Contemporary dance is a style of expressive dance that combines elements of several dance genres including modern, jazz, lyrical and classical ballet. Contemporary dancers strive to connect the mind and the body through fluid dance movements. Contemporary dance stresses versatility and improvisation, unlike the strict, structured nature of ballet. Contemporary dancers focus on floor work, using gravity to pull them down to the floor. This dance genre is often done in bare feet. Contemporary dance can be performed to many different styles of music.
Contemporary dance embodies ballet, modern, jazz, and lyrical. It uses a technique such as ballet as its fundamentals and creates many more movements that do not adhere to the strict rules of ballet and modern.