Contemporary dance combines elements of modern, jazz, lyrical and classical ballet. It focuses on fluid movements that connect the mind and body. In contrast to ballet, contemporary dance emphasizes improvisation and versatility over strict structure. Pioneers like Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham believed dancers should have freedom of expression. Contemporary dance developed in the mid-20th century drawing from ballet and modern dance. Merce Cunningham is considered the first choreographer to develop an independent modern dance style.
Contemporary dance combines elements of modern, jazz, lyrical and classical ballet. It focuses on fluid movements that connect the mind and body. In contrast to ballet, contemporary dance emphasizes improvisation and versatility over strict structure. Pioneers like Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham believed dancers should have freedom of expression. Contemporary dance developed in the mid-20th century drawing from ballet and modern dance. Merce Cunningham is considered the first choreographer to develop an independent modern dance style.
Contemporary dance combines elements of modern, jazz, lyrical and classical ballet. It focuses on fluid movements that connect the mind and body. In contrast to ballet, contemporary dance emphasizes improvisation and versatility over strict structure. Pioneers like Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham believed dancers should have freedom of expression. Contemporary dance developed in the mid-20th century drawing from ballet and modern dance. Merce Cunningham is considered the first choreographer to develop an independent modern dance style.
Contemporary dance combines elements of modern, jazz, lyrical and classical ballet. It focuses on fluid movements that connect the mind and body. In contrast to ballet, contemporary dance emphasizes improvisation and versatility over strict structure. Pioneers like Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham believed dancers should have freedom of expression. Contemporary dance developed in the mid-20th century drawing from ballet and modern dance. Merce Cunningham is considered the first choreographer to develop an independent modern dance style.
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CONTEMPORARY DANCE
Contemporary dance is a style of expressive dance that
combines elements of several dance genres including modern, jazz, lyrical and classical ballet. Contemporary dancers strive to connect the mind and the body through fluid dance movements.
Contemporary dance stresses versatility and improvisation,
unlike the strict, structured nature of ballet.
Contemporary dancers focus on floorwork, using gravity to pull
them down to the floor.
This dance genre is often done in bare feet. Contemporary dance
can be performed to many different styles of music.
In terms of the focus of its technique, contemporary dance tends
to combine the strong and controlled legwork of ballet with modern dance's stress on the torso, and also employs contract- release, floor work, fall and recovery, and improvisation characteristic of modern dance. Unpredictable changes in rhythm, speed, and direction are often used, as well. It sometimes also incorporates elements of non- western dance cultures such as elements from African dance including bent knees, or movements from the Japanese contemporary dance Butoh. Pioneers of contemporary dance include Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, and Merce Cunningham. These contemporary dancers all believed that dancers should have freedom of movement, allowing their bodies to freely express their innermost feelings.
HISTORY Contemporary dance is a dance performance genre that developed during the mid twentieth century and has since grown to become one of the dominant genres for formally trained dancers throughout the world, with particularly strong popularity in the U.S. and Europe. Contemporary dance draws on both classical ballet and modern dance, whereas postmodern dance was a direct and opposite response to modern dance. Merce Cunningham is considered to be the first choreographer to "develop an independent attitude towards modern dance" and defy the ideas that were established by it. In 1944 Cunningham accompanied his dance with music by John Cage, who observed that Cunningham's dance "no longer relies on linear elements (...) nor does it rely on a movement towards and away from climax. As in abstract painting, it is assumed that an element (a movement, a sound, a change of light) is in and of itself expressive; what it communicates is in large part determined by the observer themselves." Cunningham formed the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in 1953 and went on to create more than one hundred and fifty works for the company, many of which have been performed internationally by ballet and modern dance companies.
