The development of dance has been influenced by geographical location, climatological, economic and political circumstances. At the begining of its origin dance had ritual and spiritual meaning, as of today its role is primarly social. The complexity of the term itself is indicated by the fact that there is no unambiguous definition of dance, therefore the definition of dance depends on either social, cultural, aesthetic, artistic and moral principles. The subject of the paper are standard dances that belong to the social dances that are nowadays being practiced worldwide. The aim of this papers is to show different types and characteristics of standard dances and to point out through a historical retroperspective how standard dances can offer many possibilities to all generations. Although standard dances have undergone great stylistic and technical changes since their beginnings, they have retained their basic characteristic till this very day, which is reflected in the elegant performance. Five standard (classical) dances: English and Viennese waltz, tango, slow fox and quickstep, were practiced around the world as social dances, but later on they became a discipline for competition within sport dance. The paper highlights the benefits of dance and points out the increasingly important role of dance in pedagogical especially in health terms.