Where did social dance originated?

We don’t know. But some believe this is it. It is a dance with two different origins. One, an older form of dance, developed in a rural region in the South and called the “gigatonika,” or “big-giggity” by the natives. This dance was danced by the women and men of a village as a dance ritual, and a “diet” of small, delicious fish, potatoes, meat and sweets was served at night when people gathered in small gathering spots as part of the rituals. Second, the dances described in the Book of Mormon were first performed by the people of the New World. The dancers of those dances, “gigatonika,” were, in turn, descended from the dancers of the New World’s dances to which they belonged.


We know this second dance-origins from a number of sources, but few of them provide the full context in which it took root in the Americas. Most of this information is gathered from works of art, which, by definition, are not the same as oral history.

The first appearance of the “dance” in the New World was recorded in 1605, in the Portuguese voyage of the Mather, and the first record is of a dance performed by the Portuguese during an early part of the voyage. [1] The dance was described by Juan de Usua, a native of Brazil, in 1615. He also says that in the Mather’s voyage there were dance performances by natives on the islands of the Pacific Ocean.

This is a fascinating passage. Juan de Usua seems to be the first native to describe the “dance” in the New World, and the first account of its appearance in the Americas. Why would this description of dances that occurred in the Americas (and the Atlantic coast of South America) occur in an earlier text than that of the Book of Mormon?

The answer is simple. One, the “dance” took its origin in the Portuguese voyage, and two, the voyage to date has never been established with certainty. The evidence that we do have suggests that the first American dance, performed by people in Central America, was performed, by those who were living in the New World, by people who had arrived on the Pacific coast.

One of the best early explanations provided was the story of King Lehi and his sons. In his day the New World had only four or five colonies. He built a large and impressive temple on the