Every culture has its dance styles. Indigenous Australian, native American, African tribal, European folk, Asian, Middle eastern, Pacific islander – these are all traditional dance styles, most often designed to tell a story.

As cultures have mixed, so have dance styles. Freestyle, swing, disco, house, Bollywood, reggae, punk, hip hop, jazz, rumba, salsa, calypso, creole and so on, are the result of imagination and re-interpretation of ancient dances.

The modern variations of Irish (or Gaelic) dancing is a far cry from the traditional Irish jig, and has become globally popular as live or televised performances to theatre-size audiences. Capoeira (or capuera) is a perfect example of a mixture of traditional dances. It is combination of martial arts and dancing, created in 16th Century Brazil by the descendants of African slaves (most likely Angola), with a strong Portuguese colonial influence. Parkour is another good example, as a combination of martial arts and dancing while running and jumping between buildings and off walls.

In the 1980s, singer-dancer Michael Jackson’s popular moonwalk technique initiated many new dance moves, and corresponded with robotic dancing and break dancing.