DominikaR

Contemporary dance combines many different styles of dance including jazz, modern, lyrical and ballet. The moves in contemporary might seem weird sometimes, but in my opinion it looks very interesting and I enjoy watching it.  This style, unlike ballet doesn't have strict rules. Instead of graceful moves, precision and perfect technique you will see a lot of improvisation and floor work. Probably the most important part of contemporary is freedom of movement which allows to express feelings. The choreography is fluid and it can be performed to different styles of music, it can be fast, slow or whatever the choreographer wants. It's often done barefoot and the feet don't have to be always pointed like in ballet, they might be for example flexed. Contemporary dance was developed in the 1950s as a direct and opposite response to classical, strict rules of ballet technique, it became very popular in the U.S. and Europe.  Because of its versatility, it is used in a variety o...

After my two posts about ballet I chose to write something about lyrical jazz, because this style is based mainly on ballet dancing and it requires a lot of ballet technique (also, because it's one of my personal favourite styles).  Lyrical dance is a fusion of ballet and jazz. It's a bit faster than ballet, but not as fast as jazz. In this style movement of the body is used to express strong emotions and that's why I love watching and dancing lyrical. You can see the story behind the dancing, not just beautiful jumps and turns and it makes you feel something.  Music used for lyrical is usually emotionally charged and expressive and the moves are fluid and graceful, a dancer is flowing from one move to another and finishing the moves as long as possible. Dancers attempt to show the meaning of the music and it challenges them to interpret the song and express their emotions. The origin of lyrical is unclear and it wasn't really popular until the 1990s, but today it...