A Perspective on Teaching Contemporary Ballet

Research on contemporary ballet teaching in Finland has focused on the pedagogic perspective, but work on the teaching content is scarce. In this article, I describe my pursuit to outline core elements of contemporary ballet through two pilot workshops. I present four elements that seemed meaningful in my teaching (improvisation, interpretation, partnering and off-balance) and their nexus with classical ballet. In addition, I share my experiences of teaching contemporary ballet using these core elements to vocational dance students at North Karelia College Outokumpu. Here, I address contemporary ballet as a part of the evolution of ballet, not as a combination of contemporary dance and classical ballet. The overall aim is to develop a method of teaching that equips dancers with the skills they need when performing and co-creating contemporary ballet.