What Is Lyrical Dance?

A contemporary and modern dance form, Lyrical Dance is a marriage of music with movement., fluidic movements that go from leaps in the air to movements on the dance floor. The Lyrical Dancer dances to the actual lyrics with the movements actually demonstrating the feelings expressed by the lyrics and music, heartbreak and her hand goes to her heart showing the pain. Musically, the dancer flows often in sequence with a songs climax, the dancer also brings out the greater aspects of a song: sometimes a deafening silence between notes in the music, or the gap between words, will be emphasized by the dancer standing still.

Lyrical dance is expressive a relatively modern form, technically lyrical dance combines classical ballet with jazz which creates this modern dance which is dynamic and expressive. It combines the emotion of slower jazz music with its twirls to the smooth flow of ballet. The slow music and movement is what creates the drama of lyrical modern dance. The dance form actually conveys emotion through its movements set to music – passion, love, anger, pain and remorse all conveyed through dance. While a ballet performance tells a complete story or recounts an entire masterpiece, lyrical dance recounts a song and its lyrics and by its nature the performances are shorter.

It is a requirement that the music be strong and moving so the dancer can give expression to the dance. Movement is fluidic and the dancers leaps are soaring, one movement leading into the other seamlessly. The music orchestra has more of percussion drums and brass band instruments, the percussion for the rhythm and the brass band instruments like trumpets and cornets for the brightness. Needless to say no orchestra is complete without the woods and strings however the emphasis on these is less in a lyrical dance ensemble. A dance performance need not have a singer crooner it is quite common to have only instrumental accompaniment.