Dance
The world of dance is expansive and covers a wide variety of styles and forms, encompassing tap dancing, ballet, modern dance, line dances, and much more. Dance is a universal language that can communicate emotions directly and sometimes more powerfully than words.
Dance Encyclopedia Articles
Featured Articles
Western dance
Western dance, history of Western dance from ancient times to the present and including the development of ballet, the waltz, and various types of modern dance. The peoples of the West—of Europe and of...
Martha Graham
Martha Graham was an influential American dancer, teacher, and choreographer of modern dance whose ballets and other works were intended to “reveal the inner man.” Over more than 50 years she created more...
dance
Dance, the movement of the body in a rhythmic way, usually to music and within a given space, for the purpose of expressing an idea or emotion, releasing energy, or simply taking delight in the movement...
Arthur Mitchell
Arthur Mitchell American dancer, choreographer, and director who was the first African American to become a principal dancer with a major ballet troupe, New York City Ballet. He later cofounded (1969)...
Bob Fosse
Bob Fosse was an American dancer, choreographer, and director who revolutionized musicals with his distinct style of dance—including his frequent use of props, signature moves, and provocative steps—and...
Latin American dance
Latin American dance, dance traditions of Mexico, Central America, and the portions of South America and the Caribbean colonized by the Spanish and the Portuguese. These traditions reflect the distinctive...
Oceanic music and dance
Oceanic music and dance, the music and dance traditions of the indigenous people of Oceania, in particular of Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia, New Zealand, and Australia. Music and dance in Polynesia...
Gene Kelly
Gene Kelly American dancer, actor, choreographer, and motion-picture director whose athletic style of dancing, combined with classical ballet technique, transformed the movie musical and did much to change...
tap dance
Tap dance, style of dance in which a dancer wearing shoes fitted with heel and toe taps sounds out audible beats by rhythmically striking the floor or any other hard surface. Tap originated in the United...
Japanese performing arts
Japanese performing arts, the varied and technically complex dance and theatre arts of Japan. Among the most important of these are Noh theatre or dance drama, Kabuki, and Bunraku. From prehistoric times,...
ballet
Ballet, theatrical dance in which a formal academic dance technique—the danse d’école—is combined with other artistic elements such as music, costume, and stage scenery. The academic technique itself is...
Korean performing arts
Korean performing arts, the dance and theatre arts of Korea, tied from the earliest records to religious beliefs and customs. These date to 1000 bce, and they describe magnificently costumed male and female...
George Balanchine
George Balanchine was the most influential choreographer of classical ballet in the United States in the 20th century. His works, characterized by a cool neoclassicism, include The Nutcracker (1954) and...
Agnes de Mille
Agnes de Mille was an American dancer and choreographer who further developed the narrative aspect of dance and made innovative use of American themes, folk dances, and physical idioms in her choreography...
Benjamin Millepied
Benjamin Millepied French dancer and choreographer who was a principal dancer (2002–11) with New York City Ballet (NYCB) and who later was the director of dance (2014–16) at the Paris Opéra Ballet. Millepied...
Twyla Tharp
Twyla Tharp popular American dancer, director, and choreographer who was known for her innovative and often humourous work. Tharp grew up in her native Portland, Indiana, and in Los Angeles, and her childhood...
dance criticism
Dance criticism, the descriptive analysis of a dance performance that is printed, broadcast, or transmitted electronically. Dance is among the most ephemeral of all forms of art, and until the use of photography...
Chinese performing arts
Chinese performing arts, the dance and the theatre arts of China, tied from the earliest records to religious beliefs and customs. These date to 1000 bce, and they describe magnificently costumed male...
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Baryshnikov is a Soviet-born American actor and ballet dancer who was the preeminent male classical dancer of the 1970s and ’80s. He subsequently became a noted dance director. The son of Russian...
Misty Copeland
Misty Copeland American ballet dancer who, in 2015, became the first African American female principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre (ABT). Misty Copeland and her siblings grew up with a single...
Jerome Robbins
Jerome Robbins one of the most popular and imaginative American choreographers of the 20th century. Robbins was first known for his skillful use of contemporary American themes in ballets and Broadway...