Dance is a performing art, which uses the body to complete various elegant or difficult movements, usually accompanied by music, and rhythmic movements are the main means of expression. It usually uses music and other props. Dance itself has multiple social meanings and functions, including sports, socialization, courtship, sacrifice, etiquette and so on. Before the origin of human civilization, dance was very important in ceremony, etiquette, celebration and entertainment. Dance appeared in China five thousand years ago. It was born in slave society and developed into a certain feature in Qin and Han Dynasties.

In China's ancient music and dance theory, there are: "Emotion moves in the middle, action in words, and sigh if words are insufficient;" Lament its lack, so sing it; Lack of singing is not the same as dancing with hands. "This also vividly shows that dance is the product of expressing people's most exciting emotions.

Many scholars in our country advocate the theory that dance originated from labor, because labor is the first need for human survival and development, and it also creates people themselves, separates people from the animal kingdom and creates human society. In the dance of primitive people, hunting, planting and all kinds of labor and life occupy the largest proportion.

We believe that all the above theories about the origin of dance have some truth, but they are not complete and comprehensive, because dance activity is a social phenomenon in human life, and its origin is not single, like the composition of everything in the world, but there are many factors, so people advocate the "labor synthesis theory", that is, dance originated from the needs of human survival, development, labor practice and other life practices. In detail, dance originated from the simulated reproduction of activities such as labor production (hunting, farming), sex, fitness and combat training carried out by ancient human beings in pursuit of survival and development, as well as the needs of totem worship, witchcraft religious sacrifice activities and the expression of their inner impulses. Combining with poetry and music is one of the earliest art forms in human history.

Art is a big family of human aesthetic activities, and its members include literature, fine arts, music, dance, drama, movies, folk art and acrobatics. Various arts reflect social life and express people's thoughts and feelings, but the reflection and expression of art is not the abstract reflection and expression of general concepts, but the reflection and manifestation of individual concrete images and aesthetics. The so-called aesthetic reflection and expression means that artists choose, summarize and process social life according to their own aesthetic tastes and ideals, and creatively reflect and express according to the characteristics and laws of art.

In the historical development of society, people have created various art forms. The main difference between these art forms is that they have their own material carriers and different artistic expression means. The material carrier of literature is language and writing; The material carrier of art is paper, canvas, pigment and oil painting pigment, and its main means of expression are color, line, composition and modeling; The material carrier of music is sound; The material carrier of drama is the action (performance) of people on the stage. Besides ballet, language, singing and action are the main means of expression. The material carrier of the film is to shoot people's performances on film with scientific and technological methods and project them on the screen with electro-light; The material carrier of Quyi is the performance of one or two or three people on the stage, and its main means of expression are speaking and singing. Acrobatics and dance have the same material carrier-the human body is its main artistic expression tool, and most acrobatic varieties, like dance, are mainly expressed by human body movements, posture modeling and composition changes. Acrobatics is also a performing art, and actors also create certain roles. But unlike dance, it doesn't emphasize the development process of characters' emotions, and there are generally no plot events. But through the performance of difficult skills, it shows a general character strength of courage, perseverance and wisdom. So acrobats are more ornamental and entertaining.

Dance movements in dance works should also have certain skills, and dancers should have high-level skills such as jumping, rotating, tumbling, softening and controlling. However, performing high-level skills in dance works is not an end in itself, but a means to express characters' thoughts and feelings and shape their character and mental outlook. If, in dance works, the means is the purpose, the superb skills of the actors are not based on reflecting life and expressing the thoughts and feelings of the characters, or the corresponding dance action skills are not based on the dance content, but on showing the dance skills and abilities mastered by the actors, then the dance works will fail because of the disconnection between content and form, or the lack of artistic integrity, and the dancers' own skills will fall into acrobatic skill performance and lose the basic character of dance art.

Dance appreciation is a kind of spiritual activity when people watch dance performances, and it is the whole process of feeling, experiencing and understanding dance works. So it is essentially a cognitive activity. But it is different from the general cognitive activity, but a special cognitive activity of dance works. Dance appreciation refers to the audience's understanding of social life, characters' thoughts and feelings and dancers' aesthetic evaluation of this life phenomenon through the dance images created in dance works. In the process of appreciating dance works, the audience will often connect with their own life experiences, arouse emotional resonance and arouse relevant impressions and experiences in memory. As well as a series of imaginative thinking activities such as imagination and association, to enrich and supplement the dance image in the dance works and make it more complete, vivid and distinctive. Therefore, we can experience a broader life content and profound ideological implications in the process of watching dance works.

People who appreciate this aesthetic activity must have certain subjective conditions, that is, they must have certain dance knowledge, dance appreciation level and cognitive ability, so that dance appreciation activities can be carried out normally and smoothly. This is just as Marx said: "If you want to enjoy art, you must be an artistic person." "Only music can arouse people's sense of music; The most beautiful music is meaningless to the ear that does not dispute melody, and music is not its object ... "Therefore, it is necessary for us to understand the characteristics of dance art, the relationship between dance and other arts, the various factors that constitute the dance image, and the production process of dance image. As we said before, dance is an art that expresses people's feelings and thoughts and reflects social life with exquisite, organized and beautified human movements as the main means of expression. Judging from the sensory characteristics of dance works that attract viewers, it is a performing art that combines hearing (temporality) and vision (spaciousness).

It means that professional or amateur dancers create artistic works by observing, experiencing, analyzing, concentrating, summarizing and imagining social life, and create dance works with distinctive themes, rich emotions, complete forms and typical artistic images, which are performed by a few people on the stage or square for the masses to watch. Due to the variety of artistic dances, they can be roughly divided into two categories according to different artistic characteristics.

First kind

According to the different styles and characteristics of dance, there are: classical dance, national dance, modern dance, modern dance and ballet.

1. classical dance: based on folk dances, it has been 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 dance 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. [2]

2. National folk dance: it is a dance form created, accumulated and developed by the broad masses of people in the long-term 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.

5. Ballet is a highly stylized theater dance, refined and processed by professional dancers in the court. The word "ballet" is a transliteration of the French word "ballet", which means "jump" or "dance". Its original meaning is only the floorboard of actions with legs and feet as moving parts. In order to rebuild Gu Xi's dramatic ideal of integrating poetry, music and dance, French court dance masters created "ballet", which is a comprehensive dance drama form integrating dance movements, pantomime gestures, facial expressions, theatrical costumes, music accompaniment, literary scripts, stage lighting and scenery. It has dominated the western theater dance art for more than 300 years and has been more than four centuries. It has been more than forty years since 1958 Beijing Dance School was established and introduced to ballets russes.