Which style of dance is closer to contemporary? Ballet or Jazz?

Hi! I live in a small city and there is barely any contemporary classes for me to take. Most studios only teach ballet and jazz, and I have been taking both ballet and jazz. For some reasons, I might have to choose between the two styles. In the future, I would like to become a professional contemporary dancer, so I would like to know which style could help me more in contemporary.

Comments for Which style of dance is closer to contemporary? Ballet or Jazz?

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Jul 18, 2016

Maria's reply
by: Maria

Hi there,

It would not be accurate to say that one of the two styles is closer to contemporary dance, because that depends on the style of contemporary dance you are interested in.

Remember that contemporary dance has different styles. Some of them give importance to choreographic vocabulary, some of them don’t; some of them focus on improvisation, some of them on dance composition in a classical way; some styles use the chorographic vocabulary and dynamics from other dance genres and some don’t.

If you want to broaden your understanding, you may want to read our page about contemporary dance techniques:

Contemporary Dance Techniques

The information that you will find in that page will give you some guidelines to start.

For now, I recommend you to choose the dance genre that you enjoy the most, whether it’s ballet or jazz. They may both be useful for your future as a contemporary dancer.

;)

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