Contemporary

Contemporary is a dance direction that appeared in the middle of the twentieth century. The style has mostly evolved from classical ballet, jazz, and modern. However, it has elements from many other dance directions too. Contemporary is a rather emotional style that focuses on expressing one’s feelings through one’s body. At the same time, the direction also has controlled leg and torso work that was borrowed from classical ballet and modern. Apart from that, this direction involves a lot of floor work (moves in a lying or semi-lying position on the floor) as well as falls and recoveries. Besides, many dancers use sudden changes of moves or rhythm in their choreography, but usually, it is done in coherence with music. The direction also may contain moves and elements of Asian and African dance styles and directions.

In terms of the style’s history, contemporary derived from classical ballet and modern in the late 1940s, and the first choreographer who worked in this style was Merce Cunningham. By the beginning of the 1950s, Cunningham had already created over a hundred compositions that were performed all over the world and popularized the style.

Contemporary quickly gained popularity in the United States and European countries and became one of the most popular dance styles. Today, contemporary is still extremely popular as well as has many followers all over the world. Thus, if you are interested in a dance style that will help you express your feelings and emotions by means of your body, contemporary is definitely for you.