Lyrical and Modern Dance
Modern Dance and Lyrical
Modern dance started out as a rebellion against ballet and has beomce a style of its own. Lyrical dance mixes ballet with contemporary and jazz dance styles and also borrows from modern dance. The Lyrical or Modern dance categories may be part of a competitive dance program.
Lyrical choreography does not just emphasize the music but also the pauses, sounds and breaks within the music. It is a very expressive type of dance - sometimes seeming like it is also somewhat depressing because those songs seem to lead themselves to more of this type of dance interpretation.
To connect movement across moves is what lyrical dance is about.
Lyrical dance has more intensity than other dance styles and is really based on emotion. The emotion most often seen is despair, agony, depression or even toughtfulness or introversion. That is not part of the definition of lyrical, but just seems to be that way when watching many lyrical dances in a row at a dance competition.
A more positive aspect of lyrical dance is storytelling. If the right song is picked, then telling the story in the lyric of the song and expressing it through dance is another interpretation of what lyrical dance is or can be. The reponse to the music and acting blend jazz steps with "feeling the music".