Catherine’s Dance Studio offers Lyrical Dance classes to 3rd grade and up students. The Lyrical Recital pieces are always very well received by the audience due to the beautiful interpretation of the choreography, the dancer’s technique, and costuming. Unless you take a Lyrical Dance class, you may not know what the differences are between this and other forms of dance. All you know as an observer is that you like to watch it, and you seem to be moved by what you see on stage.
Lyrical Dance started in the 1970s but did not become popular until the mid-1990. By early 2000 most of the dance studios in the U.S. were teaching Lyrical classes. The popular TV show, ‘So You Think You Can Dance’, which premiered in 2005, regularly featured lyrical dancers utilizing leaps and turns, as well as acrobatic movements.
Lyrical Dance is the personal expression of the choreographer to music with lyrics that expresses a strong emotional interpretation of the chosen song. Dancers use their bodies as well as facial movements to express the emotions of the lyrics. The style of Lyrical focuses on the individuals in the piece as well as the precision of the dancer’s sharp and often fluid movements.
Lyrical has been said to be a fusion of ballet, jazz, and contemporary styles of dance. Although a dancer does not necessarily have to have a ballet dancers’ build or physique for Lyrical, Lyrical dancers can benefit from a high degree of flexibility, technique, and strength to perform more complicated lyrical pieces.
Lyrical Dancers benefit emotionally
Lyrical Dancers benefit from being emotionally connected to the music and will use a fluidity of movement to convey the emotional interpretation of the music and lyrics of the artist that is singing the song.
This dance form can convey a variety of emotions from sadness, joy, love, and pain depending on the music and lyrics that are chosen. Choreographers can create this emotion on stage and can also emote these feelings in the audience members. The dancers are connected to the music and through their interpretation using choreography, the audience also feels the lyrics of the song.
Lyrical dance uses a dancer’s body and facial expressions emotionally to tell the story of the lyrics in the music. It has become a very popular dance class at Catherine’s Dance Studio with high school and middle school dancers.
The original date of this post was February 2016. It has been updated.