Contemporary dance for beginners: what to expect

Contemporary dance has a reputation for being either very serious or very abstract, and neither reputation is entirely fair. At the beginner level, it is mostly about learning to move from the inside out rather than copying shapes from the outside in. That distinction sounds philosophical but has very practical consequences for how a class is structured and what you spend your time doing.

Breath before counts ¶

Most dance styles are taught by counting: 'five, six, seven, eight.' Contemporary classes often start from breath instead. You move on an exhale, you pause on an inhale, you let the timing come from the body rather than the metronome.

This is disorienting for people who have done counted styles before, and it's liberating for people who haven't. Beginners with no prior dance experience often adapt to breath-based timing faster than people who have spent years counting.

Floor work and what it involves ¶

A significant portion of contemporary class happens on the floor. Rolling, weight-shifting, moving from lying to standing and back: these are not warm-up exercises, they are the vocabulary of the style.

Wear clothes you can get on the ground in. Denim doesn't work. Leggings or loose trousers and a fitted top are standard. The floor at Urban Sparrow is hardwood, so it's not cold, but it is firm.

• Clothes you can roll in (leggings, loose trousers)
• Bare feet or thin socks
• A water bottle
• Nothing fragile in your pockets

How it connects to other styles ¶

Contemporary shares body-awareness principles with hip-hop (particularly in the way weight and momentum are used) and with yoga (in the attention to breath and floor contact). Students who do Contemporary Flow at Urban Sparrow often find that their hip-hop work improves in ways they don't immediately understand but can feel.

The Saturday morning slot runs 10:00-11:30. It's a reasonable length for a beginner session: long enough to get somewhere, short enough that you're not wrecked for the rest of the weekend.

If you've been curious about contemporary but assumed it wasn't for you, the trial class is the most efficient way to find out. It costs ¥2,000 and you'll know within the first twenty minutes whether it's a fit.