The important place of women in dance can be traced back to the origins of civilization. Cave paintings, Egyptian frescos, Indian statuettes, ancient Greek and Roman art and records of court traditions in China and Japan all testify to the important role women played in ritual and religious dancing from the start. In the Middle Ages, what has become known as ballet had its beginnings in Italian court festivals when women frequently played the parts of men. It was however in late 17th-century France that the Paris Opera produced the first celebrated ballerinas. While women began to dominate the ballet scene in the 18th century, it was with the advent of Romantic ballet in the 19th century that they became the undisputed centre of attraction with stars playing the leading roles in the works of Marius Petipa, appearing in theatres across Europe from Milan's La Scala to the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg. More recently, women have played a leading role in developing various forms of modern dance including flamenco and expressionist dance.

Women have always played a predominant role in dance, as can be seen from its earliest history until the emergence of formal dances in the 15th century which developed into ballet.^{[citation needed]}

Cave paintings from as long ago as 6000 BC provide scenes of dancing women. Examples can be seen in the Addauta Cave near Palermo and in the Roca dels Moros in Catalonia. In Ancient Egypt, women performed ritual dances for religious ceremonies such as funerals, as illustrated by frescos on the pharaohs' tombs. The oldest records of organised dance and of professional female dancers come from Egypt. Especially in the Old Kingdom, women were organised into groups known as khener, apparently being joined by men only at a later stage.

In the Indian subcontinent too, there is early evidence of dancing women, most notably a bronze statuette from Mohenjo-daro in the Indus Valley dating from around 2500 BC. While men's early participation in dancing rituals appears to have been connected to hunting and fighting, women's dance was above all related to fertility, both agricultural and human.

Dance in classical Crete and Greece seems to have been influenced by the dances of Ancient Egypt. There are many examples of ancient Greek art from the 6th and 5th centuries BC depicting dancing women. The virgins of Delos danced in a circle to honour Apollo while Terpsichore was the Muse of dance. In the 6th century BC, the choros became a lasting feature of Greek theatre while women known as the Dyonysiac, frequently depicted on Greek vases, dance in frenzy, celebrating Dionysus, the god of wine. In Ancient Rome, female singers and dancers performed in the annual celebrations of Isis which included mystery plays representing the resurrection of Osiris.

The Bible contains several accounts of women dancing, in particular the celebrations led by Miriam after the crossing of the Red Sea when women are said to have danced and played hand-drums. After David had returned from slaying Goliath, women came out singing and dancing. In the New Testament, Matthew tells the story of how Salome danced for Herod in order to be given the head of John the Baptist.

In China too there is a long recorded history of women dancers since the Zhou dynasty (c. 1046–256 BC) reaching a peak in the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD). The chorus dances performed by women in the Zhou dynasty were known as xi. The ancient theatrical spectacles called baixi probably involved dancing girls in dresses with fluttering silk sleeves. Texts from the Spring and Autumn period (771–476 BC) contain descriptions of professional dancing girls while the Nishang Yuyi dance, created by the Emperor Li Longji (685–762), stages virgin women dancing as if in a magic world. In the early 1900s, modern dance was first introduced to China by Nellie Yu Roung Ling, daughter of a Qing-dynasty diplomat to France. She developed a series of dance styles combining Eastern aesthetic with Western technique during her time in the Qing imperial court. In 12th-century Japan, the Shirabyoshi were famous for their dancing and poetry. One of the most famous was the court dancer Shizuka who appears in the Japanese literature of the period.

India has nine classical dances. Some are performed exclusively by women such as Mohiniattam. Others are performed with men, such as Kathak.