contemporary dance

[Boogalou]

My dd is 9 and can't wait to start contemporary dance lessons but her teacher says she needs to be older as it involves a lot more body control, (she currently does ballet and jazz). Her teacher also said she may start offering a more toned down form of contemporary class next year for dd age group but my question to you all is what age did your dc start contemporary lessons?

[Anna C]

My dd started Contemporary at her Associate Scheme, which she started at 11. However, for the first year they studied "Creative" as opposed to Contemporary. They didn't start Contemporary until they were 12, nearly 13.

 

Tring's excellent Contemporary "Days of Dance" have a minimum standard of RAD Grade 5 and above. Your teacher is right; a certain amount of physical and emotional maturity is required for Contemporary. :-)

[taximom]

My DD was 14.5when she had her first contempoary lesson at 'the place'and is now 21 and about to graduate from London Contemporary Dance School having been on their CAT scheme. She was already RAD Inter Ballet and Modern when she started at CAT at 14.5!

Edited July 3, 2012 by taximom

[Lottie]

DS started Contemporary classes, every fortnight, at LSB in Year 10, aged 14. Now at Central.

[Loulabelle]

My DD started Contemporary at her dance school at 10 but she was and still is a year later the youngest in the class. She also attended Trings Contemporary Day of Dance and was the youngest there. She does however have a very strong central core which is vital to do the contemporary moves.

[afab]

M'y DDs started Contemporary at the same time as proper ballet when they were 8 but only 1 hour a week and 2 hours of ballet.

[taxi4ballet]

My dd is 13 and will start contemporary classes in September, she also has occasional ones as part of her associate scheme.

[Kitschqueen_1]

My dd also didn't start contemporary until she was 14 and auditioned for the CAT scheme at NSCD. Apart from DanceEast (I think), the contemporary CATs don't audition until they are 13 as you are right that there is a physical maturity and strength required for it. She had studied ballet, tap and modern jazz since she was 6. :-)

[taxi4ballet]

Boogalou, does your dd's teacher offer classes in modern? Some of the modern syllabus is in a contemporary style

[Boogalou]

taxi4ballet to be honest I think her jazz class is more jazz/modern as they do work on strengthening their core muscles. Maybe someone can tell me the difference between jazz and modern as in dd class they also add a bit of street/hiphop so a real mixture as they don't do any exams only ballet RAD exams.

[taxi4ballet]

Boogalou, have a look on the ISTD website - they have details about various dance genres on there. Someone described modern to me (I think it's actually called Modern Theatre) as the type of dance you would tend to see in musicals in the west end.

 

There are several methods of contemporary and there are no exams or set syllabus or anything like that, which might be why children don't normally start it until they are a bit older and physically mature, and already have a good technique in other styles.