What is Urban Ballet?

Question

& contemporary modern? I want to join jazz really badly, but the studio by me for people my age only has Jazz/lyrical classes. And I dont wanna do lyrical. Are they really that close? because i don't think they are. But i'm not pro dancer lol so what do I know.

Answer 1

Never heard of "urban ballet." Sounds like a new term that has been coined to make "contemporary ballet" sound more acceptable to those who are otherwise ballet-phobic. "Contemporary modern," on the other hand, is what you'd call today's MODERN "modern" classes to distinguish them from the OLD modern dance classes (in that "modern dance" started a century ago). In many educated dance circles, it's just called "contemporary dance," but then that would confuse those who aren't as educated in dance to think it's the "contemporary" style that's seen on TV, which is really just lyrical dance. So by throwing in the word "modern," it makes the historical connection to all the modern choreographers stretching back through the generations.

Lyrical dance is an off-shoot of jazz. If you can do jazz, you can do lyrical; they aren't that different. Others will say that lyrical is a cross between ballet and jazz, but lyrical does not care one iota about proper turn-out and placement in order to wedge in the most extreme tricks possible in every-other phrase. It's just jazz set to a slightly different style of music. Then again, jazz dancing is basically modern dance set to jazz music.

Essentially, if you know the strict rules of ballet and then how to break those rules, you're pretty much covered. Everything else is just a permutation.