Dance

Terpsichore, artistic bodily motions. Originally tribal symbolic movements, culturally elaborated to staged choral performances, and eventually incorporating solo executions. Dance was early a part of magical religious rites. Fertility and war dances were the most widely practiced examples of such beliefs, but there were also healing dances, teaching dances, dances of initiation and a number of dances of citory, celebration and the like. Dance is how inseparably connected with music, and a complex art of choreography has evolved to design the bodily expression and interpretation of musical tempo, rhythm and melody. However, original choreography may start out with a text or programme to interpret in dance, with music to be composed to follow. Dance how serves almost exclusively for entertainment whether it is performed by professionals in ballet or modern dance companies, or by the public in ballrooms and dance halls or in private homes. The economic value to tourism of folk dancing is presently being widely exploited in all countries with such traditions and there are numerous folk dance festivals and performances. On the serious side various dance-related educational theories have been advanced (e.g. eurhythmics) and anthropologists may content that the various types of dance still form part of the fabric that knits a society together, i.e. that dance performs a socially integrating function.