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Dance is a form of art that expresses thoughts and conveys emotions by means of the human body. In a heightened fashion, dances are the manifestations of the cultural attributes of a particular nation, a given society and a specific historical period. At present, although there are quite a number of relevant courses and textbooks in the field of teaching theories of dance in art schools, there is still a lack, up till now, of books or textbooks that provide a systematic treatment of the basic theories of dance. The development of this textbook is precisely aimed at making up for a deficiency in this field. Therefore, this book can also be regarded as a textbook that has the nature of a monograph. In this book, the author seeks to expound on the basic principles of dance by applying research methods in cultural, sociological, semiotic and aesthetic studies. Focusing on the underlying mechanisms of culture and on the art of dance itself, this book attempts to construct a system of fundamental theories of dance by understanding the philosophical genes of dance and how dance constitutes a form of art. By elaborating on the essential nature of dance, explicating the dynamic images in dance, and examining the language and vocabulary employed in dance, the different modes of expression and various categories of dance, this book expects to provide the students with a full access to the culture of dance and to develop an effective command of the basic principles of dance. In this way, they can accomplish their own creation, performance and research of dance on a heightened level. This book is closely geared to the practical needs of teaching basic theories of dance at the undergraduate level in a university curriculum. It has assimilated relevant research findings from A Study of the Imagery in Chinese Dance. On the other hand, this book has tried to be succinct, systematic and practical in its analysis, with the sole purpose of making the fundamental theories of dance accessible to undergraduate students who major in dancing. The key feature and the value of this book lie in the following dimensions. It is meant to serve the principle of facilitating the practical classroom teaching activities and to render the otherwise erudite theories easy to understand without compromising the accuracy of the knowledge and the academic rigorousness. In addition, in order to avoid an overly general and vague treatment of theories, the author has sought to carry out analyses in close connection with detailed discussions of specific dance works as a way of exemplification. It is hoped that this approach will help students develop the concept of incorporating theories with practices. In terms of the structure of this book, the author has taken into full consideration the schedule of a whole semester and has designed fifteen chapters for fifteen weeks, seeking a well-coordinated and purposeful balance between teaching and learning, and between the content to be taught and the time allowed to cover each chapter. These considerations have made it possible to eliminate any random arrangement of the content within teaching sessions. As a result, teachers will find it easier to effectively control the teaching schedule whereas for students they will find it easier to grasp the key items of knowledge designed for individual teaching sessions. In this way, the entire curriculum will be covered in an e effective and considerably standardized manner.