The chapter argues that the examination of the aesthetics of dance in antiquity depends on one's approach to the aesthetic as a whole, which is here defined as the body of discourses generated in a given culture concerning the perception, the judgment, and the impact of the beautiful and kindred concepts. Diverse discourses developed in the Greek and Greco‐Roman worlds about patterned human movement are discussed and emphasis is put on the pervasiveness of the notion and practice of spectatorship in these cultures. A central question raised is the interrelation between cognitive and sensual enjoyment of dance. A threefold approach to ancient orchestics as mimetic, non‐mimetic, and meta‐mimetic further illuminates implicit and explicit aesthetic viewpoints in antiquity.