Dance

Dance can be simply defined as rhythmic movement through time and space. Humans use dance for expression, entertainment, communication, partying, and courtship.

Dance can be loosely divided into three categories:

• Performance
• Social
• Ritual

There are dance forms that cross over into more than one category. Folk dance, for example, a type of social dance, has elements that have become mainstream ballroom. Ballet is normally considered exhibition dancing but is practiced by millions as a hobby.

Performance dance

Ballet

Probably the most easily recognised Western performance dance, due to the unique costuming, the use of classical music and the pointe technique, in which ballerinas (female dancers) are require to dance while balanced on their toes.

See the full article at ballet.

Social dance

Ballroom

See the full article at ballroom dance

Discotheques / Nightclubs

There have long been communal occasions at which dance featured prominently. One of these was the 'dance hall' that became popular in the early to middle part of the twentieth century. The styles of dance practiced in dance halls included ballroom, latin, jazz and swing.

The dance hall evolved along with music to become louder and larger.

In the 1970s, the arrival of popular amplified dance-oriented music saw the traditional dance hall evolve to become much more technological including synchronized lighting used in ways not seen before. Such places were called 'discotheques'. Their popularity in the mid to late 1970s saw the style of music played there being referred to as 'disco' music.

Disco as a musical form suffered from a lack of popular credibility in the 1980s, but the music form and the venues for dancing to it simply evolved again into various forms of modern dance music such as techno, house and handbag and the nomenclature for the venue involved shifted from 'discotheque' to 'nightclub'.

Ritual dance

Warrior dance

• The Maori warriors have a specialized dance accompanied by loud, rhythmic chanting, used to intimidate the foe. New Zealand sports teams sometimes use a version of this before games.
• American Indians also used warrior dances.