This panel explores how dance - a form rarely accounted for by historians - can enrich historical research to numerous ends. Moving from Weimar Germany to 1970s New York City to Turkey during the Cold War, these papers examine how dance in many forms offers generative gateways into histories of science and technology, the economy, the body, urban life, everyday cultures, politics, and power. How does analyzing dance and movement allow historians to pursue original avenues of inquiry and see well-worn historical topics anew? In what ways does engaging with dance allow historians to expand their methodologies and enter interdisciplinary scholarly conversations? Why should historians care about dance?