The specialized languages of the arts still receive little attention in research on specialized languages today, including the specialized language of dance. Throughout the 20th century, dance was able to shed its stiff tutu and, through choreographers such as Mary Wigman, Gret Palucca, and Pina Bausch in expressive dance, as well as Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and José Limón in (American) Modern Dance, break free from classical ballet and develop more liberated forms of movement. Dance is a language in which physical elements are strung together like words in a sentence, conveying the vitality of humans in their ups and downs: dance and movement as expressions of emotions and inner states; dance as a primal form of communication. This study of the specialized language of dance defines these aspects of human communication and integrates them into existing research on specialized languages.