Compare and Contrast: Ballet and Modern Dance

Ballet and modern dance are very different, and with good reason: when modern dance developed, it was partially as a rebellion against the dance conventions implemented upon women by ballet. As a reaction, modern dance would try to set itself as far away from ballet as possible. Despite this, similarities remain. In this essay, I will point out these often-overlooked similarities while maintaining the understanding that both forms are greatly different.

Modern dance boasts its denial of convention and zeal for experimentation. This I do not deny. However, the dance style that is modern dance is relatively new when compared to ballet. While it is generally considered settled in its development, ballet, in its time, was also viewed as unconventional and experimental.

Consider the fact that prior to the first ballet d'action, dance was considered a side show to opera. Ballet rebelled, proving that dance can stand on its own as a valid art form. Additionally, whenever someone set the rules for ballet, a choreographer like Nijinsky or Fokine would experimentally challenge the conventions. Ballet also allowed women to choreograph, shorten their skirts, and perform as the stars of the shows. This was certainly unusual when it was first introduced. Perhaps the unconventionality of current modern dance will seem typical sometime in the future as well.

Both modern dance and ballet occasionally implement the use of technology. In ballet, you see lights and special effects (like ballerinas being lifted by wires for the appearance of flight.) Modern chorographers like Lois Fuller and Alwin Nikolais also use technology to give their dances that almost supernatural or futuristic feel. Granted, not every modern dance chorographer uses technology and some even rebel against the spectacle of it all, but the same can be said for ballet. Not every ballet implements extensive technologies.

There is also some emphasis in costume for both dance styles. While the costumes for ballet are pretty standard, they're important for the dance. Likewise, costumes come into play in modern dance as an expression of the dancer's internal feelings and beliefs. You have Lois Fuller's amazing costume effects, Isadora Duncan's togas and bare feet, Martha Graham's restraining outfit in Lamentations, and many more. Even when Yvonne Rainer wears regular clothing in Trio A, it still acts as an important costume. What better illustrates the lack of spectacle and emotion then not bothering to dress up? While there is no set costume for modern dance (contrasting the pointe shoes and tutu in ballet), costuming reflects the dance.

As far as movement is concerned, these two dance styles do differ greatly. Ballet has a very strict set of conventions for movement. The ballerina must maintain a sense of ethereality by defying gravity in every motion. She does this through her pointe work, sustained and free-flowing movements of the arms, graceful leaps and turns that manage to maintain a lightness, and her ever-upright posture.

In contrast, the modern dancer's main convention is to be unconventional. While she can implement ballet-style techniques in the dances (free-flowing, light motions; jumps and turns, etc.) she is more concerned about expressing her inner self than appearing as the kind of idealized woman formed by the male gaze. A modern dancer's movements tend to include the use of the whole body. Instead of the "lighter than air" appearance striven for in ballet, modern dance uses stronger, more human and natural movements, sometimes using pedestrian motions as simple as walking or playing a game. There is less concern about entertaining an audience (leading to such experiments as the extraction of music, story, and emotion), so the dancer is letting her ideas shine in the dance rather than following a strict script that has little to do with the dancer herself.

Sources:

Guest, Ivor; Ballet of the Enlightenment

Rainer, Yvonne; The Aesthetics of Denial

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