What is (insert style of dance)?
Maranatha offers classes in all different dance genres and styles like Ballet, Hip Hop, Musical Theater, Jazz, Lyrical, and Acro. Below is a quick description of each style and how it translates into class.
Ballet
Ballet is considered the foundation for other styles of dance such as jazz, lyrical and contemporary, and is one of the first examples of an organized progression of dance technique. It started in 15th century Italy during the Renaissance as a court dance. Throughout the years, various ballet masters created their own methods of ballet such as Cecchetti, Vaganova, and Balanchine.
For our younger dancers, ballet class starts with a light warmup and center barre. In the leveled program, ballet class starts at the barre. Class then moves to combinations or technique work either across the floor and in the center. At the advanced level, ballet variations - short excerpts of choreography from ballets like Swan Lake or the Nutcracker - are incorporated to further develop artistry and technique. Ballet dancers in the leveled program will also learn choreography for our Spring Story Ballet, which gives them the opportunity to tell a story with their dance and worship on-stage.
Jazz
Over the years, jazz technique became influenced by ballet, leading to many steps like the pas de bourree being present in both genres. Today, jazz dance is recognized for its challenging quick pace and clarity of movement. The music used in jazz class will usually have a strong beat and quick tempo for very stylized choreography.
Warmups begin the class and consist of isolations, stretching and cardio. Class will also include technique drills and progressions to build memorization skill and technical competence in the dancer. Artistry is also given attention through choreography learned throughout the year.
Musical Theater
Musical theater is a sub-genre of jazz dance that focuses on story telling and emotion.
Lyrical and contemporary classes will start with a similar warmup to jazz class and may include some technique work. However, the main focus of these classes is to develop artistry by encouraging dancers to think outside of the box through learning combinations and improvisation.
Lyrical/Contemporary
Lyrical and contemporary are both styles of dance and do not have their own specific technique. This makes it important for a dance to take ballet and jazz alongside their lyrical or contemporary class. Additionally, lyrical and contemporary are two different styles of dance. Lyrical has always focused on telling a story and often looks very fluid. Contemporary emerged after lyrical, at the start of the 21st century, and pulls from all kinds of dance techniques including ballet, jazz, modern, hip hop, etc. It is very difficult to define as the "look" of contemporary dance heavily relies on who is dancing or choreographing.
Lyrical and contemporary classes will start with a similar warmup to jazz class and may include some technique work. However, the main focus of these classes is to develop artistry by encouraging dancers to think outside of the box through learning combinations and improvisation.
Hip Hop
​
Hip hop started as a social dance in the Bronx, NY during the 1970s, and is now a term used to describe all kinds of dancing. Today, it can be very difficult to discern between dance styles due to the dominance of choreography in the dance world. It is common that a choreographer will pull from many different styles of dance.To answer the very big question of ‘what is hip hop or any other dance style in general’, hip hop is a foundation that a dancer uses in their choreography or freestyle.
At Maranatha, our focus is on building a strong foundation of grooving and breaking, though we do incorporate other styles such as popping, locking and house. Hip hop class starts with an energetic warmup followed by technique drills. Choreography is taught to further students' understanding of dance concepts like rhythm, musicality, spatial awareness, clarity, power and textures. Freestyle is also incorporated to build confidence and thinking skills.