Recreational or ceremonial folk dances unite the community in modern society as much as in historical societies. The difference today is folk dance tends to bring together different societies, where in the historical context, folk dance traditions served the local communities. The main mark of a folk dance speaks volumes to social inclusion -- the dances make use of easy steps that everyone from the young to mature can memorize and perform. Folk dance is not intended for an audience, but rather to get everyone involved in the act. Folk dance is passed from generation to generation through social activities.
Traditional or classical dance tends to mirror the culture which produced the dance, from the simple to the complex of society; classical dance is an expression of that culture. Within classical dance, you might witness the ritualistic styles of worship or observe the culture's gender bias such as in Indian classical dance. In some cultures, religious and mythology might underpin classical dance, while in other cultures classical dance may evoke expressions of inner meaning and essence, such as in Chinese classical dance. The common heritage of all classical dances, however, is the need to bring cultural representation to the surface and make it conscious. In modern society, we refer to this as cultural awareness.
Historical dance shares many common attributes with classical dance, but with one major defining difference -- reconstruction. Through history, sometimes only fragments of dances remain due to events or because of the neglect of effective cultural dissemination. Historical dances attempt to reach back into history through a variety of primary and secondary research methods to reconstruct cultural dances and present them to modern day society in the authentic form. The issue with many classical forms of dance, folk dances and even performance dances is that the accepted manifestation of the dance form relies on secondary accounts. Errors increase exponentially with each new secondary account as explained by Richard Powers, a contemporary and historical social dance instructor at Stanford University. Historical dance attempts to rectify this and present the cultural dance in its original form.
Excitement is the word that comes to mind with performance dance. Cultures since the beginning of civilization and perhaps even long before enjoyed the pleasures of dance performance. Alluring, captivating, the ultimate in self-expression, performance dance is usually solo, but may include group performances. Belly dancing is one such cultural dance. The origins of belly dance is unknown, but depictions on Egyptian tombs dating back to the 14th century BC depicts dancers using some of the same movements found today in belly dancing. It is an exotic dance, performed for audiences of all sizes as a form of entertainment. Performance dances are found all over the world and at every point in history.