When you think about dance you often think about Ballet. It's a fact that every dance style originated from ballet this is the main style that every dancer should take, it builds strength and endurance and it gives you better balance. One things that you should know about starting Ballet is that you have to progress to Pointe shoes. Another thing you should know is that this kind of dance requires a lot of discipline. You will do things that will be uncomfortable at first, such as squeezing your rear end and holding your core.
Another style of dance is Jazz, and it is probably the most similar to Ballet. Jazz is generally like Ballet except that there is less grace involved and the moves are sharper. Meaning sharper, I mean faster, and more upbeat. This kind of dance is usually paired up with Pop songs.
Tap is another style of dance. It's like Jazz except you have metal plates attached to your shoes. And, unlike Jazz, you can go on Pointe due to the fact that the shoes are harder. I would not recommend going on pointe, unless your teacher instructs you to.
Hip Hop is a dance style that you would think about as street dancing, or break dancing. Although break dancing is another style altogether. It helps if you have taken Jazz to do this form of dancing.
Lyrical is a mix of Ballet and Jazz. It is very graceful, although it incorporates a lot of Jazz moves in it. This dance is done with no shoes, although you can purchase something called foot thongs, or foot 'undies'. They help to keep your feet clean, and I find it is easier to spin and do things like the splits in them.
Modern is very similar to lyrical, but you can incorporate any type of other dance style in it.
One thing I would like to clear up is that the myth about most dancers being anorexic is a lie. The reason we mostly are so thin is that we do 2 to 5 hours of dance a day and for some things we do need to be skinny, but dancers do come in every shape and size.
~ A dedicated dancer :)