ABSTRACT
The activity that is recognized as dancing in the West takes a number of different forms and can be found in a variety of different social contexts, covering the spectrum from high art to popular culture. In dance— as a performance art, as light entertainment, or as a leisure activity— the body is the primary instrument and means of expression. The word dance, however, must be used with caution. Anthropologists have found that the term dance is "essentially ethnocentric or culture specific" (Blacking, 1983: 89), being based on common concepts of dance in western cultures (Buckland, 1999). A number of societies have no generic word for dance as it is understood in the West but subsume similar kinds of movement activities under other categories, such as play, music, or worship.
