Contemporary Dance

Contemporary Dance

Contemporary dance is a blend of different dances like modern, jazz, ballet and lyrical. It was developed in the 1950’s century. You can use different kinds of music to express this style of dance. It is more floor work then anything. When you dance you can see the emotion on your face and feel the music. As William Butler says "How can we know the dancer from the dance?" The quote is expressing you should be able to tell how the person feels about dance through there emotions. 

People that are in the field of contemporary are Martha Graham, Trisha Brown, Isadora Duncan, Merce Cunningham, and Jose Limon. Martha Graham is one of the most famous contemporary dancers. She was the first person to ever to perform at the white house. She taught dance for over seventy years. Contemporary dance was one thing she was really good at.

Martha Graham developed her very own language of movement. She created a new dance technique similar to classical ballet. Graham focused on the movement of a human body.  Treva Bedinghaus critiques in her article, "What is Modern Dance?,"Graham's creation by saying that "instead of striving for long, fluid movements, Graham's movements were sharp and jagged." Graham's goal was to express basic human emotions through movements.

There are many conventions you could go to, to learn contemporary. Mia Michaels is one of the best chorographer’s of contemporary ever. She has made many cry on the show “So you think you can dance”. Mia has joined a convention called Jump that you should check out. You will learn more about her and the convention.


                                      
Dance, Contemporary, http://www.laballet.com/classes/images08/aylaleap.jpg