Accompanying an eight-part television series, this book explores great dance traditions to illuminate the many functions dance fulfils around the world. Using research from the fields of dance history and anthropology, as well as his own travels, the author weaves together descriptions of dance from six continents. The book's approach is multicultural, ranging from the Yoruba in West Africa to the Cook Islanders, but places strong emphasis on the major Western dance forms. There are explanations of the history and aesthetics of ballet in the West, kabuki and bugaku in Japan, the court dances of Ghana's Asante people, and kathakali and bharata natyam in India, as well as a history of the dance crazes of the 20th century.