- Floor Work: Contemporary dance often involves movement while lying or sitting on the floor, utilizing the floor as a dancing surface. Rolling, sliding, and controlled falls are key components.
- Suspensions and Lifts: Contemporary dance often includes moments where dancers are suspended in mid-air, supported by other dancers. These lifts and balances require trust and strength between the dancers.
- Partnering: Partner work in contemporary dance ranges from lifts to intricate duets, emphasizing connection, fluidity, and shared movement between two or more dancers.
- Improvisation: A prominent aspect of contemporary dance is the use of improvisation. Dancers explore spontaneity and use their bodies as artistic tools to express themselves in the moment.
- Contact Improvisation: This dance technique involves constant physical contact between dancers, leading to unpredictable and dynamic movements that rely on points of contact for support and balance.
- Fall and Recovery: Contemporary dance often incorporates controlled falls, where dancers smoothly and gracefully fall to the ground and then regain their composure, creating dramatic moments of tension and release.
- Counterbalance and Off-Centering: Movement in contemporary dance often plays with concepts of balance and imbalance. Dancers counterbalance weight, shifting it between their limbs or using the momentum of their bodies to create a sense of unsteadiness.
- Release Technique: Contemporary dance commonly uses principles of release technique, which focuses on freeing the body from tension, allowing for more fluid, flowing movements.
- Traveling Movements: Many contemporary dance pieces feature expansive movements that cover a wide range of space. Dancers navigate the performance area with large, intricate steps and leaps.
- Upper Body Isolations: Contemporary dance emphasizes dynamic upper body movement. Isolation techniques are used to articulate specific body parts, creating expressive gestures.
These steps are just a glimpse into the diverse and evolving field of contemporary dance. Contemporary dancers continuously push boundaries and blend techniques to create new movement vocabularies.