Matthew, I have learned a lot based on your strong view on the term contemporary dance. My dance teacher who specializes in the modern techniques of Graham and such also shares your opinions. Taking class from my high school, we were required to do a lot of research on choreographers and history and evolution of dance, so I understand your frustration with the tossing of the term contemporary. A private studio I go to sometimes offers a contemporary class but it is more like what Emily described, a class where you let go of things you learned and try and dance as organically as possible. So now, leaving the European history behind, contemporary -- in my opinion -- is loosely thrown with the genre of organic dancing. Sure, it incorporates many other styles of dance, but then again it all comes down to dance is universal. I think with SYTYCD, they threw in contemporary to the season two line up because the general public became confused with all the different styles. How many normal people could differentiate between street jazz, lyrical jazz, pop jazz, and such? In my opinion, I believe it was just easier to throw out contemporary as a term for the public. Obviously I don't have the same long list of dance experience as others, so my opinions might be less credible than others but that's my spiel. Thanks for the clear up on the term. This situation is all to familiar like modern (Graham, Limon, etc) vs. modern as in hip hop. So many students at school enroll in modern thinking it is a hip hop class. Hahahaha, if only it was easy to universally clear up all dance genres.