Dance is movement with no purpose aside from the communication of an aesthetic idea, enjoyment of music, and/or the achievement of spiritual-mystical mind-body states. Dance is thus contrasted to objectively purposeful, pedestrian movement such as walking, hammering, typing, etc. Dance movement is often, though not always, rhythic. Dance is often, though not always, accompanied by music.

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Dance is found in every human culture. Dance scholar Alfred Gell has defined dance as "a stylized deformation of nondance mobility, just as poetry is a deformation or modulation of language, a deviation from the norm of expression that enhances expressiveness (Gell, Alfred. 'Style and Meaning in Umeda Dance' in: Spencer, Paul, ed. Society and the Dance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985)."

A continuum of dance can be posited that stretches from the most extreme and solitary forms of non-technical, ritual dance (endurance/trance dancing) through a broad middle of folk dance (including everything from modern club dances to a medieval minuet), to extreme forms of performance dance such as neoclassical ballet or postmodern works employing decontextualized pedestrian movement.

There are many categorizations of western dances. Street dances evolved from the community of dancers and evolve continually. They include Swing, Salsa, and Tango. Ballroom dances, such as Waltz and Foxtrot, have rules.

Some dance styles include:

Ballroom Dance -- Belly Dance -- Classical Dance -- Country Dance -- Disco -- Lindy hop -- Square Dance -- Swing -- Jazz -- Tap dance -- Modern dance -- Folk dance -- Ballet

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Dance"

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