You know the moment. You've just executed a clean triple pirouette, your parallel passé finally stable, and your teacher calls out: "Now drop it into the floor. No hands." What follows is less a controlled descent than a small catastrophe—knees bruised, ego bruised worse, and the creeping suspicion that everything you learned in ballet class has become a liability.
This is the intermediate threshold in contemporary dance: the point where technical competence meets conceptual uncertainty. For dancers with two to four years of consistent training—comfortable with parallel positions, basic triplet, swing, and perhaps some release technique—the real work begins. Contemporary dance doesn't ask you to abandon your training. It asks you to complicate it.
The following guide assumes you're ready to work with abstract choreographic prompts, to question verticality, and to treat your body as material for research rather than instrument for execution.
The Architecture of Alignment: Beyond "Good Posture"
Contemporary alignment is not a position but a negotiation. Where ballet seeks verticality as ideal, contemporary dance treats the vertical as one option among many—often the starting point for departure.
The Intermediate Challenge: Dancers at this level frequently over-correct, translating "neutral spine" into rigidity. The result is movement that looks careful rather than considered.
Specific Practices:
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Irene Dowd's Taking Root to Fly: These exercises, developed for dancers transitioning between vertical and horizontal planes, emphasize the spiraling organization of the torso. Work through her "spinal engine" sequences to understand how rotation initiates from deep core structures rather than superficial musculature.
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Klein Technique floor work: Barbara Mahler's approach to the floor specifically addresses the intermediate dancer's tendency to "arrive" at the ground rather than "travel through" it. Practice her "hamstring release" series to re-educate how you yield weight.
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Daily integration: Not posture correction but postural inquiry. Notice how your computer chair shapes your sitting bones. Contemporary alignment is environmental responsiveness—your training extends beyond studio walls.
"The body is not a machine but an event," writes somatic practitioner Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen. Treat your alignment as ongoing process, not achieved state.
The Floor as Horizon: Rethinking Verticality
Floor work distinguishes contemporary dance from its vertical cousins. Yet intermediates often approach the floor as obstacle rather than territory—bouncing off it, muscling through transitions, or worse, apologizing to it with tentative touch.
The Intermediate Challenge: Under-engagement. You reach the floor but don't commit weight; you roll but don't spiral; you fall but don't release.
Specific Techniques:
| Generic Term | Contemporary Specificity | Practice |
|---|---|---|
| "Rolls" | Spiral roll (Cunningham-derived): initiated from solar plexus, traveling through diagonal space | Practice across the floor, varying initiation speed; add arm pathways that oppose or amplify spiral |
| "Falls" | Release fall (Limón influence): sequential giving of weight through foot, ankle, knee, hip | Master the "hover"—the moment before commitment where you choose surrender |
| "Turns" | Low-level rotation: weight distributed across multiple surfaces (shoulder, hip, back) | Work with eyes closed to develop proprioceptive trust |
The Handless Transition: Practice moving from standing to supine without using hands as counterbalance. This reveals your actual relationship with gravity—often one of negotiation rather than partnership.
Partnering Note: Contemporary partnering requires what contact improvisation founder Steve Paxton called "small dance"—the micro-adjustments of shared weight. Before lifting, master the tuning score: standing palm-to-palm with a partner, finding the exact point where your weight becomes our weight. Communicate boundaries not as limitation but as condition of possibility.
Improvisation as Research Method
Generic advice suggests you "express yourself" through improvisation. This is backwards. Contemporary improvisation is systematic inquiry with specific technologies for generating movement.
The Intermediate Pitfall: Over-emoting. Confusing intensity with artistry, volume with significance. The result looks like feeling rather than thought.
Structured Approaches:
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William Forsythe's Improvisation Technologies: His "Lines" and "Inhibition" scores provide concrete frameworks for destabilizing habitual movement. Work with "avoiding the mirror"—composing your body in space without visual confirmation.
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Gaga technique (Ohad Naharin): This "movement language" specifically addresses the intermediate dancer's tendency to imitate rather than inhabit. Practice "float" and "sink" as qualitative research, not aesthetic achievement.
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The Costume/Prop Constraint: Rather than "experimenting" vaguely, impose specific limitations. Dance while holding a full glass of water. The spill becomes information about your relationship
