In March 1909 Matisse painted a preliminary version of this work, known as Dance (I). It was a compositional study and uses paler colors and less detail.The painting was highly regarded by the artist who once called it "the overpowering climax of luminosity"; it is also featured in the background of Matisse's La Danse with Nasturtiums (1912).
It was donated by Nelson A. Rockefeller in honor of Alfred H. Barr, Jr. to the Museum of Modern Art in New York.