... if you desire to marry you must realize that a mistress
is won by the good temper and grace displayed while dancing...
for dancing is practiced to reveal whether lovers
are in good health and sound of limb,
after which they are permitted to kiss their mistresses
in order that they may touch and savor one another
thus to ascertain if they are shapley
or emit an unpleasant odor as of bad meat.
Therefore, from this standpoint, quite apart from the
many other advantages to be derived from dancing,
it becomes an essential to a well-ordered society.