Art is made up of different kinds of art. As one of the arts, dance is also a very broad world, and it is also composed of different kinds, styles and styles of dances. We study and study the types of dance in order to have a deeper understanding of the characteristics and development law of dance art, and to be familiar with and master various styles and methods of dance art to reflect and express social life.

According to its function and purpose, dance can be divided into two categories: life dance and artistic dance. Life dance is a dance activity that people carry out for their own life needs; Artistic dance is a dance for the audience to enjoy.

Life dance includes: custom dance, religious sacrifice dance, social dance, self-entertainment dance, sports dance, educational dance and so on.

Folk dance, also known as festival dance, is a variety of mass dance activities held by many ethnic groups in China on festive festivals such as weddings, funerals, planting and harvest. In these dance activities, the customs, social features, cultural traditions and national personality characteristics of all ethnic groups in various places were displayed.

Religion and sacrificial dance are the dance forms of religion and sacrificial activities. Religious dance is a vivid representation of supernatural and supernatural mysterious power-God, which makes the invisible God become a tangible body that can be perceived and a personification of mysterious power. Mainly used to pray for the protection of the gods, drive away disasters and diseases, turn evil into good, prosper people and animals, harvest crops, or thank the gods for their gifts; Sacrificial dance is a blessing to ancestors and gods.

Social dance is a kind of dance activity that people engage in social communication, enhance friendship and connect their feelings. Generally, it refers to all kinds of ballroom dancing at the dance. In addition, the mass dance activities carried out by many ethnic minorities in various festivals in China can also be said to be social dance of all ethnic groups.

Self-entertainment dance is a dance activity with the sole purpose of self-entertainment. Use dance to express and vent one's inner emotional impulses, so as to obtain the full satisfaction of aesthetic pleasure.

Sports dance is a new dance that combines dance and sports, exercises the body in an artistic and aesthetic way, and makes the body and mind fully healthy. For example, various fitness dances, rhythmic gymnastics, discos for middle-aged and elderly people, ice dances and water dances, as well as sword dances, knife dances, pictographic boxing symbolizing the simulation of various animals and close-up images, and Wuqinxi in China traditional martial arts.

Educational dance refers to the aesthetic dance activities in schools and kindergartens, which can play a subtle role in cultivating and beautifying people's thoughts, feelings and moral sentiments, cultivating people's unity and friendship, strengthening etiquette and improving physical and mental health.

Artistic dance means that professional or amateur dancers make artistic creation through observing, experiencing, analyzing, concentrating, summarizing and imagining social life, thus creating a typical artistic image with distinctive themes and rich emotions, in which a few people perform on dance platforms or squares for the masses to watch. Due to the variety of artistic dances, according to different artistic characteristics, they can be roughly divided into three categories.

Each category is divided according to different styles and characteristics of dance, including: classical dance, folk dance, modern dance and choreography dance.

Classical dance is based on national folk dance, refined, sorted, processed and created by professional workers in past dynasties, and passed down through long-term artistic practice. It is considered to be a typical dance with classical style characteristics. Many countries and nations in the world have dances with certain demonstration significance and classical style characteristics. Many countries and nations in the world have their own unique styles of classical dance. European classical dance generally refers to ballet.

Folk dance is a dance form created, accumulated and developed by the broad masses in the long historical process and widely circulated among the masses. It directly reflects people's thoughts, feelings, ideals and aspirations. Due to the differences in people's life and work style, historical and cultural mentality, customs and natural environment in different countries, nationalities and regions, different national styles and local characteristics have been formed.

Modern dance is a dance genre that rose in Europe and America at the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century. Its main aesthetic point of view is to oppose the formalistic tendency of classical ballet at that time, which was conformist, divorced from real life and simply pursuing skills; It is advocated to get rid of the shackles of the rigid movement procedure of classical ballet, and to express the true feelings of people freely with dance movements that conform to the laws of natural movement, and it is emphasized that dance art should reflect modern social life.

Newly created dances, that is, dances different from the above three styles, are often eclectic based on the needs of expressing content and shaping characters, drawing on and absorbing dance expression means and methods of various styles and dance schools, and eclectic for our use, thus creating a unique new style dance different from the various dance styles that have been formed.

The second category, according to the characteristics of dance forms, includes: solo dance, duet, threesome dance, group dance, song and dance, musical, dance drama and so on.

Solo dance is a dance performed by a person to complete a theme, which is often used to directly express the thoughts and feelings of the characters and reveal their inner world.

Double dance, two people perform the same theme dance. It is often used to express the exchange of thoughts and feelings between characters and to show the relationship between characters.

Three people dance, three people perform together to complete a theme dance. According to the content, it can be divided into three different categories: expressing a single emotion, expressing a plot and expressing dramatic conflicts between characters.

Group dance, any dance with more than four people can be called group dance. Generally speaking, it is to express some general emotions or shape the image of the group. Through the change and transformation of dance formation and pictures, as well as the development of dance movements, postures and shapes with different speeds, strengths and amplitudes, a profound poetic artistic conception is created, which has strong artistic appeal.

Group dance is a relatively large dance work composed of several dances. Each dance is relatively independent, but it is unified in the same theme and complete artistic conception.

Song and dance is a form of artistic performance that combines singing and dancing. It is characterized by being good at singing and dancing, being good at both lyricism and narration, and being able to express the complex and delicate thoughts and feelings of the characters and a wide range of life contents.

Musical drama is a comprehensive performance form in which song and dance are the main artistic expression means to express the drama content.

Dance drama is a dance work with dance as the main artistic expression means, which combines music and stage art (clothing, scenery, lighting, props) to express certain drama content.

The third category can be divided into lyric dance, narrative dance and drama dance according to the methods of reflecting social real life and the characteristics of shaping dance images.

Lyric dance, also known as emotional dance, is characterized by using vivid and vivid dance language to directly express the thoughts and feelings of body dancers in a specific environment, thus expressing the dancers' feelings and evaluation of life.

Narrative dance is also called plot dance, and its main artistic feature is to shape the characters and express the theme of the work through the plot events formed by the actions of different characters in the dance.

Drama and dance, that is, dance drama