Contemporary dance began at the start of the 20 th century when US dancer Isadora Duncan (1878?

1927)
broke away from ballet and developed her own, more natural style. Contemporary dance has many
different styles, some of them closely linked to music, such as jazz, rock and roll, and hip-hop.

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Contemporary Dance - Ballet and Dance

Around 1980s, the world "contemporary dance" referred to the movement of
new dancers who did not want to follow strict classical ballet and lyrical dance
forms, but instead wanted to explore the area of revolutionary unconventional
movements that were gathered from all dance styles of the world. Contemporary
dances therefore do not use fixed moves and instead try to develop totally new
forms and dynamics, such as quick oppositional moves, shifting alignments,
expressions of raw emotions, systematic breathing, dancing moves preformed in
non-standing positions (for example lying on the floor), and in general trying to
find the absolute limits of our human form and physique.

The origins of this popular dance movement can be traced to several influential
dance masters such as Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham and Merce
Cunningham. They all wanted to show to the world that contemporary dancers
should embrace freedom, ignore old dance conventions and explore the limits of
the human body and visual expression of feelings. Also, one of the precursors to
the contemporary dance can be found in the millennia's old techniques of Zen
Buddhism and Indian Health Yoga, which incorporates various dancing
philosophies that closely follow the principles of contemporary dance.
Dancer who introduced and greatly popularized the contemporary dance to the
worldwide audience was Martha Graham (1894 - 1991). During her seven
decade long career, her modern dance and choreographies gathered the fame
that is today compared to the life works of legendary art geniuses such as
Picasso, Stravinski and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Merce Cunningham refined the work that his colleague Martha Graham

formed, and expanded with this his own improvements, choreographies and
avant-garde dance techniques. During his long career he was regarded as one of
the greatest creative forces in American dance, education dozens of worldwide
famous dancers and thousands professional dancers who preserved his style
until today.
Lester Horton was a very influential contemporary dance visionary, who
trained many famous modern dancers and managed to incorporate the styles of
Native American dance and modern jazz into his dance techniques.

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The contemporary dance involves leaps, jumps, and many other moves which require a fluid
body movement and needs the dancer to be flexible. It focuses on movements made from the
torso area and hence requires a lot of strength and dexterity. Stretching, Yoga and exercises for
core strengthening are absolutely essential in order to perfect your contemporary moves.