Dancers and actors both receive extensive training in body awareness. Although the dancer's training goes further in this direction, theater actors train for years in movement and physical performance. Often, some element of dance training is incorporated into the physical training that actors receive. Both types of performers study the craft of manifesting stage presence in order to create arresting and beautiful physical images for the audience to observe.
The worlds of theater and dance overlap to a large degree in musical productions. The lead performers in musicals typically have a great deal of talent in both acting and dancing. Some musicals have roles where less singing and dancing is required. By the same token, some musicals call for backup dancers that only have to sing or speak rarely. Many large-cast musicals utilize a combination of singers, dancers and actors working together on the production.
Performance art is a type of visual art where the world's of theater and dance overlap a great deal. Performance artists often combine elements of dance, theater, visual art and music in their shows to communicate a statement. Performance art is considered a visual medium in which the artist works with his body.
Actors and dancers both have to learn how to use their bodies, space, time and rhythm to invoke the imagination of the audience. The job of the performer is to use his body to create an image that the audience member viscerally identifies as the character or concept being portrayed. The dancer does not really transform into a Black Swan, and the actor portraying Ariel is not truly a flitting sprite. However, if the performers do their jobs, the audience will suspend disbelief and see what the performer intends.