The ballistea evolved from a Roman war dance into a Christian chant

The ballistea is a Roman military dance in arms that finds its origin in a ballad sung to a trochaic tetrameter rhythm. It underwent a major semantic shift to be qualified as a grotesque and licentious dance by Antoine Mongez in the Encyclopedie methodique of 1782. Its rhythmic form also inspired, according to the author Gabrielle Festing, the first hymns of the Christian Church.