This is a classic and rare 1894 film clip of Lakota dancers performing the Ghost Dance and Buffalo Dance. It was shot (a mere 4 years after the massacre at Wounded Knee) by Thomas Edison using first generation equipment. Although these are mere snippets of much larger ceremonials, they give some sense for how intense the ritual dancing could be:
Here is an old clip of southern African Bushmen (or the San) performing their primary ritual dance, the purpose of which is to call and inculcate the power or force known as n/um. This power has several similarities to that which the Lakota call wakan. It makes for an interesting comparison and causes me to think that humans have been ritually dancing and singing ever since we left Africa:
