Many of the terms used in reference to dance rhythm, such as tempo, dynamics, and beat, are derived from music, as most dance is either set to music or accompanied by it. Particularly in cases where the choreographer sets the dance to a previously composed score, the music may determine both the length and structure of the work and even the exact phrasing of the movements. At its simplest, there may be an exact correspondence between the notes and the dance steps, as in a basic waltz melody. On a more complex scale, as in the music visualization popular with such choreographers as Ruth St. Denis, dancers or groups of dancers are assigned to specific instruments and are choreographed in such a manner that they duplicate on stage the relationships among the instruments in the orchestra. Balanchine was said to have translated music into spatial terms, manipulating the floor patterns and the grouping of the dancers so that they corresponded to the appearance and development of particular chord sequences, rhythmic patterns, melodies, or sections of counterpoint. Nijinsky, on the other hand, in L’Après-midi d’un faune (1912; “Afternoon of a Faun”), used Claude Debussy’s music purely for atmosphere, permitting it to set the mood rather than influence the organization of movements.

Music can determine the style or dramatic quality of a dance. In fact, composers are often instructed to emphasize or clarify the drama already inherent in the choreography. In Western ballet it is common for important characters to have their own musical themes expressing and identifying their personalities or for whole sections of music to be written in the style of the character dancing to them—as in the sweet, tinkling music that Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed for the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker. In plotless dances music and movement also reflect and reinforce each other, as in Ashton’s Monotones (1965–66), where the clear, uncluttered lines of the choreography reflect the limpidity of Erik Satie’s music.

Certain choreographers in the second half of the 20th century worked either without music or in such a way that music and dance remained wholly independent of each other. Merce Cunningham choreographed in silence, so that while the music helped to determine the overall mood of the dance, it rarely affected the dance’s phrasing and structure and often did not even last for the same length of time. Cunningham believed that too close a correspondence between dance and music would not really help the audience to perceive the two forms more clearly but, rather, would have the opposite effect of each canceling the other out. Other choreographers, such as Jerome Robbins in Moves (1959), used complete silence even in performance, so that the natural sounds of the dance movements formed the only accompaniment, leaving the spectator to concentrate solely on the patterns and rhythms of the movement. Others have used natural or electronic sounds and even spoken words in an effort to separate dance from a close relationship with music while still providing it with some relationship to sound.

It is likely that music accompanied dance from earliest times, either through sounds such as stamping, clapping, and singing that the dancers made themselves, through percussion, or through various wind instruments such as pipes or flutes. In modern Afro-Caribbean dances it is possible to discern the effects that drumming and percussive-sounding movements can have on dancing—in maintaining the dancer’s beat, providing accompaniment, and intensifying the dance’s emotional power. A slow, heavy beat can create a mood of tension or expectancy, while a fast beat may build the dance to a joyous or dramatic climax. The rhythms of the drums, reinforced by clapping and stamping, can amplify the rhythms of the movements (the sway of the pelvis, the rippling of the spine) as well as set up a complex counterpoint with them to produce variations in tempo and phrasing.

Clapping and stamping can also play an important role in producing the hypnotic effect necessary to certain ritual dances, uniting both spectators and dancers in a single world of sound and clearing their minds of everyday preoccupations. In the war and hunting dances of many tribes, sound is often used in an imitative way, with the dancers uttering war cries or animal sounds in order to further their transformation into warriors or the hunters’ prey.

In many Indian and Asian classical dances, stamping also plays an important role in maintaining the beat. Music, too, is very important, and many dances are accompanied by specific songs or musical compositions. In the Middle Eastern raqṣ sharqī, the song or music establishes the mood or narrative situation of the dance, which the performer then interprets through movement. In the Indian bharata natyam the dancer is accompanied by a singer, who marks the movements with a tiny pair of cymbals while singing out instructions to the dancer. Bells tied around the dancer’s ankles also accompany the movements with their sound. Just as in Western theatre dance, the music accompanying these different dance forms is important both for its dramatic function—emphasizing moments of climax or different emotional states—and for its ability to increase the spectator’s pleasure in and awareness of the movement.

Social dance is nearly always accompanied by music, which not only helps to keep the dancers in time with each other but also increases the power and excitement of the dance, encouraging the dancers to abandon themselves to their movements. Sometimes individual dances have developed in response to a new musical form, as in jazz and rock and roll; but dance has also had an important influence on music, as in the Renaissance, when musicians were required to produce music to accompany the new dances that were developing.

Choreographers and composers alike often feel limited and frustrated when they have to create their own works within the limits of someone else’s artistic conception. The most fruitful relationship is often one in which an element of collaboration exists between composer and choreographer from the start. Fokine’s collaboration with Stravinsky on The Firebird (1910) is an example of both score and choreography emerging from long and detailed discussion, during which each artist remained sensitive to the other’s wishes and to the overall idea of the work. There are no rules, however, and while some choreographers dislike being subjected to the limitations and demands of a musical score, others regard them as important creative stimuli.

Most dances have a traditional relationship with particular musical works or with particular kinds of music. Although ballet has always had a close relation to classical (as opposed to popular) music, many people have found unacceptable its use of established masterpieces that were not specially composed for ballet. It was not until the 20th century that this practice came into being, with Isadora Duncan performing to Richard Wagner, Johannes Brahms, and Frédéric Chopin and Léonide Massine choreographing his symphonic ballets to the works of Hector Berlioz, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky.

During the 20th century a close relationship also existed between modern dance and contemporary music, often music of a highly experimental nature. Thus, choreographers used, or even commissioned, works from composers such as Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, Luciano Berio, Aaron Copland, and John Cage. But it is common for both contemporary ballet and modern dance to use a variety of musical forms: modern dance may use early classical or non-Western music, while ballet may be performed to popular music. Also, as mentioned above, the concept of musical accompaniment has been stretched to include any kind of natural sound, electronic score, spoken text, or even silence.