Musical theatre dance history goes back to the Greeks in around 5 BC. Greek theatre included music and dance in the form of a chorus--a group of 12 to 15 actors in masks using songs and dance steps to narrate the action of the play, says Dr. Janice Seigel, assistant professor of classics at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia and author of the website, Dr. J's Classics.
Musical theatre historian and author of the website Musicals 101: History of Musical Theatre, John Kenrick says the first appearance of a familiar dance style in musical theatre appears in Rome in 3 BC. "To make their dance steps audible, Roman actors attached metal chips called 'sabilla' to their stage footwear---the first tap shoes," says Kenrick.
In the Middle Ages, comedy and secular musical theatre take a back seat to religious dramas and dance was not a part of these productions. Dancing remains part of the minstrel shows---a distant relative of the musical--which traveled from town-to-town entertaining the masses throughout Europe.
In England in the 1500s, elaborate theatre productions with song and dance, known as "masques," became popular. These performances took place at the courts of royalty only, according to Linda Alchin, author of the website Elizabethan Era.
The French playwright Moliere began adding song and dance to his satirical plays in the 1600s. The dance in these productions resembled an early form of ballet.
Dance becomes a small part of the story telling with "The Black Crook" in 1866. Kenrick says while it is not the first Broadway musical, it "is Broadway's first bonafide musical blockbuster," running for 474 shows--not bad considering it ran for almost five hours. The show featured "a hundred fleshy ballerinas in skin-colored tights singing 'The March of the Amazons' while prancing about in a moonlit grotto" say Kenrick.
Popular in the 19th century, burlesque influenced musical theatre dance with its big production numbers and revealing---at least for the 1800s---costumes. Tap and early forms of jazz dance begin to emerge.
The big Broadway comedy reviews, with hundreds of dancers tapping away in large musical numbers evolves into theatre dance heavily influenced by the emerging modern and jazz dance forms. "Oklahoma", choreographed by Agnes DeMille, opens in 1943 and creates a sensation with its use of modern and jazz dance. In this production, dance becomes part of the dramatic narrative. This important shift remains at the core of dance in musical theatre today.