Dance (from French danser, perhaps from Frankish) is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, sometimes rhythmic and to music, dependent as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting. Dance is also disposed to describe methods of non-verbal communication (see body language) between humans or beasts (bee dance, patterns of behaviour such as a mating dance), ambulation in inanimate objects (the leaves danced in the wind), and certain musical forms or genres. In sports, gymnastics, figure skating Dancing Shoes and synchronized swimming are dance disciplines while martial arts kata are often compared to dances.
Definitions of what constitutes dance are dependent on social, cultural, aesthetic, artistic and moral constraints and range from useful movement (such as folk dance) to virtuoso techniques such as ballet. Dance can be participatory, social or performed for an audience. It can also be ceremonial, competitive or erotic. Dance movements may be without significance in themselves, such as in ballet or European folk dance, or have a gestural vocabulary/symbolic orderliness as in bountiful Asian dances. Dance can embody or express ideas, emotions or tell a story.