How come no one ever takes modern dancers seriously?

People who actually dance for a living, whether in Ballet or Modern Dance, understand that Modern Dance is far more relevant to the state of the art of dance than classicism. Although classical training is very thorough and is the best basis for any and all dance training, it has boundaries of limitation which must ultimately be surpassed if a dancer wishes to have a fulfilling career in the 21st century. Modern Dance, having a comparatively rigorous training style to ballet, is less bound by limits of aesthetic style and therefore more useful as a creative medium. The progress of Classicism can be illustrated by waiting for a ballerina to come along who can execute a certain step or variation with less flaws than her predecessors, while the progress of Modern Dance is illustrated by showing a dancer who is doing something that has not yet been seen. The thing those ladies you met in the dressing room do not realize is: 1- Modern Dance is definitely a legitimate dance technique which often displays a range of difficulty unattainable by the average ballet dancer. 2 -If they have any aspiration of dancing professionally for a ballet company, they will require a working knowledge of and respect for the techniques of modern dance in order to get a job, let alone be selected to appear in any new work that is created on the company for which they work. Although re-staging classical ballets is an important mission of ballet companies, (which requires dancers who are trained in classical ballet) ballet companies do not survive by re-staging Swan Lake. They survive by creating new works by current choreographers. These choreographers, and the directors who hire them, are far more interested in movement that exists outside of the parameters of classical ballet technique. Ballet dancers who have never learned how to move using principles of modern dance are not useful to choreographers. These dancers may possibly get hired initially, however they will not keep their job for long if they do not learn a great deal about modern dance very quickly. In answer to your question about dance being about technique: it has always been about technique. All the variants of modern dance are also about technique. Passion is important but, passion does not cary the art of dance. Passion ceases to be interesting to the observer if the dancer does not appear to know what they are doing. I was a professional ballet dancer for 20 years. I, like the ladies you mentioned, did not understand the importance of modern dance when I was a student. Fortunately I was required to take modern classes as part of my education, however, I did not take them seriously. When I finally grew up, I realized how far behind the curve I was and remain envious of my peers who embraced modern dance while they were young. At this point in my life as a dancer, I would much rather watch someone in a modern dance context, showing me something I have never seen before than watch yet another Swan Queen. I have no doubt that you would get a similar response from any ballet dancer who actually worked professionally.

You get that in all forms of physical activity and art. For a lot of people, what validates their choice to do what they do is a belief that it is "the best". If your choice is "the best", that has to mean that other people's choices are inferior. For that dancer, what matters is technique. She is right that ballet has more technique than self-taught modern dance. For you, what matters is passion. You are right that modern dance has more passion than ballet. For someone else, what matters might be the amount of cardiovascular fitness a particular dance style produces. For someone else again, it might be the access to a high paid or prestigious career. The first flaw in logic is for anyone to think that what matters most to them has to be what matters most to everyone else as well. The second flaw in logic is to think that because some people feel that way, everyone does.

I do ballet and modern and I love modern! I agree when people say that ballet is the bass or structure of most styles of dance but honestly, how could anyone say that modern doesn't have any technique and isn't a real type of dance? My modern syllabus has so much technique involved it's ridiculous. There's just as much as in ballet and I find it even more demanding than ballet, after half an hour my leotard is already soaked!

Im a modern and contemporary dancer and modern isn't respected as much because we don't prance around on pointe shoes all day lol. Modern I believe takes a lot more passion and heart than anything and I love what I do :)