Is there anything more joyous and life-embracing than the dance? A celebration of movement, an expression of emotions, a glorification of the human form, dance can be a vehicle for romance, emotional healing, self-expression, or even a ritual of seeking rain, abundant harvests, and fertile, happy unions.

The fourteen stories of this unusual anthology are of the dance put to other, darker uses. Here it appears as the means of luring prey, a cold business proposition, a hard-fought competition and aggression, an expression of misogyny, a manifestation of an unhealthy mind and even a pathway to madness. The stories contain strong plot lines and dénouements that are both plausible and satisfying, but the moods they evoke, their settings, and the characters they reveal are refreshingly varied.

Included in this stellar anthology are the following:

• In Our Part of the World by Andrew Kennedy
• Dirty Dancing by Carole Nelson Douglas
• Changing Partners by Henry Slesar
• Dancing the Night Away by Brendan DuBois
• The Trespasser by Alexandra Whitaker
• Mrs. Website’s Dance by Ina Bouman
• At the Hop by Bill and Judy Crider
• The Dance of the Apsara by Joan Richter
• Death of a Damn Moose by Barbara Burnett Smith
• Jookin’ and Jivin’ by Linda Kerslake
• Dance with Death by Carmen Iarrera
• The Mechanique Affair by Ruth Cagin
• You Can Jump by Mat Coward
• Tango Was Her Life by John Lutz