Can someone help me understand what is the difference between 踊る, 舞う, and ダンスする that all mean to dance? Is there a situation where one is more used or is one an older version of another?
Thanks in advance for your help
舞う means “to dance slowly and beautifully.” It’s not used in everyday conversation much.
踊る also can mean “to be manipulated.” The other words can’t be used that way.
ダンスする isn’t covered by that entry, but I get the impression that since it’s a loanword, it’s unlikely to be used in the context of Japanese dances the predate its introduction to the language. It’s more likely to be used interchangeably with 踊る only with more modern dances, or dances from foreign cultures.
Ah, here, ダンス (the noun) is discussed at the end.
As suspected, it’s mostly western dances, and also social dancing.
Historically they referred to two different, specific types of dances. I’m not sure what the dances were exactly, but my understanding is that 踊る was more like energetically leaping around to a rhythm, while 舞う was gracefully turning and revolving. 踊る is semantically related with 躍る so that’s how I remember the difference.
In my experience, 踊る is used modernly to mean dance in a more generic sense. 舞う is used pretty infrequently and seems to be reserved for poetic effect most of the time.
I have no idea about ダンス
Thanks you for you answers
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