You love a good challenge, and as an experienced dancer, you feel like now is a great time to undertake a new dancing discipline, even if it’s tough to learn. What is the hardest style of dance?
There is no one hardest style of dance, but rather, several. Here’s a list:
- Ballet
- Capoeira
- Kuchipudi
- Tango
- Can-can
- Aerial dancing
In this guide, I’ll talk more about each dance discipline so you can decide which style you might be interested in pursuing next. I’ll also provide some tips for success so you can quickly acclimate to a new dance discipline!
6 of the Most Difficult Dance Styles (and Tips on Mastering Them):
Ballet
Let’s start with a style of dancing that almost everyone is familiar with, ballet.
You can select from several styles of ballet, including contemporary, neoclassical, romantic, and classical ballet. Here’s a closer look at each ballet style.
- Contemporary ballet: A contemporary ballet dancer will usually dance barefoot, even during performances. Elements of acting and miming are included. The dancers will move to only vocal music or orchestrated songs. Incorporating twentieth-century ballet concepts such as turning in the legs and doing floor work, contemporary ballet often utilizes pointe dancing too.
- Neoclassical ballet: An abstract style of ballet that eschews scenery, costumes, and plot points, neoclassical ballet goes best with neoclassical music such as Roussel or Stravinsky.
- Romantic ballet: A romantic ballet is named after the Romantic Era, which embraces delicate tutus, more female dancers, pointe work, and overall, a more feminine ballet style. Ballet plots are usually about spirit women such as ghosts and sylphs.
- Classical ballet: Classical ballet is all about old-school vocab and technique. Although the way a classical ballet is interpreted is different in Russia versus Italy versus the United States, classical ballet is much beloved around the world. Examples include The Nutcracker and Swan Lake.
What is it about ballet that makes it so challenging? It’s a very physically demanding type of dance, especially pointe dancing. That style of dancing is all about moving on tip-toe on hard surfaces. Although pointe shoes are protective, ballet and pointe dancing can take their toll with time. Ballet dancers are prone to foot damage, and pain can sometimes affect their backs as well.
Mastering ballet requires sharpening your skills to perfection. If ballet dancers are in tandem and one has to lift their partner, that demands a lot of strength, not to mention confidence in one’s abilities.
Plus, on top of all that, the hours spent practicing and dancing are often very long. I recently wrote an article about dancer schedules that outlined the regular routine of a ballet dancer. Once you check out that post, you’ll see what I mean!
Ballet tips:
- Engage in cross-training to improve your flexibility, endurance, and strength.
- When your teachers or instructors offer you tips for improvement, take them, even if no one loves constructive criticism.
- Practice your steps, positions, and techniques as often as you can.
- Remember to find room for downtime so you don’t burn out!
Capoeira
Capoeira is technically a form of martial arts from Brazil, but it incorporates music, acrobatics, and dancing.
Created in the 16th century by Africans, capoeira requires a flowing rhythm of movements instead of switching from one fixed stance to another. Capoeira has many techniques, so let’s talk about them.
- Ginga: Ginga means to rock back and forth. In doing so, you learn the footwork that is fundamental in capoeira.
- Queda de rins: This term means to fall on the kidneys. If you want to do a technique, you can use the queda de rins to launch. You need to keep your torso supported by using your head and the inside of your elbow. You should keep your knees on your other elbow. Your head should be nearer your feet and no higher than 45 degrees.
- Ponte: A bridge technique, the ponte involves you moving your stomach up and pushing with your feet and hands to arch your back.
- Troca de pe: This capoeira term means change of foot. You should extend your leg, hop, and then use your leg as a support leg while your guard arm is now a support arm.
- Role: A rolling motion used with Ginga, you spin yourself on one side and then stay lower on the ground. If you were fighting, you’d use the role to watch your opponent.
- Macaco: The back handspring known as the macaco mandates that your body is in a crouch to start. Then you put a hand on the ground behind your back. With the opposite hand, you throw it forward. At the same time, you jump up using your feet to send your hips over your head.
- Bananeira: Another type of capoeira handstand nicknamed after Brazil’s beloved banana trees, bananeria requires you to space your hands apart to the width of your shoulders. Raise your legs over your head, keeping them together.
- Au: The Au is all about doing cartwheels. There are several types of Au cartwheels, including the following:
- Au Giro sem Mao
- Au de Frente
- Au sem Mao
- Au Fechado
- Au Batendo
- Au Batido
- Au Aberto
I’m sure I don’t have to explain why capoeira is such a difficult discipline to master. Once you get to know the myriad of moves and routines though, you could use your capoeira skills for dazzling dances or self-defense. Pretty cool!
Capoeira tips:
- Practice one move at a time. Focus on getting your technique down first, then build up your flow.
- Try yoga for better flexibility in your downtime.
- As you switch from technique to technique, remember to take a breath every now and again.
- Enjoy yourself, as capoeira is supposed to be fun!
Kuchipudi
An Indian style of dance, Kuchipudi entails classical and dramatic dancing techniques. First documented sometime in 200 BCE to 200 CE, Kuchipudi is another type of footwork-centric dance. Unlike capoeira though, it’s just dancing, not martial arts.
Facial movements and eye movements are pronounced, and the way you move your hands, known as mudras, is supposed to be dramatized as well. The hand movements utilize pan-Indian sign languages such as the Nritya Ratnavali, Abhinaya Darpana, and Natya Shastra.
Most dancers who learn Kuchipudi are trained from a young age, so an adult who wants to come into this form of dance later in their life might be at a disadvantage. To train in Kuchipudi means to dedicate yourself to long hours of practice, many demonstration lessons, and lots of dance theory and exercises.
The exercises build up strength, power, and flexibility in your neck, shoulders, arms, core, lower body, and legs. Most of the special exercises are Indian ones like Moggalu, Kappilu, Kalisamu, Gunjeelu, Chakra Dandemu, and Dandemu as well as yoga.
Kuchipudi tips:
- If you know you want to learn Kuchipudi, then don’t wait. The earlier you start, the better!
- Do the exercises your instructor recommends, as they will help you get better.
- Practice facial and eye movements outside of dance class so you can be more expressive. I recommend using a mirror.
Tango
Since the 1880s, tango has been one of the sleekest ways for pairs to dance. Taking elements of European, Native American, and African cultures, tango is rooted in the Rio de la Plata near Uruguay and Argentina.
The fun part about tango is that you have so many tango dance styles to choose from. Here is a list:
- Finnish tango: FINtango or Finnish tango combines elements of ballroom tango and the tango argentino. This form of dance started in Europe in the 1910s.
- Ballroom tango: A more Hollywood type of dance style, ballroom tango is less routed in Argentina but fun to watch and dance, nonetheless.
- Milonga: The genre of music known as milonga comes from the Rio de la Plata much like tango does. Milonga tango is all about dancing to this genre of music.
- Tango nuevo: New tango came about in the 1980s and is considered a more modern form of tango dancing.
- Tango argentino: Tango argentino or tango canyengue is a form of social dancing from the 19th century that originated in Argentina.
Dancers will move to alternative tango music, electronic tango, or standard tango tunes. Each style of tango carries with it unique nuances. For example, milonguero tango requires foot syncopation, smaller steps, and a very close embrace between partners.
Your partner is another reason that learning tango can be difficult. If your partner is too skilled and you’re new to tango dancing, you could find that they dance circles around you, quite literally, in this case.
Yet if you’re picking up techniques but your partner isn’t, they’ll hold you back. You could always look for a new partner, but that can slow down your progress as well, as you have to adjust to dancing with someone new.
Tango tips:
- Learn the tango vocab. Yes, it’s going to seem complicated at first, but with time, it will become second nature to use it.
- Improvisation is the benchmark of a truly good tango dancer, so once you polish your skills, that might be an area to focus on.
- Be patient with your partner. If they’re not learning quickly but you are, you might decide to help them out or ask your dance instructor to do so.
Can-Can
The beauty of can-can dancing makes it a very compelling dance form to many. Created in the 1840s in France, can-can dancing started as a form of social dance before evolving into a more acrobatic dance form complete with jump splits.
The high kicks that can-can dancers do so readily is another trademark of this form of dancing.
The continuous energy that dancers must exhibit as well as the ornate routines can be physically exhausting, as they demand a lot of skill, technique, and physical prowess.
Can-can tips:
- Rome wasn’t built overnight, and you likely won’t be able to do dazzling kicks right off the bat. Keep practicing and you’ll get there!
- Cross-training is great here, especially forms of fitness that keep you flexible.
- Balance your energy, resorting to lower-energy activities if you’re going to be training for a while or performing.
Aerial Dancing
The last difficult dance style I want to talk about is aerial dancing. This form of modern dance came about in the US only in the 1970s, so it’s quite recent.
Aerial dancing requires a dancer to suspend themselves from a cable, rope, or harness. While suspended, they perform moves that allow them to experiment with weightlessness and gravity. This is known as vertical dancing.
Outside of vertical dancing, an aerial dancer might use an apparatus to dance with, which relies less on visual trickery and more on ability. That said, both forms of aerial dancing are attention-grabbing and command physical mastery of techniques.
Aerial dancing, even if you remove the trippy elements, is not easy in the slightest. You’re connected to a harness or cable, sure, but you’re still sky-high (well, figuratively, at least). If you have any fear of heights, this is not the dance style for you.
Aerial dancing tips:
- Like with some of the other forms of dance I’ve discussed, take it one move at a time when learning aerial dancing. For example, you might start by hanging on a monkey bar, gradually increasing the amount of time you spend on the bar.
- In addition to strength training at the gym, make sure you’re taking grip training classes as well. They will surely come in handy!
- Always practice with a net to catch your fall.
Conclusion
Every form of dance requires a lot from performers both physically and mentally, but some dance styles are decidedly more difficult. From ballet to aerial dancing, tango, Kuchipudi, can-can, or capoeira, the masters of these dance styles often take years to learn their craft.
If you want a challenge, then I recommend at least dabbling in these dance styles to see which one you like the most. Remember that you’ll need to practice a lot, cross-train when you can, and find downtime so you can refuel and rebalance yourself. Best of luck!