Historical dance is a term covering a wide variety of Western European-based dance types from the past as they are danced in the present. Today historical dances are danced as performance, for pleasure at themed balls or dance clubs, as historical reenactment, or for musicological or historical research.
Victorian ballroom dances at the Gaskell Ball in Oakland, California
A Historical Colonial Ball in the Albert Hall Canberra (circa 2016) (sepia)
Dance is an art form, often classified as a sport, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire of movements or by its historical period or place of origin. Dance is typically performed with musical accompaniment, and sometimes with the dancer simultaneously using a musical instrument themselves.
Two modern dancers
Members of an American jazz dance company perform a formal group routine in a concert dance setting.
Mesolithic dancers at Bhimbetka
Dancers and musicians on a Sasanian bowl, Iran