Contemporary dance

Unlike classical ballet, contemporary ballet often utilizes ground work and dancers often perform in bare feet.

A dancer performing a contemporary dance piece

Contemporary dance is a genre of concert dance(which is performed to an audience) that employs compositional philosophy, rather than choreography, to guide unchoreographed movement. It uses dance techniques and methods found in ballet, modern dance and postmodern dance, and it also draws from other philosophies of movement that are outside the realm of classical dance technique.

The term "contemporary dance" is sometimes used to describe dance that is not classical jazz or traditional folk/cultural dance^{[citation needed]}. The hallmark of contemporary dance is an awareness of the limitations of form^{[citation needed]}. Sub-genres recently defined by dance critics include non-dance, conceptual dance and pedestrian contemporary^{[citation needed]}.

History

Pioneers of contemporary dance (the offspring of modern and postmodern) include Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis, Doris Humphrey, Mary Wigman, Francois Delsarte, Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham, Paul Taylor, Rudolph von Laban, Loie Fuller, Jose Limon and Marie Rambert.

Dance technique

Two dancers performing contemporary dance

Dance techniques and movement philosophies employed in contemporary dance may include:

• Body-Mind Centering as a movement philosophy but not as a technique
• Contemporary ballet
• Alexander Technique
• Bartenieff Fundamentals
• Contact Improvisation
• Dance Improvisation
• Feldenkrais method^{[citation needed]}
• Hawkins technique
• Horton technique
• Humphrey-Weidman technique
• Graham technique
• Cunningham technique
• Corporeal mime - Etienne Decroux technique
• Pilates
• Release Technique
• Yoga
• Martial Arts
• Sullivan Technique

Contemporary dance employs many modern dance techniques such as contact-release, fall and recovery, floor work, improvisation, and lifts in partnering.

See also

• Contemporary ballet
• Tanztheater

External links

• Making Sense of Contemporary Dance: An Australian Investigation