The ability to express through the body by fusing modern dance, ballet, and postmodern traditions. Covers breath and release basics through improvisation, choreography creation, and the founding of a unique movement language.
Contemporary dance fuses the legacies of modern dance pioneers like Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham with ballet and postmodern dance. Release technique, floorwork, contact improvisation, and structured improvisation are its core methods, emphasizing emotional expression and physical exploration. This guide structures the artistic growth journey from personal practice to performance, choreography creation, company work, education, and ultimately the creation of an original movement language.
You are entering the world of contemporary dance for the first time. You begin practicing movement guided by conscious breathing and experience basic floorwork such as lying down, rolling, and sitting. You try body mapping to sense the weight and connectivity of each body part, and experience your first improvisation by moving freely in response to music or imagery. You become aware that contemporary dance encompasses diverse lineages including Graham, Cunningham, Limon, and Release-based approaches.
What Comes Next
If you've checked off most of this list, you're ready for the Elementary stage, beginning systematic study of release technique and weight shifting. Kolb(1984)'s Experiential Learning theory suggests converting concrete experiences of breath and floorwork into reflective observation to internalize movement principles.
Defines a 3-level vocational progression (Intermediate Foundation, Intermediate, Advanced 1) covering floorwork, improvisation, and choreography. Ofqual-accredited qualifications provide objective benchmarks for level boundary design.
A 7-stage system from Foundation to Level 7 (TD) integrating Graham, Cunningham, and Release techniques into a contemporary dance progression structure. The identical number of stages to Levelica 7-level directly informs level boundary mapping.
Defines systematic movement analysis competencies across 4 modules — Body, Effort, Shape, Space (BESS). Provides concrete behavioral evidence for Level 4 Laban Effort checklist items and Level 6-7 movement language creation items.
U.S. dance education accreditation standards defining competency benchmarks (technique, improvisation, choreography, pedagogy) for undergraduate and graduate dance degrees. Reinforces the authority of Level 5 pedagogy and Level 6 curriculum design checklist items.
A sports medicine paper analyzing dancer physicality from an athletic perspective. Provides scientific evidence for checklist items on flexibility, muscular strength, cardiorespiratory endurance, and injury prevention.
