What Is Lyrical Dance: Origins + Key movements + HD video. -

Lyrical dance is seen as emotive and expressive. It’s a type of dance that is as powerful to witness as it is to perform; one where the audience and the dancer connect on an intrinsic level.

Lyrical dance is a dance style that combines techniques seen in both ballet and jazz to highlight the strong emotions that the choreographer or dancer feels when they listen and respond to the music playing. It’s a newer style of dance that enables the dancer to explore their emotions.

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What Is Lyrical Dance And Its Characteristics?

“The purpose of lyrical is to use motion to interpret music and express emotion in an attempt to show the meaning of the music.”
Adelphi University, Dance 101

In lyrical dance, you can expect the following characteristics from those performing:

Fluid, graceful movements.
Movements that flow into each other.
Nearly constant, continuous movements.
Sharp movements only used to emphasize certain parts of the song/story.
Little to no stops or pauses.
Natural flow.
Held finishing steps.
Emotive expressions from the dancer.

You’re much less likely to find classes teaching this style, possibly because it’s such a personal act to perform and more difficult to teach in a room full of students.

Lyrical dances can be born from a combination of other taught styles. A dancer may attend ballet and/or jazz dance classes to form a good basis for their movements, but, ultimately, there is no need to be professionally trained.

Of course, having dance training always helps ensure that a choreographed piece looks more refined and polished. Lyrical dancing carries characteristics of strong, graceful movements, after all. That means that you’ll need to know how to move your body like a dancer to be able to truly capture the essence of the style.

The near-constant movements also require some amount of stamina that can be gained from attending dance classes. Lyrical dance is an expressive form of dance, and it’s crucial that a dancer remembers that, when looking to use it to perform. Unlike other styles of dance, lyrical specifically relies on the dancer’s connection to their emotion and the song they use.

What’s The Difference Between Lyrical, Lyrical Contemporary, Contemporary, Modern, Ballet, And Jazz?

Though it’s been mentioned that lyrical dance is a combination of ballet and jazz styles, it’s always good to know more about how lyrical dance fits in with other, longer-lived styles that aren’t as new.

	Lyrical	Lyrical Contemporary	Contemporary	Modern	Ballet	Jazz
Origin	20th century	20th century	20th century	20th century	15th century	20th century
Pace	Slow	Slow	Varies	Varies	Slow	Fast
Common movement characteristics	Fluid, graceful	Powerful, fluid	Powerful, reactive	Powerful, fluid	Graceful, artistic	Complex, powerful
Technical skills	Some knowledge of other styles, improvisation	Combination of ballet, jazz, and improvisation	Various skills from any existing style of dance	Use of breath, improvisation, knowledge of other styles that follow ballet teachings	Ability to rise to the tips of toes, knowledge of various ballet movements and poses	Use of isolation, precise movements
Focus	Connecting movement and lyrics	Overcoming emotions, expression	Pushing boundaries	Uses emotions to design choreography	Artistic, powerful, and beautiful movements that tell a story	Combining music and dance as a form of expression
Style	Ballet and jazz	Ballet, jazz, contemporary	All dance styles	Ballet, jazz, and modern styles	Historical court dances	Ballet and modern

What Is The History/Origin Of Lyrical Dance?

Seemingly appearing from the 20th century after gaining popularity on Broadway and being used in dance competitions over the years, the exact origins of the lyrical style cannot be pinpointed.

The style appeared in several Broadway shows, as far back as Oklahoma! in 1943 where it can be argued that it was used alongside ballet techniques to lean on the strong emotions of a scene.

Some have called it a “flashier form” of ballet, but it has certainly become part of modern routines and is a “fixture” of music videos and live performances.

Why Is Lyrical Dance Popular?

One of the reasons that lyrical dance is popular is because there’s no way to really perform a lyrical dance wrong. Lyrical dances are directly linked to the dancer’s emotions and how they connect to the story they’re telling with their body or their song choice.

Because of this, it requires little to no training to put together a lyrical dance. Many are improvised in modern dance scenes. Improvisation is a very powerful technique; one that the lyrical style uses constantly.

Who Might Enjoy Lyrical Dance?

Children
Teenagers
Young adults
Individuals looking for an artistic outlet.

What Are The Pros And Cons Of Lyrical Dance?

PROS	CONS
No right or wrong way to perform.	Can be frustrating to match movements and emotion.
Requires little technical knowledge.	Cannot be taught like ballet or jazz.
Doesn’t need dance classes.	Requires you to connect to negative feelings.
Great for expressing emotion.
Therapeutic.

Who Are Famous Lyrical Dancers?

Some famous lyrical dancers are:

Rodney Diverlus
Brian Friedman
Dan Karaty
Blake McGrath
Mia Michaels
Bonnie Su

What Is A Good Lyrical Dance Example?

Bonnie Su’s work is a strong example of lyrical dance. Look at this piece of her choreography that uses the song Youth:

In this performance, you can clearly see how Su has used the lyrics of the song to inspire the dance, with powerful and flowing movements that you can’t stop watching. Even the facial expressions of the dancers are working with the song and the dance’s theme.

What Are Good Songs For Lyrical Dance?

When you’re starting out with lyrical dance try to pick songs that are more emotional and mean something to you. If you already connect to the song emotionally, you’re going to find it a lot easier to link movements together that match how you feel.

Here are some great songs that are often used for lyrical dance:

Take Me to Church, Hozier
Heartless, The Fray
Breath Me, Sia
The Chain, Ingrid Michaelson
Mad World, Gary Jules

What Are Lyrical Dance Costumes?

The beauty of lyrical dance is that it’s not about the costume, it’s about the emotion. Many lyrical dance performances are staged in camisole tops and leggings, usually black.

You can, of course, use a huge variety of clothing. It’s best to stick to things that are easy to move in, like leotards, because lyrical dances are often full of big movements, leaps, and floorwork.