So, if you have visited our website you have totally seen our Lyrical Dance and probably wondered, “what is THAT?” Well, now is your chance to find out! Lyrical dance has been described in many ways but I feel that the best way to describe it is by dancing to the lyrics of a song. “But, how do you dance to the lyrics of a song?” Glad you asked! Each teacher of the lyrical style of dancing will probably tell you a different answer but in the end, it all comes back to the same philosophy of letting the lyrics of the song reach certain emotions and translate those emotions through your dance!
Dancing in the lyrical style focuses on emotions. Being able to describe an emotion through your movement while still being able to translate the lyrics into movement as well! Though, it is different for every teacher since lyrics of a song can be objective, in certain cases, so each teacher may have a different emotional approach to the song. The idea of lyrical is the flow through the song, being able to tell a story with your body movements. Choreography is important in dance, yes, but with lyrical it is used more as guidelines instead of a strict rule to follow. Your body is going to move the way it feels with the music, creating a very free and open space for your emotions to come through and really steal the spotlight.
Though lyrical is more contemporary than most styles of dance, it is key that you learn basic techniques for ballet, jazz, and modern dance so you are able to incorporate all the kinds of styles of dance to throw into your lyrical style! Because it is a style of dance that uses words to dictate how and when you move, it is nice to know all the different styles so you can create a mish-mash of techniques to make one whole pure performance! Lyrical is also known in the dance world as a “pseudo style” of dance because it does incorporate so many different techniques!
Lyrical is very contemporary. It really hasn’t been around for long, and no one really truly knows where it came from. Many believe that the reason why lyrical was birthed is that it was too difficult to take ballet into dance competitions, especially when ballet was up against jazz or modern dance. Most lyrical dance is done in competitions. When you perform the lyrics of a song to display your emotions, that is easier to make clear through competitions than the strictness of ballet.
Besides being a completely different style of dance, which also makes lyrical stand out of the crowd of most dance styles is that it has a faster pace than some styles. It is much faster than ballet, but it is not as fast as jazz. It’s the perfect medium. Lyrical can also feature some styles of acrobatics, but that is subject to the teacher of the class.
If you have ever been interested in learning the true style of lyrical dance, look no further. Here at the Omaha School of Music and Dance in Omaha, NE, we offer lyrical dance classes twice a week! If you are the ages between 6-10, you are able to come to lyrical on Monday nights at 6:45 pm and if you are between the ages of 11-15, you can come to lyrical on Tuesday nights at 6:30 pm! We would love to see how to interpret lyrics into dance movements! Contact us today, email us or stop by the studio and we can sign you up or, you could even sign up online!
