charlemagne the “Emperor of the Romans”–the first since that empire’s fall more than 300 years before. -
Period: 901 to 1300
Romanesque style
Between the 10th and 13th centuries, most European cathedrals were built in the Romanesque style. Romanesque cathedrals are solid and substantial: They have rounded masonry arches and barrel vaults supporting the roof, thick stone walls and few windows. -
1001
Crusaders
Toward the end of the 11th century, the Catholic Church began to authorize military expeditions, or Crusades, to expel Muslim “infidels” from the Holy Land. Crusaders, who wore red crosses on their coats to advertise their status, believed that their service would guarantee the remission of their sins and ensure that they could spend all eternity in Heaven -
1095
Pope Urban
The Crusades began in 1095, when Pope Urban summoned a Christian army to fight its way to Jerusalem, and continued on and off until the end of the 15th century. In 1099, Christian armies captured Jerusalem from Muslim control, and groups of pilgrims from across Western Europe started visiting the Holy Land. Many of them, however, were robbed and killed as they crossed through Muslim-controlled territories during their journey. -
1118
Knights Templa
Around 1118, a French knight named Hugues de Payens created a military order along with eight relatives and acquaintances that became the Knights Templar, and they won the eventual support of the pope and a reputation for being fearsome fighters. -
1200
Gothic
Around 1200, church builders began to embrace a new architectural style, known as the Gothic. Gothic structures, such as the Abbey Church of Saint-Denis in France and the rebuilt Canterbury Cathedral in England, have huge stained-glass windows, pointed vaults and arches (a technology developed in the Islamic world), and spires and flying buttresses. In contrast to heavy Romanesque buildings, Gothic architecture seems to be almost weightless. -
1291
Fall of Acre
The Fall of Acre in 1291 marked the destruction of the last remaining Crusader refuge in the Holy Land, and Pope Clement V dissolved the Knights Templar in 1312. -
Period: Jan 1, 1301 to Dec 31, 1400
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a fervent period of European cultural, artistic, political and economic “rebirth” following the Middle Ages. Generally described as taking place from the 14th century to the 17th century, the Renaissance promoted the rediscovery of classical philosophy, literature and art -
1343
Geoffrey Chaucer
English poet and author of “The Canterbury Tales.” -
1347
"Black Death" (the bubonic plague)
Between 1347 and 1350, a mysterious disease known as the "Black Death" (the bubonic plague) killed some 20 million people in Europe, 30 percent of the continent’s population. It was especially deadly in cities, where it was impossible to prevent the transmission of the disease from one person to another. -
1450
Gutenberg printing press
In 1450, the invention of the Gutenberg printing press allowed for improved communication throughout Europe and for ideas to spread more quickly. -
1452
Leonardo da Vinci
Italian painter, architect, inventor, and “Renaissance man” responsible for painting “The Mona Lisa” and “The Last Supper. -
1466
Desiderius Erasmus
Scholar from Holland who defined the humanist movement in Northern Europe. Translator of the New Testament into Greek. -
Period: Mar 17, 1520 to
Thoinot Arbeau
is the anagrammatic pen name of French cleric Jehan Tabourot. Tabourot is most famous for his Orchésographie, a study of late sixteenth-century French Renaissance social dance. -
1539
William Byrd
English composer known for his development of the English madrigal and his religious organ music. -
Orchésographie
first published in Langres, 1589,[2] provides information on social ballroom behaviour and on the interaction of musicians and dancers. -
Rene Descartes
French philosopher and mathematician regarded as the father of modern philosophy. Famous for stating, “I think; therefore I am.” -
Period: to
baroque era
The Baroque is a period of artistic style that started around 1600 in Rome , Italy, and spread throughout the majority of Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. In informal usage, the word baroque describes something that is elaborate and highly detailed. -
Broadway theatre
also known simply as Broadway, refers to the theatrical performances presented in the 41 professional theatres, each with 500 or more seats, located in the Theater District and Lincoln Center along Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Broadway and London's West End together represent the highest commercial level of live theater in the English-speaking world. -
Period: to
Florence Mills
billed as the "Queen of Happiness", was an American cabaret singer, dancer, and comedian known for her effervescent stage presence, delicate voice, and winsome, wide-eyed beauty. -
Period: to
Ethel Waters
was an American singer and actress. Waters frequently performed jazz, swing, and pop music on the Broadway stage and in concerts, but she began her career in the 1920s singing blues. -
Period: to
The Whitman Sisters
The Whitman Sisters were four African-American sisters who were stars of Black Vaudeville. They ran their own performing touring company for over forty years from 1900 to 1943, becoming the longest-running and best-paid act on the T.O.B.A. circuit. They comprised Mabel, Essie, Alberta "Bert" and Alice. -
Period: to
jazz dance
is a performance dance technique and style that first emerged in the United States in the early twentieth century.[ -
Period: to
Katherine Dunham
was an African-American dancer, choreographer, author, educator, anthropologist, and social activist. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers in African-American and European theater of the 20th century, and directed her own dance company for many years. She has been called the "matriarch and queen mother of black dance." -
Period: to
Jack Cole
was an American dancer, choreographer, and theatre director known as "the Father of Theatrical Jazz Dance". -
Period: to
Frankie Manning
was an American dancer, instructor, and choreographer. Manning is considered one of the founders of Lindy Hop, an energetic form of the jazz dance style known as swing. -
Period: to
Norma Miller
was an American Lindy hop dancer, choreographer, actress, author, and comedian known as the "Queen of Swing". -
Charleston
Charleston, social jazz dance highly popular in the 1920s and frequently revived. Characterized by its toes-in, heels-out twisting steps, it was performed as a solo, with a partner, or in a group. -
Period: to
Eugene Louis Faccuito
known professionally as Luigi, was an American jazz dancer, choreographer, teacher, and innovator who created the jazz exercise technique. -
Chicago
is an American musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. Set in Chicago in the jazz age, the musical is based on a 1926 play of the same name by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins, about actual criminals and the crimes on which she reported. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal". -
Period: to
Bob Fosse
(/ˈfɒsi/; June 23, 1927 – September 23, 1987) was an American dancer, musical-theatre choreographer, actor and theatre and filmmaker. [2] He directed and choreographed musical works on stage and screen, including the stage musicals The Pajama Game (choreography) in 1954 and Chicago in 1975 and the film Cabaret in 1972. -
Lindy hop
The Lindy Hop is an American dance which was born in the African-American communities in Harlem, New York City, in 1928 and has evolved since then. It was very popular during the swing era of the late 1930s and early 1940s -
Period: to
Dawn Hampton
was an American cabaret and jazz singer, saxophonist, dancer, and songwriter. Hampton began her lifelong career as a musical entertainer touring the Midwest as a three-year-old member of the Hampton family's band The Hampton Sisters in the late 1930s. -
mambo
Mambo is a genre of Cuban dance music pioneered by the charanga Arcaño y sus Maravillas in the late 1930s and later popularized in the big band style by Pérez Prado. -
Al & Leon
were a prominent American Lindy Hop and jazz dance duo. The two members were Al Minns and Leon James. They were most famous for their film and stage performances in the 1930s and 1940s both on their own, and as part of the Harlem-based Whitey's Lindy Hoppers. -
West Side Story
The original 1957 Broadway production, conceived, directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins and produced by Robert E. Griffith and Harold Prince, marked Sondheim's Broadway debut. It ran for 732 performances before going on tour. -
The Lion King
is a musical based on the 1994 Walt Disney Animation Studios' animated feature film of the same name with music by Elton John, lyrics by Tim Rice, and book by Roger Allers and Irene Mecchi, along with additional music and lyrics by Lebo M, Mark Mancina, Jay Rifkin, Julie Taymor, and Hans Zimmer.[1] Directed by Taymor, the musical features actors in animal costumes as well as giant, hollow puppets. -
Moulin Rouge!
In 2002–2003, there was speculation about the possibility of a stage musical based on Moulin Rouge!, possibly in Las Vegas, but there had been no public talks in the years since. Some sources claimed in 2006 that the director, Baz Luhrmann, had approached the leads of the film, Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, to star in the potential stage version.