What is it? There’s a definition for every taste.

The dance studio owner was confused—and more than a little angry. When her lyrical dance students go to competitions, she said in an audience forum at the DanceLife Teacher Conference in August, they sometimes find themselves competing against kids specializing in modern dance and other genres. She asked: How can judges lump different disciplines into a single category and make sense of it?

Part of the problem may be that there’s no universally accepted definition of lyrical dance. Dance Studio Life sought opinions from a broad range of the dance world, and the responses we got fell into these categories:

It’s jazz
We consider lyrical to be one of many jazz styles, rather than a stand-alone technique. I guess you could say that we like and appreciate lyrical as a facet of jazz, just not as its own genre. Broadway, Latin, funk, lyrical—we think all of these styles belong under the umbrella of jazz. Lyrical itself, I like to think, is jazz with a heavy shot of ballet, danced with emotionally charged music.

I think sometimes the words “lyrical,” “contemporary,” and “modern” are used interchangeably, which can be confusing. We strive to be clear that modern is different; it is not a fusion of styles the way lyrical or contemporary may be. Which leads us to: What is contemporary? Is it postmodern, new choreographers? A specific style, a mix of modern and lyrical? It’s a slippery slope, this discussion! —Julie Holt Lucia, owner/director, Studio Dance Centre, Frisco, TX

It’s a slow-moving jazz. You feel a story through it. It’s colorful, with many different emotions. —Kehree and Pierre Lacasse, Vanleena Dance Academy, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

It’s ballet (sort of)
It’s a type of dance that retains the fluid (and feminine) quality of ballet without its formal constraints—and it typically has a strong emotional or melodramatic/narrative component. Most of the companies I’ve seen that describe themselves as “lyrical” also tend to be teen-based rather than professional. —Sophia Emigh, dancer and writer

Lyric is what ballet would have been if Cecchetti had been a 20th-century American teenage girl. It keeps the line and the proper basic technique but throws restrictive rules out the window. It replaces, for example, static third-, fourth-, and fifth-position arms with “reaching, yearning, clutching” arms. You do a technically proper double turn but end crumpled on the ground. You pas de bourrée but add a head roll. You’re in second position but on your knees.

Ballet was born of royalty in a time and place when people followed strict standards of behavior and an unbreakable class/caste system. Lyric is the beauty of ballet infused with the freedom of today. —Karen White, teacher, Spotlight Dance Studio, Taunton, MA

It’s ballet plus story
When I choreograph a lyrical piece, I choose a song and try to absorb the lyrics and the story of the person singing. I listen until I have a clear feel for the story. If I don’t get a story, I move on to a new song. You can’t force a connection. The choreography for lyrical has to be genuine and it has to have emotion. It has to connect the singer to the choreographer and the choreographer has to make her translation of the song connect for the dancer.

In ballet, you have perfection—perfect lines, perfect balance, perfect dancers, perfect turnout and perfect technique. In lyrical, you have something different. Testing balance until you fall, playing with traditional lines, and even a little choreographed imperfection all help your audience feel the story and emotion of the song. Lyrical dancers use their ballet training to heighten the contrast between the fluid technical movements and the emotionally inspired ones. —Kerin Jeanne Martinez Buxton, teacher, Tarrytown Dance, Austin, TX

It’s ballet plus jazz
I define lyrical dance as a mix between ballet (technique) and jazz (spontaneity). I have always been able to connect to the music more in lyrical than in ballet because it tends to have more gut-wrenching choices than classical repertoire. Lyrical allows me to express myself more than any other dance form I have tried. Although I still maintain the technique I have worked endlessly on in ballet, in lyrical I can finally let go. In lyrical your body connects with the music to tell a story, but you don’t have any of the limitations [of] ballet. I love teaching lyrical to classically trained ballet dancers because I come from that background. It’s amazing to see them let go and dance from the heart and the gut. My favorite people to teach lyrical to, though, are those willing to take the risks required and show their vulnerable side. —Michele Camozzi Schmidt, instructor of dance, Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa, CA

Lyrical is a combination of jazz and ballet technique that interprets the lyrics of the music. The reason that kids love lyrical is that dancing to the feeling of the music comes so naturally to them. If I put on music and ask the dancers to freestyle, often they end up looking fluid and emotional. It looks like lyrical. —Molly Kaleikilo, artistic director, Innovative Dance, Wilsonville, OR

It’s a mix between jazz and ballet, like a balletic jazz. It requires a lot of the technique taught in ballet but it’s not as perfection-seeking as ballet. In lyrical you’re still working on fine-tuning your body, defining muscles, gaining strength, but you get to let loose a little more than in ballet. The combos we do in lyrical allow me to express myself at a more human and personal level than ballet, which often requires you to put on a certain character or façade. Not that I’m saying ballet is fake—but I feel like in lyrical I can put more of my personal emotion into it. —Erin Strand, former student, Petaluma School of Ballet, CA

It’s a mix of ballet and jazz, but it is freer than ballet. It still requires a lot of technique, but it allows you to concentrate on the movement and not so much the technique. —Morgan Sheppard, former student, Petaluma School of Ballet, CA

Colleen Walsh and Christopher Howard of Zodiaque Dance Company at the University of Buffalo in New York display the direct emotionality typical of lyrical dance.

It’s ballet plus something else
Lyrical is a style of dance in which the performer expresses deep personal emotions through a connection to both the music and lyrics of a song. It uses an applied technique borrowed from ballet, modern, jazz, and other world forms, often abstracting their shapes and forms. Gesture, pantomime, and other acting elements are layered on the movement to enhance the interpretation of the dance. Lyrical dancers, like actors reading a script, are in search of their character’s identity, which they discover as they move through space. Lyricism in movement can be traced back to the early dance pioneers of both modern (Alvin Ailey, José Limón, Martha Graham) and jazz (Matt Mattox, Luigi, and Gus Giordano), but it has become popularized and commercialized through competitive dance events since the mid-1970s. It helps to connect and ground us to our humanity by witnessing body sensations and feelings. —Tom Ralabate, associate professor of dance, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY

Lyrical dance is a mix of jazz, ballet, and modern. It’s usually a slower form, but always done to songs with lyrics. It incorporates the technical movements of jazz with ballet’s classical lines and modern’s freedom of movement. It’s popular in competition environments, but I think whether it can be taken seriously depends on the choreographer. It incorporates so much from other dances. Hopefully it will develop more, moving from amateur performances to the professional world. Lyrical dance is usually based on emotion, which is why it is one of my favorite forms. —Caitlin Donovan, student and dancer, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA

Lyrical is a combination of ballet, jazz, and contemporary, allowing total freedom to express the words or feelings of a song. It tells a story to your audience, and your movements and emotion should bring the song and story to life. —Jennifer Rienert, owner/director, New Hampshire School of Ballet, Hooksett, NH

Lyrical is my favorite style of dance because of the emotional expression, the complete “letting go” quality to it, and the beauty in the music it’s danced to. It’s a fusion of ballet, jazz, and often modern that usually has much more emotional expression than other styles. One reason it appeals to students is the music. I use a lot of “lyrical” music even in my jazz warm-ups, and the kids always say how much they like the music. —Heidi Hilton, director, Bates Dance Studios, Manhattan, Great Bend, and Junction City, KS

I consider lyrical dance a fusion of ballet, modern, and jazz technique. It is typically softer and more fluid than jazz, and it allows more freedom and release than ballet. It is appealing to dancers because lyrical choreography uses popular, commercial music, yet it still incorporates many foundational modern principles that help dancers find release and real weight in their bodies. —Jessica York, Shenandoah Conservatory, Winchester, VA; Lines Ballet Training Program, San Francisco, CA

Lyrical dance is a combination of ballet, modern, and performance dance. It uses balletic lines and style with modern steps and transitions. It allows the positions and movements to move outside of the strict, technical lines of classical ballet. The dancer’s emotional performance is the driving force for the movement and can be seen through each step. —Lauren Rosenstein, graduate student in dance education, New York University, New York, NY

Lyrical is a fusion of modern, jazz, and ballet technique that focuses on emotional expression. It’s attractive to kids because it’s typically used with popular music and it’s something kids can relate to. It allows them to use their innermost emotions through movement. —Brynn Sylvester, teacher, Chehalem Valley Dance Academy, Newberg, OR

It’s the new contemporary
Lyrical dance used to be the new modern and is now contemporary. I remember when a lyrical dance was done to an ethereal piece of music and the dancers wafted around the stage in chiffon. This type of dance should show the honest progression from ballet to the art form that the likes of Isadora Duncan showcased, without being stagnant and stuck in the past. With the advent of shows like So You Think You Can Dance, the line between contemporary dance and lyrical dance has been irreparably blurred. Lyrical should have a strong vein of ballet running through it, with clear technique and execution. Modern elements should be used, but with discretion and an understanding of why [they’re there]. I have a notion that we are witnessing the sacrifice of true lyrical to the more popular modern dance gods. I hope that, before it’s too late, we decide to resuscitate this lovely dance style. —Justine Mann, Velocity Dance Studio, Fresno, CA

Song lyrics are the key
Lyrical dance is movement that is inspired directly from the lyrics of a song. —Lauren Green, Undertoe Dance Project, New York, NY

Lyrical dance is movement-flow in time and space with the specific intent of expressing the emotional content of a song and its verse. Without lyrics, dance expressing the music can be considered music visualization. It’s a popular form because verse and melody can evoke strong emotions that stimulate a desire to move rhythmically in some way. Dance is and has always been considered poetry in motion. —Marlene Skog, associate faculty associate, Dance Program, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI

Lyrical is an emotion-based movement that depicts the lyrics of the music. Kids love it because it combines technical skill and emotional performance better than any other genre. —Kristen Coats, artistic director, Chehalem Valley Dance Academy, Newberg, OR

It’s a vehicle for emotional truth
“Lyrical jazz” is a fairly new term. When I first started dancing, we used to call it “slow jazz.” It’s a slower, fluid, more emotional, dynamic style of movement, very technically oriented. It brings out and focuses on emotion more than any other style. It seems to me that people go to a deeper emotional level with lyrical combinations. —Byron Seddens, faculty, San Ramon Valley Dance Academy, San Ramon, CA

Lyrical is a beautiful and passionate dance form that is attractive to many teens, who have deep feelings that they may find difficult to verbalize. Lyrical provides a release of the strong emotions that go along with growing up. —Holly Derville-Teer, teacher, Chehalem Valley Dance Academy, Newberg, OR

The rich and diverse culture and history of China aren’t known for encouraging young people to express their emotions. My students [in China’s Sichuan province] have come to trust themselves and each other, and they are using the jazz and contemporary movement vocabulary we have developed in class to create movement stories of their own, many of which are deeply personal. The students have come to love what we in America would call lyrical dance, and understand that dance is an intimate method of human communication. When their developing English fails them, their movement never lies.

[By contrast,] young dancers in the U.S. are eager to let their voices be heard. For them, lyrical dance is often a first chance at expressing emotion, and doing so in a familiar manner. Dance students are attracted by the opportunity to become individuals, especially as they enter their teen years, when lyrical dance becomes popular. In creating lyrical dance with our students, we are encouraging open, honest communication and speaking truths that are accessible to anyone. —Andrew Delo, professor of dance,

Guangya International Baccalaureate School, Dujiangyan, Sichuan, China

The last word: There’s no such thing
When I started out, my body leaned toward the slow music, but there’s no such thing as lyrical dance. You dance lyrical to a jazz sound. Is there lyrical technique? Is there theater dance technique? No, there isn’t. —Luigi, Luigi’s Jazz Centre, New York, NY

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