Twinkle Toes or Two Left Feet? Move to the Groove With Lyrical Dance!

Dance isn’t simply a medium of self-expression, it’s a journey of fun, friendships, and self-confidence. Our lyrical dance classes in Markham encapsulate just that. The dance instructors and choreographers at The Dance Institute (TDI) go above and beyond teaching dance technique. We believe in nurturing your child’s creative and artistic voice, allowing us to bring their unique skill set to the spotlight.

 

Dance Creates Artists, Leaders, Achievers, Performers and More!

Integral life skills are often discovered through dance. Students learn discipline, grace, and teamwork – three factors that are a powerful assist in their schooling and in the professional world.

Recreational dance is a great way for your child to explore their potential in a low-stakes environment that is relatively unstructured. We offer a no-rules low-pressure zone, so that your child isn’t self-conscious or afraid to put their talents to the test. We welcome dancers of all backgrounds, experience levels and ages – a melting pot of amazing talent where everybody brings something to the table.

If your child is interested in pursuing competitive dance in the future, recreational dance provides a great foundation. In fact, a lot of our recreational dancers go on to do just that and wow their peers with their pre-training.

Research has proven that, when a learner has to adapt to different dance techniques within a shorter duration, it not only challenges them but also makes them happier, smarter and immensely healthier.

The best part is that there’s no such thing as “I can’t dance.” The art of dancing is innate and just needs to be coaxed out is all.

Dance is an instinctive response to the music when the timing circuits in your brain light up and cause your reflexes to kick in in time to the beat. Through increased and stimulated brain activity, your child is prompted to perform at their very best in all aspects of life. Dance lends them a sense of pride and accomplishment that they wouldn’t get anywhere else. And what better place to do that than in a family-friendly atmosphere where everyone is equally excited to pick up on some impressive techniques?

 

What is Lyrical Dance?

Lyrical dance is a graceful hybrid of ballet and jazz dance. It blends elements of both techniques while being faster and more fluid than ballet, albeit not as fast as jazz.

When it comes to ballet, elements are often more structured and precise. It is dictated by logic of movement rather than pure emotional expressions. This form of dance is believed to have originated in the 15th century in Italian Renaissance courts. In essence, ballet is a combination of scenic design, art, costume, lighting, solemn music and graceful moves.

Lyrical and jazz stem from different premises. The latter has a strong formal choreographic base and shines a light on emotional and improvisational cues. As such, the manner in which a jazz dancer may react to the narrative/music may differ from how they react to another. This is because their emotional responses will differ and cannot be genuinely replicated twice.

Coming to lyrical dance, powerful emotions like joy, love, yearning, anger or romance can be conveyed through each movement. As the name alone suggests, lyrical dancers are stimulated by the lyrics in the music, which means they often do not perform to instrumental music. The lyrics influence movement and expression. Lyrical dancers are drawn to certain musical genres over others, more specifically blues, rock, pop, ethnic and hip-hop.

In lyrical dance, movements are punctuated by grace and fluidity. Dancers’ upper body movements resemble conventional African dance styles. Dancers are taught to flow seamlessly from one move to the other with finishing poses being held for longer durations. Additionally, high leaps are also a common feature in this type of dance.

 

Lyrical Dance is Great for Younger Children

Lyrical dance is a very interesting contemporary style in which the movements aren’t as physically demanding as jazz or ballet. In fact, a lot of seasoned dancers and teachers will tell you that lyrical dance is a wonderful introductory class for younger children, owing to the fact that it encourages them to enjoy themselves simply by moving to the beat. If they wish to pursue something more formal like ballet, they will be well-prepared to cope with the strenuous drills after taking a lyrical dance class.

The most exciting part? Your child will get to learn a lot of up-and-coming techniques with lyrical dance because it is still evolving as we speak!

 

Attend a Free Dance Class!

Fill out a registration form and we will arrange for a free class for your child to show off their talents. Our director will assess their ability and decide which class they would most enjoy. This is a no-obligation class so you can leave whenever you like! For more information call us at (905) 472-4443.