Contemporary, Lyrical & Modern Dance
There has often been confusion about what these styles of dance are. The names ‘contemporary, lyrical and modern’ get intermixed and many believe these are one and the same style of dance.
However, there is a difference which we will do our best to explain below. We’ll look at what type of dance each of these genres are and what you will need to do them.
Contemporary Dance: An Overview
Origins and History
This genre is a relatively new form of dance, emerging in the mid-20th Century, as a response to the rigid structure of classical ballet and modern dance. It blends elements of modern, jazz, and ballet while emphasizing personal expression, improvisation, and a broad range of movement possibilities.
With an emphasis on exploring the connection between emotion and movement, contemporary dance is a hybrid of ballet, jazz, hip hop and modern dance. Movements are generally graceful and fluid, albeit unconventional and often improvised and unchoreographed.
Where and When It Originated
Early 20th Century Roots: Contemporary dance has its roots in modern dance, which began in the early 20th century in the United States and Europe. Pioneers like Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, Ruth St. Denis, and Ted Shawn sought to break away from the formal, structured movements of ballet, and they embraced more organic, expressive, and sometimes rebellious styles.
1940s-1950s Evolution: Contemporary dance as we recognize it today began to take shape in the 1940s and 1950s, particularly in the U.S. and Europe, where choreographers began to experiment with different movement vocabularies and performance contexts.
1970s and Beyond: In the 1970s and 1980s, contemporary dance began to evolve further, incorporating elements of other dance forms such as jazz, street dance, hip-hop, and even aspects of theater and performance art. This period marked the transition into the highly diverse and eclectic nature of contemporary dance seen today.
Key Characteristics
Freedom and Expression: Unlike ballet, which is highly technical and structured, contemporary dance encourages improvisation, personal expression, and a greater focus on emotional and physical communication.
Floor Work: Contemporary often involves movements performed on the floor (e.g., rolls, falls, and low-level movement), which contrasts with the standing posture of ballet.
Use of Gravity: Contemporary dancers use the force of gravity to explore weight, momentum, and grounding. Falling, rolling, and off-balance movements are common.
Fusion of Styles: It often blends various dance techniques such as modern, jazz, ballet, and even social or popular dance styles.
Non-traditional Movement Vocabulary: Contemporary dance can include sharp movements, fluidity, stillness, and even jerky or non-musical rhythms.
Improvisation: There is often a focus on improvisation, where dancers move freely within certain parameters, creating a sense of spontaneity.
Main Dance Moves
While there isn't a fixed set of "moves" in contemporary dance, some common techniques and movements include:
Release Technique: A method of moving that emphasizes the use of breath and releasing tension in the body, often resulting in flowing, relaxed movements.
Contraction and Release: Associated with Martha Graham’s technique, this is a foundational movement pattern where dancers contract their torso (engaging their core) and then release it.
Lifts: Partnering work in contemporary often involves lifts, where one dancer raises another, creating a sense of elevation and flight.
Floor Work: Rolling, crawling, sliding, and other movements close to the floor that explore gravity and body control.
Spirals: Twisting movements, often involving the spine or limbs, to create a sense of rotation and fluidity.
Jumping and Leaping: While not as rigidly codified as in ballet, contemporary dancers incorporate leaps and jumps, often with a greater focus on grounded landings or flying through space.
Falling and Recovery: Dancers may intentionally fall or drop to the ground, followed by techniques for recovery or reorientation.
Isolations: Focusing on isolating specific body parts, such as the head, arms, or torso, to create dynamic, nuanced movements.
What Is Worn in Contemporary Dance?
Contemporary dance attire is typically more relaxed and functional than ballet costumes. Dancers prioritize comfort and freedom of movement over formal dress codes. However, attire can vary depending on the choreographer, the setting, and the performance style. Common types of clothing include:
Tight-Fitting Clothing: Many dancers wear form-fitting tops, leggings, or leotards that allow for ease of movement and allow choreographers to see the dancer's body alignment. These clothes are typically made from stretchy fabrics like Lycra or spandex.
Loose Clothing: Some contemporary dancers prefer looser garments, such as flowing pants, skirts, or tops, which provide more freedom for expansive movements.
Barefoot or Minimal Footwear: Contemporary dancers often dance barefoot, allowing for better connection to the floor. However, in certain settings, dancers may wear soft shoes like ballet slippers, jazz shoes, or even socks, especially in rehearsals.
Custom Costumes for Performances: In some cases, costumes are designed specifically for a piece, and they can vary from minimalistic to elaborate, depending on the performance’s theme and aesthetic.
Notable Contemporary Dance Choreographers
Merce Cunningham: Known for his avant-garde choreography and use of chance operations (randomness) in creating dances.
Pina Bausch: A German choreographer known for Tanztheater, which combined dance with elements of theatre, often exploring emotional and societal themes.
Alvin Ailey: Founder of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, known for blending modern dance, jazz, and African dance influences.
Trisha Brown: A choreographer famous for her minimalist style and experimentation with movement and space.
William Forsythe: Known for pushing the boundaries of classical ballet and contemporary dance, particularly with his work in ballet technique and deconstruction.
Contemporary Dance Today
Contemporary dance today is as diverse as the dancers and choreographers who create it. It is no longer confined to a particular style or technique, and it often incorporates multimedia, new technology, and interdisciplinary elements. It’s seen in theater performances, music videos, commercials, and even public spaces, where dancers perform as part of interactive art installations or social commentaries.
Contemporary dance also has a strong presence in educational institutions, with many dance programs offering a combination of ballet, modern, and contemporary training. This has led to a continued evolution of the form, as young dancers and choreographers experiment with new ideas and approaches to movement.
Conclusion
Contemporary dance is a dynamic, constantly evolving art form that values creativity, freedom of expression, and physicality. Its emphasis on individual interpretation, diverse movement styles, and the breaking of traditional norms has made it one of the most influential genres in the dance world today. Whether through improvisation, storytelling, or a fusion of techniques, contemporary dance continues to captivate and challenge audiences worldwide.
Modern Dance
This genre is a type concert dance that emerged in the early 20th century as a reaction against the rigid structure and formalism of ballet. It emphasizes freedom of movement, expression, and individuality, breaking away from the classical techniques and traditions that had dominated Western dance for centuries.
Modern dance is an emotional interpretation of a piece of music and involves a high level of self-expression using movement. Commonly, modern dance can involve abrupt movements with a wide variety of movement types involving most of the body. For example, there could be floor work, contraction and release moves, stop/start movements and these moves will generally involve using a fluidity of the spine. Freedom of movement and expression, involving experimentation is a core tenet of this dance genre.
Origins of Modern Dance:
Time Period: Modern dance originated in the early 1900s, particularly in the United States and Germany. It grew as a response to the constraints of classical ballet, which was seen as overly rigid and restrictive.
Key Figures:
Isadora Duncan (1877–1927) is often considered the "mother" of modern dance. She rejected the structured, controlled movements of ballet and instead focused on natural movements, drawing inspiration from ancient Greek art and dance, as well as free-flowing, spontaneous movements.
Ruth St. Denis (1879–1968) and Ted Shawn (1891–1972), co-founders of the Denishawn School, played a crucial role in developing modern dance in America. St. Denis was known for blending Eastern and Western influences, and Shawn helped formalize some of the early choreographic techniques.
Martha Graham (1894–1991) revolutionized modern dance by developing a system of movement that focused on the contraction and release of energy, symbolizing emotional and psychological experiences. Her technique remains one of the most influential in modern dance history.
Doris Humphrey (1895–1958), who also worked alongside Martha Graham, developed the concept of "fall and recovery," which explores how the body responds to gravity.
Key Characteristics of Modern Dance:
Freedom of Expression: Modern dance allows for a wide range of emotions, personal expression, and themes. Dancers can interpret their feelings, ideas, and stories through movement.
Nontraditional Movement: Modern dance rejects the strict poses and movements of ballet, favoring more organic, fluid, and sometimes asymmetrical movements. Movements can be grounded, like stomping, or more elevated, like leaps, and can also involve unusual body positions and gestures.
Use of the Floor: Unlike ballet, where much of the dance is performed standing or on pointe (on the toes), modern dance often uses the floor as a partner for movement. Dancers roll, slide, or crawl along the ground, creating a more grounded and earthy connection to the space.
Emphasis on Improvisation: Many modern dancers engage in improvisational techniques, where movement is spontaneously created in the moment, allowing for greater creativity and individual expression.
Focus on the Body: Modern dance puts emphasis on the body and its relationship to emotions, space, and time. The body is often used to express both physical and psychological states.
Main Dance Moves/Techniques in Modern Dance:
Contraction and Release:
Popularized by Martha Graham, this movement is based on the idea that the body moves between tension and relaxation, often symbolizing emotional and psychological states. It involves contracting the core (the "center") and releasing it.
Fall and Recovery:
Developed by Doris Humphrey, this technique involves using gravity to fall in a controlled way, followed by the body's recovery or return to standing. It highlights the balance between surrendering to gravity and using strength to rise.
Isolation Movements:
In modern dance, body parts (such as the head, arms, or torso) are often isolated from the rest of the body to create individual movements or accents, as seen in the work of choreographers like Alvin Ailey.
Spirals and Twists:
These movements often involve rotating or twisting the body, creating dynamic, flowing patterns of movement that express both tension and release.
Lifts and Leaps:
Although modern dance does not rely on the same jumps as ballet, lifts and leaps still play an important role. These movements are often more expressive and can involve unorthodox shapes or configurations.
Floor Work:
Dancers use the floor as an extension of their body, rolling, sliding, or crawling, creating a dynamic relationship between standing and grounded positions.
Improvisation:
Many modern dance pieces involve a large element of improvisation, where dancers respond to their environment, music, or emotions, creating new movements on the spot.
What is Worn in Modern Dance:
Modern dance attire is typically more flexible and comfortable compared to ballet. The focus is on freedom of movement, so dancers wear clothing that allows for a wide range of motion.
Tops:
Dancers often wear tank tops, leotards, or form-fitting shirts that allow for ease of movement and flexibility.
Bottoms:
Tight-fitting leggings, shorts, or pants are common. These garments help to highlight the dancer's movements and make it easier to see the body’s line and shape.
Footwear:
In many cases, modern dancers perform barefoot, as it allows for a closer connection to the floor and greater freedom. However, some modern dance companies use soft shoes, such as jazz shoes or half slippers, depending on the choreography or style.
Costumes:
For performances, costumes can vary widely depending on the theme or concept of the piece. They may be simple and minimalistic or elaborate, with designs that reflect the emotions or themes of the dance. Modern dance often favors costumes that do not restrict movement and that allow the dancer to express themselves freely.
Hair and Makeup:
In modern dance, hair and makeup are often kept simple to reflect the natural, expressive nature of the art form. However, for performances, the styling may be more elaborate, depending on the theme.
Evolution and Influence:
Postmodern Dance:
In the 1960s and 1970s, a new form of dance called "postmodern dance" emerged as a further response to traditional modern dance. Dancers like Merce Cunningham, Yvonne Rainer, and Trisha Brown experimented with movement, breaking down the distinctions between choreography and improvisation, and incorporating everyday actions into performance.
Contemporary Dance:
Contemporary dance is often used as an umbrella term that includes modern dance, but also incorporates elements of other dance styles like ballet, jazz, hip hop, and even cultural and folk dances. It is a highly diverse and evolving form that continues to innovate and experiment with movement, music, and technology.
In short, modern dance broke free from classical traditions to emphasize emotional expression, individual creativity, and new forms of movement. It has evolved into a vast field that continues to influence the way dance is practiced and performed today.
Lyrical Dance: An In-Depth Exploration
Lyrical dance is a style that blends elements of ballet, jazz, and modern dance, characterized by expressive movement, flowing lines, and a focus on conveying emotion through the interpretation of music. The dance style is often performed to music with lyrics, and dancers aim to embody the emotion and narrative of the song, moving with fluidity and grace.
This dance style rests somewhere between modern and contemporary. Lyrical dance allows fluid expressive emotional movements, executed with the grace and precision of ballet. Lyrical dance interprets the lyrics and mood of a song through movement.
History and Origins of Lyrical Dance
Early Influences: Lyrical dance draws from multiple dance traditions, most notably classical ballet, modern dance, and jazz. Its development is tied to the evolution of American dance in the 20th century, when choreographers and dancers began to move away from more rigid forms of classical ballet and tap and sought a style that emphasized personal expression and emotion.
Ballet Influence: The technical precision of ballet provides the foundation for lyrical dance. Lyrical dancers often use ballet techniques, such as pointed toes, pirouettes, and leaps, but with a greater emphasis on emotional expression and storytelling.
Modern Dance Influence: Pioneers of modern dance, like Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey, introduced the idea of using dance as a medium for personal expression and emotional depth. Their works explored the use of weight, breath, and body shapes to communicate emotions, which greatly influenced the lyrical style.
Jazz Influence: Jazz dance, especially its more contemporary forms, also impacted lyrical dance. Jazz contributed dynamic movement, body isolations, and fluidity, which made lyrical dance accessible and popular for younger dancers.
Emergence in the 1980s: Lyrical dance emerged in its current form in the 1980s in the United States, during the same period that jazz and modern dance were evolving into more expressive, free-form styles. Choreographers like Luigi and Gus Giordano began to fuse ballet with modern jazz, laying the groundwork for what would later become known as lyrical dance. The style was also heavily influenced by the rise of "contemporary" dance, which incorporated improvisation and emotional storytelling.
By the 1990s and early 2000s, lyrical dance became a popular competitive dance style, seen in both regional and national dance competitions, especially as contemporary ballet and modern jazz continued to grow in popularity. Lyrical routines were often performed to ballads or slower pop songs that allowed for emotional storytelling.
Key Characteristics of Lyrical Dance
Movement and Expression:
Lyrical dance is all about emotional expression, often reflecting the mood and meaning of the music. The choreography is generally smooth and flowing, with long, graceful lines, but it can also include sharp, quick movements to highlight emotional shifts in the music or lyrics.
Dancers emphasize body extensions and full-body movements, allowing the arms, torso, and legs to flow together seamlessly. Movements are often grounded but have a sense of weightlessness, highlighting an interplay between strength and vulnerability.
The emotional connection to the music is a key element; dancers are expected to "feel" the music and tell a story through their movements. The choreography often mirrors the lyrical content of the song.
Key Dance Moves:
Leaps: Lyrical dance often includes graceful leaps, such as the grand jeté (a jump with a split) or stag leap (a leap where one leg is bent in front and the other is extended).
Turns: Pirouettes and fouetté turns are common, with an emphasis on controlled, precise rotations that flow naturally with the music.
Floor Work: Lyrical dance frequently includes floor work, with dancers moving smoothly between standing and sitting positions or even lying on the ground, emphasizing fluidity and continuous movement.
Contrasting Dynamics: Lyrical dancers frequently switch between moments of sharp, staccato movements and slow, sustained movements, reflecting the song's lyrical mood and changes.
Extensions & Lines: Extended limbs, high leg extensions, and elongated lines are central to the style, emphasizing the beauty of movement and the body’s capacity to convey emotion.
Costuming in Lyrical Dance
Lyrical dance costumes are designed to complement the style's elegance, fluidity, and expressiveness. The choice of costume can vary depending on the choreographer's vision, but common characteristics include:
Flowing Fabrics: Soft, lightweight fabrics like chiffon, silk, or lycra are often used to create a sense of movement and grace. These fabrics allow the dancer to move freely and add an ethereal quality to the performance.
Fitted Tops and Flowing Skirts: Many lyrical costumes feature a fitted bodice, which allows for easy movement, paired with a flowing skirt, often in asymmetrical designs. This combination highlights both the precision of the dancer's movements and the flowing, emotional nature of the style.
Leotards and Tights: Some dancers wear leotards and tights, often in nude or pastel colors. This streamlined look allows the audience to focus on the dancer’s form and movement.
Bare Feet: While lyrical dancers can perform in ballet slippers or jazz shoes, many choose to dance barefoot to enhance the connection with the floor and to further emphasize the natural, emotional quality of the performance.
Subtle Accessories: Minimalist jewelry or accessories may be included, though most lyrical costumes avoid distracting embellishments. The focus is on the dancer’s movements rather than the attire.
Key Dancers in Lyrical Dance
While lyrical dance is a style that is more commonly performed by a wide range of dancers in dance studios and competitions, there are a few influential figures who have helped shape its popularity, particularly through the 1980s and 1990s.
Mia Michaels: A highly influential choreographer known for her work in contemporary and lyrical dance, Mia Michaels has choreographed numerous routines for dance television shows like So You Think You Can Dance. She is known for her ability to convey deep emotional expression through movement, a quality central to lyrical dance.
Sonya Tayeh: Another prominent choreographer on So You Think You Can Dance, Sonya Tayeh blends contemporary, modern, and lyrical elements in her choreography. Her work often pushes boundaries and explores powerful emotional themes, contributing to the evolution of lyrical dance.
Tiler Peck: A principal dancer with the New York City Ballet, Tiler Peck is known for her versatility in both classical ballet and contemporary/lyrical styles. She has pushed the boundaries of ballet while also bringing emotional depth to her performances.
Jenna Dewan: While primarily known as an actress, Jenna Dewan's background in dance, particularly in lyrical and contemporary styles, has brought attention to the expressive and emotional side of dance in mainstream media.
Travis Wall: A celebrated choreographer and dancer, Travis Wall has worked extensively in the lyrical dance genre, with many of his routines becoming iconic on So You Think You Can Dance. He is known for his deep emotional storytelling through movement.
Conclusion
Lyrical dance is a beautiful and expressive style that allows dancers to interpret music in a deeply emotional and personal way. Rooted in ballet, modern, and jazz dance, it has evolved over time to become one of the most popular styles in competitive dance and performance. The history of lyrical dance is tied to a growing desire for emotional expression through movement, and its continued popularity speaks to the universal appeal of conveying human emotion through dance.
Therefore, while these three dance styles share similarities, each genre can showcase individuality and creativity, they are their own distinct dance genre. Contemporary dance is a graceful and fluid style of dance, while modern dance is highlighted by it’s angular and sharp movements, and lyrical dance is storytelling in motion.
Images: Freepix
