BEings: What's Your Style?!

Emily Bufferd | Feb 18, 2009 | 1

ballet... lyrical... jazz... modern... ??

As of late people have been asking me to define my work.  What style is it?  What style are you?  Well, in this time of everything and everyone being "contemporary", I dread having to say that is what it is, when truthfully do we even know what comprises contemporary dance anymore?  With such a blending of the styles, saying it is contemporary is the easy response.  It certainly is not straight up jazz, nor is it classical modern, and while my dancers are all very technically trained, they are definitely not ballerinas. So what are we if we are none of those things; by default we become contemporary....

Do not get me wrong here, there are many amazingly talented and wonderful dancers who classify themselves under that umbrella.  Why settle for the stereotype though?  I do not think of myself as a contemporary dancer, nor do I think of my company members that way.  They are versatile, yes; contemporary, no!  

As dancers, most of us aspire to be versatile; which by default makes it hard to put ourselves into a category of being a "type" of dancer (do we even want to be categorized though).  However, the fact that we take ballet does not make us ballerinas and a jazz class does not make you a jazz dancer.  As performers, the challenge is to be every type, without actually becoming the stereotype.  

I was playing around one day and came up with some new dance terms that maybe we can define our versatile selves with: batamodazzical (ballet, tap, modern, jazz, lyrical. if you are pretty well rounded)  himodazzlyrbatap (hip hop, modern, jazz, lyrical, ballet, and tap; for those of you who are incredibly well versed)  I have not come up with ones to include Latin and Ballroom yet, but if someone has a suggestion send it right over!  I know these terms are ridiculous, but at this point, I think I would rather have someone tell me they are a batamodazzical dancer than a contemporary one!  I think we need to get out of this contemporary funk and brand ourselves as what we hope to be; trained dancers who do not need to be put into a category and labeled!

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Ballet, Jazz, Hip Hop, Tap, Modern, Broadway, Ballroom, Teacher, Enthusiast, Parent, Retailer, Studio, Competitions & Conventions, Performance, Summer Study (all tags)