Contemporary vs Modern dance

darling dearest started this discussion · 9/10/2012

Can someone tell me the differences between the two? I've been considering picking up an extra dance class to add more depth to my pole dancing. I saw this performance by Steven Retchless (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrHaKmyoEX4) which was totally inspiring, as well as Marlo's performance in The Last Goodbye (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYEu6cbo35I). I know Marlo has training in modern dance. Which classes should I be looking to take?

5 replies

Cherished · 9/10/2012
Here is some sort of arguement about it http://www.dance.net/topic/6730251/1/mo. If you scroll to the bottom the annoying guy who keeps telling everyone they are wrong without ever really clarifying what the difference is finally posts some links to dances categorized and modern and dances categorized as contemporary to show what's what. I do notice that he placed Mia Micheals who Marlo Fisken studied with under contemporary.
Cherished · 9/10/2012
*Categorized as modern
stoneycook · 9/11/2012
Ask a dozen dancers and you'll get a dozen different answers. One sure response is the singular fact that Modern came before anything someone might call Contemporary. For me Contemporary is a blend of different styles where Modern is more closely aligned to a singular defined technique style. I'd study whatever dance technique you felt might best benefit your style of pole. For me that is a combination of ballet and Limon technique. The release and recovery in Limon comes into play for spin work. Ballet for line, core strength and the strong sense of spirals when talking about energy moving through the body to form shapes.
darling dearest · 9/11/2012
Thanks for the responses :3 Oh goodness, I wish I enjoyed ballet more. I've only taken two classes semi-recently but was disappointed to find out that I didn't immediately take to it like I did with pole. I really want to learn to dance off the pole because what these people do is so beautiful, and naturally I want to be able to do that too!
byrdgrrl · 9/12/2012
I've found that ballet is kind of like pole or silks where there is a learning curve. You do plies and tendus for a while to build the muscle memory and the alignment for the basic steps, then you can build on that. Just like with pole, you have to learn to just walk around the thing before you can spin and you have to climb before you can invert. Try to stick with it for a while, you might suprise yourself.