Dance
The history of dance: breaking down everything you never thought to ask
From Norman conquests to Run-DMC; ancient tribes to Red Bull Dance Your Style – here's a guide to the unlikely history of busting a move.
Constanze Mozart once remarked that dancing “is like dreaming with your feet”. For a woman who never even had the pleasure of watching Kate Bush’s ethereal brand of shape-throwing, she was remarkably ahead of the curve.
Dancing is anything you want it to be. Slow-motion? At 100mph? Angry? Happy? It all starts inside your own mind. And whether you’re copying a trend on TikTok in your living room, performing an Irish dance at your local social club, or lining up to break dance alongside the Red Bull BC One All Stars in elite competition, everywhere is a stage and nothing is off limits.
And if you think you’ve got talent in a street dance discipline, why not compete at a future Red Bull Dance Your Style, an open-to-all competition welcoming poppers and lockers, house music fans and hip-hop heads alike. DJs blast well-known tracks at random, challenging a dancer’s ability to perform and adapt their styles to the rhythm of the beat in this battle-style event.
Red Bull Dance Your Style Ireland
© Red Bull Ireland
Red Bull Dance Your Style has more passport stamps than Beyonce and Taylor Swift combined, having delivered 80 events around the globe, including Austria (see video below) and Dublin. Keep an eye out for a return to Irish shores in the future, as it's a great way to test out your skills in front of a crowd.
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Red Bull Dance Your Style Austria 2025
But before you start limbering up, here comes a history lesson with a difference, breaking down everything you probably didn't know about dance.
01
What is dancing?
In a nutshell, dancing is the ability to physically express oneself to music or rhythm. In many ways it’s happiness personified, a skill (or at the very least creativity) performed solo or as part of a group.
Certain types of dance, particularly those religious in nature, have withstood an ever-changing landscape of technologies, politics and more to stay as authentic as ever, while other types are constantly evolving, spawning sub-genres and finding new fans. K-Pop being a prime example, where the dances of modern Korean pop stars incorporate everything from US hip-hop to traditional Korean culture.
A competitor finds air at a Red Bull Dance Your Style event
© Red Bull
Breaking is a good example of what dance encapsulates in the 21st century. Born in the New York borough of The Bronx in the seventies, today the likes of B-Boy Phil Wizard continue to push the discipline forward with new moves and ideas while striving to stay as authentic to its origins as possible. In the summer of 2024, breaking will make its Olympic Games debut in Paris, when the lines between athletic competition and art form will blur like never before.
Like many great dancers, breakers harness the use of body, action, space, time and energy in a way that helps them to showcase outstanding physical abilities, all the while paying homage to these uniquely rich origins. Just watch any Red Bull BC One event for proof of that.
02
History of dance
The origins of dance can be traced back as far as the prehistoric era, suggesting that when they were not hunting with spears, early primitive humans were fond of a good time. It's believed many of these early rhythmic movements were done in preparation for a battle or a hunt. In 1918, one of the earliest interpretations of dance was found scrawled in the Caves of El Cogul, Catalonia, dating all the way back from 5,000BC.
Other sketches depicting tribal and ceremonial dancing have been uncovered in locations such as Bhimbetka, central India, and in tombs related to Ancient Egypt. This form of physical expression was hugely important for Egyptians around this time, with the ruling classes using the medium of dance for religious events and entertainment.
In North America, the earliest form of dancing wasn’t the Charleston, but likely stemming from indigenous groups who believed dancing could help them to curry favour with higher powers. Rain Dances would be used to usher in downpours for crops, Stomp Dancing would help to heal the sick, and the Sun Dance would, it was believed, bring the body and spirit together in blissful union.
Artistic movement played a huge role in Ancient Egyptian society
© Hesham Marcelo/Red Bull Content Pool
It could be argued that the history of dance is more or less the history of humanity. And when you consider the world’s oldest musical instrument is a neanderthal flute some 60,000 years old (first unearthed in the Divje Babe cave, Slovenia) can it really be too much of a stretch to imagine humanity’s earliest ancestors enjoyed a boogie as much as you do?
03
What is the history of Irish Dance?
Closer to home, one of Ireland's finest cultural exports remains Traditional Irish Dance, where lightning-fast footwork and the thunder of toe-tapping become a crucial part of the song itself. First emerging in the 16th century, there are three main types of Irish Dance: solo, in pairs or céilí ('social') as part of a larger group.
It's been used as a symbol of political defiance, it’s connected flowing diasporas with the motherland, and it's been kept alive in kitchens, town halls and even on Broadway with Riverdance. All the while, it’s stayed true to its roots in costume and spirit.
Recently, Irish Dance had another shot in the arm (or possibly neck) in the Oscar-winning vampire film Sinners, which honours a wealth of different music and dance styles in the early 20th century Mississippi Delta. Actor Jack O’Connor, who is UK-born to an Irish father, attended Irish Dancing lessons as a child and told W Magazine about how it was still daunting taking on a big musical number in the film:
Ireland
© [unknown]
“The dance was one of the first things I started preparing, mainly out of nerves and fear of getting it wrong. I used to do [Irish Dance] as a kid, but that was nearly 30 years ago, so it felt a little out of my comfort zone. I teamed up with Angela O’Connor with the Academy of Irish Dance in London. We rented a space and just threw it down and started jigging. It was cool, man. She also choreographed something for that dance scene, and the timing of “Rocky Road to Dublin” is quite uncommon, the way the tempo is structured. So she had to wrap her head around that."
Here are a few terms in Irish Dance
- Céilí – A group dance
- Feis – Irish Dance Competition
- Hornpipe – Slow, swung dance in 4/4 time punctuated with hard-shoe beats
- Reel – Rapid dance in 4/4 time with a continuous, flowing rhythm, usually performed in soft shoes
- Sean-nós – An older type of Irish Dance; also the same term used for traditional singing
- Slip jig – Light, flowing dance in 9/8 time, usually performed by women
- Single jig – Quick, simple steps in 6/8m time
- Treble (or heavy) jig – Also in 6/8 time but with hard shoes, generating plenty of percussive footwork
04
How has dance changed over time?
The word 'dance' – amhsa (dow–sa) or rince (rin–keh) in Irish – has roots in Middle English, the language spoken after the French invasion of England in 1066. Back in then-France the term was known as dauncen.
Akin to the way in which language rapidly changes, there are dances that spring up from a trend or a movement, becoming their own sub-genre or sound. Irish Dancing was a big influence for early bluegrass music, while rock 'n' roll stars in the 20th century like Jimi Hendrix would draw on Native American tribal songs.
Even today it's easy to see sub-genres exploding. UK drill continues to edge into the mainstream, and it wasn't that long ago, in the early noughties, that crunk exploded in the Southern states of the US, bringing a rawer, party-infused new vibe to hip-hop. Novelty or not, the dance moves that followed crunk helped usher in new artists and sounds of that era.
Music concerts are a place for letting your hair down
© Joe Gall/Red Bull Content Pool
It's also easy to forget the role that music videos have played in embedding dance trends into the public subconscious, specifically in the late 20th century on channels such as MTV, where audiences could spend hours replicating moves in front of the TV from their favourite artists and groups. The music video can also help re-establish dance trends, too: in 1998, a decade after US hip-hop pioneers Run-DMC released the delightfully full-throttle song It's Tricky, DJ Jason Nevins released a special dance remix of the song complete with a music video of distinctly 90s-era breakdancers battling one another in an abandoned warehouse. Helping to nudge breaking even further into the mainstream, there was no grand storyline, dodgy acting or special effects, just mind-blowing dance moves as two crews faced off to the tunes of a boombox.
And, more recently, who can forget South Korean viral pop sensation Psy, whose surreal choreography on videos such as Gangnam Style, which included a horse gallop, has racked up billions of views online. Trends may change, sounds too, but originality will always remain king.
In recent years, platforms such as YouTube and Tik Tok have helped bring dance trends to increasingly larger audiences, leading to all sorts of crossovers. Irish dancing is just one trad-dance being given a modern spin in other parts of the world right now, with African-American Morgan Bullock coming to international acclaim for the way in which she's put a new twist on the discipline.
05
What's the history of street dance?
Emerging from the urban landscape of America from the 1970s onwards, 'street' is a dance that took shape through the African-American community and has since spread across the globe like wildfire, influencing dance far and wide ever since, from Asia (see: K-Pop) to Latin America.
A competitor in the hip-hop battle
© Little Shao/Red Bull Content Pool
Pure hip-hop dancing, popping and locking, and battle-based breaking disciplines also take their cues in step with the urban style of the times, and in fact at many breaking competitions the clothes a dancer wears can have an impact on how they score with judges. Street is far more than just a dance genre, it's a lifestyle. The forgettable film duo Step Up and its equally forgettable sequel Step Up 2 The Streets notwithstanding, its legacy is safe and well.
06
Famous dancers in history
Anna Pavlova
There are great dancers and then there are great dancers with desserts named after them. Anna Pavolova wasn’t simply the greatest ballerina in her native Russia, but a worldwide sensation thanks to her works, including The Dying Swan, which saw her blessed with her own cake during a tour in Australasia. Throughout the early 20th century Pavolva was a true superstar capable of selling out huge theatres. Her passing at just 49 came during a tour of The Hague, where she was diagnosed with pneumonia but refused surgery, insisting: “If I can’t dance, I’d rather be dead.”
Fred Astaire
On the silver screen there are few names as synonymous with dance than Fred Astaire, the twinkle-eyed, tap dancing maestro who famously enjoyed a partnership with Ginger Rogers. Still inspiring countless entertainers to this day (see: Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in La La Land), his comic timing and mind-blowing dexterity wasn't easily earned. As he put it himself: "If it doesn't look easy, it is that we have not tried hard enough yet."
Even with a guitar, Elvis Presley could move with the best of them
© unknown
Elvis Presley
So provocative were his dance moves, it’s said that Elvis was once filmed from the waist up performing on the Ed Sullivan Show, as not to cause a moral panic across the US. Dubbed the King of Rock 'n' Roll, his hip thrusting helped usher a cultural revolution in the fifties, and for the singer himself it was impossible to separate the music from the movement: "That music became such a part of my life it was as natural as dancing. A way to escape from the problems. And my way of release."
Michael Flatley
How could we not include the Irish dancing megastar? In his pomp the American set the world record for tap dancing an astonishing 34 times per second and frankly looked superhuman in box office shows, including Riverdance and Feet of Flames. Since winding down his dance career in the last decade, he’s been using his feet to create artwork. In life as on the stage, he rarely puts a foot wrong: "Whenever I hear it can't be done I'm close to success."
FAQ
- What is the oldest type of dance? Many traditional dances aren't as old as you might think. Take the heavily choreographed, two-person ballroom style, with its glitz and old-age glamour; or Irish dancing, which is becoming more diverse than ever – both of these classics can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century, which makes them fairly modern compared to other dances which have lasted thousands of years. Perhaps the oldest, according to leading scientists, is the belly dance, which began myriad cultures some 6,000 years ago. Due to its importance in the Ottoman Empire, belly dancing is typically seen as a Turkish act when in fact it most likely first sprang up in Ancient Egypt.
- Which dances are ballroom? There are at least 19 types of ballroom dance, including Cha Cha, Rumba, Samba, Jive, Paso Doble, Waltz, Tango, Viennese Waltz, Foxtrot, Quickstep, Bolero, Mambo and Swing, with many variations on these classics.
- Why is dance important? Well, aside from the aforementioned cultural and signifiers going back millennia, dancing is important because it brings people together and is one of humanity's most important art forms. It's also terrific for cardio, improving health and increasing the life span who use it as a form of working out.
- Why do dancers say 5-6-7-8 over '1 2 3 4'? Because most dance choreography is based on a 1-8-count phase, the dance leaders are simply counting the last four beats of the previous phrase to ensure everyone is ready. If they started on ‘1’ it might risk rushing everyone. This way the ‘5 6 7 8’ is a forewarning that the real ‘1 2 3 4’ is coming up.
