Contemporary Dance Competitions
Contemporary and modern dance competitions reward expression, originality, and floor work — they're the artistic edge of the studio-competition circuit. Most major dance competitions (Showstopper, Radix, Tremaine, NUVO) feature dedicated contemporary categories with separate scoring.
50
Events
14
Brands
48
Cities
Upcoming contemporary dance competitions
Sorted by date — soonest first. Tap any event for full details, venue, brand info, and registration.
Columbia, SC
2 eventsOrlando, FL
2 eventsAmarillo, TX
1 eventAnchorage, AK
1 eventAndover, MA
1 eventBirmingham, AL
1 eventBuffalo, NY
1 eventBurbank, CA
1 eventChicago, IL
1 eventCincinnati, OH
1 eventColumbus, OH
1 eventDanvers, MA
1 eventDes Moines, IA
1 eventDuluth, MN
1 eventFt. Lauderdale, FL
1 eventHampton, VA
1 eventHauppauge, NY
1 eventHouston, TX
1 eventIndianapolis, IN
1 eventJacksonville, FL
1 eventKansas City, MO
1 eventKing of Prussia, PA
1 eventLafayette, LA
1 eventLondon, ON
1 eventLos Angeles, CA
1 eventMadison, WI
1 eventMontgomery, AL
1 eventNashville, TN
1 eventNewton, MA
1 eventNiagara Falls, ON
1 eventOklahoma City, OK
1 eventPark Ridge, NJ
1 eventPittsburgh, PA
1 eventPortland, OR
1 eventPrinceton, NJ
1 eventRaleigh, NC
1 eventSanta Clara, CA
1 eventSeattle, WA
1 eventSt. Louis, MO
1 eventSturbridge, MA
1 eventThunder Bay, ON
1 eventVancouver, WA
1 eventWestminster, CO
1 eventWhat defines a contemporary routine?
Iconic contemporary dances & choreographers
The history and figures that shaped contemporary — worth knowing for any competitive contemporary dancer.
Lamentation
Martha Graham · Graham’s 1930 solo is performed almost entirely seated, the dancer encased in a tube of stretch fabric she strains against to sculpt grief in three dimensions; she subtitled it a “Dance of Sorrow.”
It broke completely from ballet’s vocabulary and put the torso — contraction and release, breath and weight — at the center of dance. Every contemporary dancer who pulls emotion from the core is working in Graham’s lineage.
The Moor’s Pavane
José Limón · Limón’s 1949 masterwork compresses Shakespeare’s Othello into a taut, roughly 20-minute quartet danced to music by Purcell, telling the entire tragedy through weight, gesture, and shifting partnerships.
It is the model for narrative modern dance and showcases the fall-and-recovery principle — using the body’s weight and breath to power emotion — that still underlies competition contemporary today.
Calling You (“The Bench”)
Mia Michaels · Choreographed for So You Think You Can Dance Season 2 (2006) on Travis Wall and Heidi Groskreutz, this aching duet about a fading relationship — staged around a park bench — won Michaels the 2007 Emmy for Outstanding Choreography.
It is arguably the piece that made “contemporary” a household word for a generation of competition dancers, proving that emotional storytelling and everyday imagery could be as thrilling as pure technique.
The Contemporary Work of Travis Wall
Travis Wall · A Season 2 SYTYCD finalist turned resident choreographer, Wall won Emmys for Outstanding Choreography in 2015 and 2017 and co-founded the touring contemporary company Shaping Sound.
His lush, athletic, emotionally direct style became the template thousands of studios chase; his routines are among the most-studied references for what a winning competition contemporary solo looks like.
The “Combat Jazz” of Sonya Tayeh
Sonya Tayeh · Rising to fame as a SYTYCD choreographer, Tayeh calls her style “combat jazz” — “staccato, aggressive, and engaged, even when it’s slow.” She later won the Tony Award for Best Choreography for Moulin Rouge! The Musical and has created work for the Martha Graham Dance Company.
She showed that contemporary can be fierce and angular rather than soft, expanding the emotional range competition dancers draw on — and her Graham commissions close the loop back to modern dance’s roots.
What judges look for in contemporary
Foundational contemporary techniques
The building blocks judges expect to see in a strong contemporary routine.
Contraction & Release
Pioneered by Martha Graham, movement initiates in the torso from the breath — the body curls inward on a contraction and expands open on the release — so emotion drives the shape.
Fall & Recovery
Rooted in Doris Humphrey and José Limón’s technique, the dancer gives in to gravity and lets the body drop off its axis, then rebounds, using weight and momentum instead of muscling the movement.
Spiral
A rotational curve traveling through the spine that engages the whole body and opens circular pathways through space, powering turns, descents to the floor, and off-balance shapes.
Floorwork
Moving into, across, and up from the floor — rolls, slides, spirals, and level changes — treating the ground as a partner and using gravity rather than fighting it.
Release Technique
An anatomically efficient approach that uses breath, momentum, and minimal tension to let energy flow through the joints, producing the loose, grounded, unforced quality prized in modern-based contemporary.
Off-Balance & Suspension
Tipping the body past its vertical axis and briefly suspending at the peak before resolving, which creates risk, texture, and the sensation of movement being caught mid-air.
Horton Technique
Lester Horton’s codified flat backs, lateral T-positions, and deep lunges build the strength, flexibility, and long lines that underpin much contemporary and Ailey-based training.
How choreographers blend styles into contemporary
Frequently asked questions about contemporary dance competitions
- What’s the difference between contemporary and lyrical?
- Lyrical is built on ballet and jazz and is driven by a song’s lyrics — it stays soft, flowing, and continuous, telling the story in the words with pretty lines and elegant leaps. Contemporary is a broader fusion of ballet, modern, and jazz that can be grounded, athletic, sharp, or even abstract; it uses floorwork, contraction and release, and fall-and-recovery from modern technique, and it doesn’t have to be pretty or tied to the lyrics. Many studios blur the two, but competition adjudicators do separate them.
- Do I need ballet training to dance contemporary?
- Almost always, yes. Ballet gives you the placement, turnout, extension, control, and clean lines that contemporary then bends and breaks on purpose, and modern technique (Graham, Horton, Limón) adds the torso work, weight, and floorwork on top. The most versatile competition dancers train ballet and modern alongside their contemporary.
- What kind of music is used for contemporary?
- A wide range — singer-songwriter and indie tracks, cinematic instrumental scores, electronic music, spoken word, or even silence. Unlike lyrical, contemporary isn’t bound to the lyrics, so dancers often interpret a song’s mood, texture, dynamics, or rhythm rather than literally act out the words.
- How many contemporary dance competitions are there?
- We track 50 upcoming contemporary dance competitions across the US and Canada. Every major studio-competition brand includes contemporary categories at most of their tour stops.
Browse competitions by other styles
Competition categories vary by brand. Always verify category eligibility, age divisions, and registration deadlines directly with the competition before submitting entries.