There’s a dance studio at the bottom of the hill from the house we hope to rent. It had an ad for adult dance classes starting this fall: modern and ballet, and Pilates classes. I emailed, ’cause hey. The woman who runs the place is professionally trained and stuff, so I’m really very surprised to discover that what is advertised as modern dance class is apparently hip-hop, since that’s what she called it when she responded to my email.
And which, okay, yes, hip-hop is certainly modern dance, but it is not modern dance as modern dance is defined in the dance world. Modern dance is what developed out of ballet when people got tired of the extremely regimented movement required by ballet. I would in fact love to take a hip-hop class, but it is *not* what I expected from the term “modern dance”. How very strange.
*blinkblink*
All right, I cannot deny that hip-hop is modern, as you said, but…it’s hip-hop – its very name defines it! I’ve always thought of “modern” dance as a quirky sort of lyrical dance (and “lyrical” is classically-inspired dance without the use of so many French terms, if you ask me).
Admittedly, I’m not professionally trained, but I’ve never heard anyone from any level of the dancing world use “hip-hop” and “modern” interchangeably. Maybe she chose it as a marketing term so that “serious” people wouldn’t be frightened away from the ballet classes by the unusual dichotomy?
I always favored tap classes, myself. ;)
Sadly, nobody here seems to have tap classes. I asked the woman if she rented out the studio so I could practice on my own, but she doesn’t. I’ll have to see if I can find another practice space. :)
And, well, the website says they have both modern and hip-hop classes, so I *particularly* wouldn’t expect the terms to be interchangeable. But, well, oh well. :)