Many times one hears of a classical dancer that 'shows great lyricism'. I always think of fluidity, movement, expression; dancing that's not stiff. Maybe something more than technical - ability to connect with the audience, etc.
But what about lyrical dance. That's not exactly ballet. Maybe it's referring to musical quality. What does a 'lyrical' ballet dancer entail?

Artist, your first instinct is correct. "Lyrical" is a genre of dance (from a critic's point of view, anyway) that's not taken very seriously in concert dance. Lyrical qualities: musical (your eye and your ear are not in conflict watching them), fluid (the movements are connected), usually light (Arnold Schwarznegger may have many fine qualities, but lyricism is not one of them).

So it has nothing to do with a dancer's expressions?

One can be a lyrical dancer, but boring to watch?

I call it musicality. That is when the music and the steps flow from the dancer's body and there is no separation between the two. When you see a dancer and all you see are the steps, IMO you are watching a boring dancer. There are many principals and even stars of ballet, who do not have musicality and all you see are the steps.

Not facial expressions, no, but that is part of the lyricism of the total body. A dancer may project lyricism that almost leaps out of the auditorium, but the facial expression is practically gone for the audience in the Peanut Gallery (family circle - closer to God, but pretty hot nevertheless). I can recall a soloist in "Les Sylphides" who was exceedingly lyrical, but her facial expression said "severely stoned". Some people can carry the "soulful ballerina" look off, and others get this "Oy, such a GAS I got!" look to them.

And yes, a dancer can be lyrical and fail to connect. One can also be a bravura dancer and fail as well.

Lyrical usually means in ballet "passional",so if a dancer is very lyrical means he is very expressive.
From the dictonary:
"Lyrical=something that stimulates feelings.expressing strong personal feelings and thoughts".
Also in jazz dance there is a style which is called "lyrical" that is made with very moving musics and is actually very passionate.

Dancerboy--do you mean 'passional' as 'passionate'? Surely these are part of it, but I usually think lyrical--which, unlike 'variation', is the same in music, dance or poetry--means to most of us 'poetic, musical' after all it comes from the lyre. Not that lyrical can't also mean passionate, but I hadn't thought most of us thought of it as nearly always emphasizing that--surely it does not. 'Lyrical' could as easily be a matter of something very Apollonian, with such qualities as lucidity or clarity being more the character than the more fiery and fleshly matters we usually associate with 'passionate'.

I didn't know about 'lyrical jazz dance', that may be fairly new as terminology if it's very specific and not just descriptive sometimes.

Edited to add: Here are several definitions from an online dictionary that may help:
lyr·ic (lrk)
adj.
1.
a. Of or relating to a category of poetry that expresses subjective thoughts and feelings, often in a songlike style or form.
b. Relating to or constituting a poem in this category, such as a sonnet or an ode.
c. Of or relating to a writer of poems in this category.
2. Lyrical.
3. Music
a. Having a singing voice of light volume and modest range.
b. Of, relating to, or being musical drama, especially opera: the lyric stage.
c. Having a pleasing succession of sounds; melodious.
d. Of or relating to the lyre or harp.
e. Appropriate for accompaniment by the lyre.
n.
1. A lyric poem.
2. Music The words of a song. Often used in the plural.

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Well no.Passionate gives me the impression that he has a great passion,but for himself,inside.Passional makes me think of someone who shows pathos when he's on stage and clearly makes it feel to the public.So the second meaning,atually.
I don't remember in paintings what is the exact meaning of the word "Lyrism"....I remember the painting of an Italian author,Beato Angelico,to whom everybody refers as full of lyrism.Maybe it's the apollonian meaning you quoted.Nice and graceful forms....Don't know:-)

pas·sion·al (psh-nl)
adj.
Of, relating to, or filled with passion.
n.
A book of the sufferings of saints and martyrs.

pas·sion·ate (psh-nt)
adj.
1. Capable of, having, or dominated by powerful emotions: a family of passionate personalities.
2. Wrathful by temperament; choleric.
3. Marked by strong sexual desire; amorous or lustful.
4. Showing or expressing strong emotion; ardent: a passionate speech against injustice.
5. Arising from or marked by passion: a teacher who is passionate about her subject.

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These are definitions from the same online dictionary. I asked because I have never even heard the word 'passional', and wondered if it is a term whose meaning (and particular word) is more used in Italian.

Passion directed toward oneself or without, as your 'pathos when he is onstage and... to the public' is nevertheless in the same family. What I was getting at probably most primarily is that 'lyrical' can certainly include gentle emotions of whatever kind--and these are not necessarily imbued with any kind of passion in the most literal sense, unless all sincere emotion or strong emotion is passion. In a sense you can say that it is, but this would mean that many distinctions between clarity/lucidity and passion are not very important. I think that in all the classical arts they are--whether one is talking about the difference between classicism and romanticism, or in such religious senses as can be found in the Bhagavad-Gita, in which there is 1) the man of dark inertia, 2) the man of passion, 3) the man of lucidity.

I thought a lyrical dancer was what some might call an "adagio" dancer--someone with long, beautiful lines (Odette, for example), as opposed to an "allegro" dancer (Kitri).

To tell you the truth, I did not know of the existence of the word "passional" in the English language, but now I have to look for it, and see how it is used, so that I might have yet another word for a niche of meaning not otherwise covered by my present vocabulary. Thank you for bringing the word forward. It is certainly a good deed toward language.

I think of Kyra Nichols, recently retired but still famous, as a lyrical dancer -- it's in the phrasing, and rather, as if the whole body were singing. A "dramatic" dancer often cuts the phrases into emphatic jagged fragments -- which the music may allow, or even demand. A lyrical dancer's phrasing will usually be more rounded than that. Actually, nichols also had dramatic powers -- she was very funny as Titania in the pas de deux with the donkey, in A Midsummer Night's Dream -- but that is a role with a lot of lyricism to it, to make the fairy qualities comethrough.

Here it refers to passional as coming from the word "passion" meaning the passion of Christ.But it's strange because both terms come from the same word.And should have just a slight difference of meaning.Maybe passional is used only with the pure original sense of pathos as sufference and passionate about other feelings but it's a linguistic problem i can't solve.Maybe you know better then me how to use them.On my italian-english dictonary if I look for the equivalent of the italian word"passionale" they say both passional and passionate.I'm not english mothertongue so maybe it's just a mistake.:-)

Are dancers lyrical or are dances lyrical? Or do lyrical dancers dance lyrical dances?

SanderO, there are lyrical dancers and lyrical dances. Most dancers can develop a lyrical side, but it's easier when lyrical dancers are matched to lyrical dances. That's what emploi is all about.

And dancerboy87, I did a little bit of research and find that the word "passional" is developing in English. It seems to be used for clinical purposes in describing mental health symptoms or personality analyses. However, it is starting to have a connotation in everyday speech as a description for intensity, especially along erotic lines, especially in design. It's a connotative thing, "female parent" doesn't bring an emotional response in the same way "mother" does.

And the word passional for a book has been there ever since the Medieval period, where nobles and royalty could commission their own personal passionals for use on saints' days. In modern English, the most widespread passional is Butler's Lives of the Saints.

In ballet I use the term as meaning the dancer is emotionally expressive and interpretive instead of being athletic, physically exciting, propulsive or kinetic. (Of course, some dancers can do both). I wouldn't speak of a "big jump" or a series of fouettees as lyrical things for a dancer to do. I'd say, though, that someone who appeared deeply to feel and to respond to music was a lyrical dancer, especially if they made me feel that they were expressing their personal emotions in conjunction with exploring the music.

By analogy, as Webster's puts it in its defintion of "Lyric Poetry": "Having the form and musical quality of a song, and especially the character of a songlike outpouring of the poet's own thoughts and feelings."

To illustrate one more time, I'd say: "At NYCB these days, it's the athletic girls who get ahead and not the lyrical ones."

MP

I'd also say that a really superb -- and musical-- dancer is lyrical where appropriate and technical where appropriate and combines both when appropriate.

I'd second the reference to Kyra Nichols (or is it third by now) and add Judith Fugate to the list. There are many more.... maybe Kshessinska, who we were discussing on another thread (in "Dancers," I believe).

Thank You for the research.Maybe I should have used passionate then.Thank You for making this point clear.

Concerning lyrical dancers, the seamless phrasing is something they can carry even into bravura choreography. While "lyrical" most often brings to mind ballerinas, the most outstanding example I can think of today is a fairly macho guy -- Herman Cornejo. I don't think the dichotomy Lyrical vs. Athletic necessarily holds, but most dancers do tend to fall into one category over the other.

One of the most exciting draws at NYCB today is seeing the incredibly athletic Ashley Bouder hone her lyricism.

Ah, don't be shy about using a word whose usage is still evolving! It's one way that language develops! And every user of the language is entitled to use it in the way he or she sees fit, even if it isn't one's "mother-tongue". You may have found a niche sense for "passional", after all. If, on reflection, "passionate" seems a better usage, so be it, as well! Express!

PS. Carbro, excellent example of type, Cornejo!

I think of a "lyrical" dancer like porn: I can't describe it, but I know it when I see it. The most lyrical dancers I've seen live have been Alina Cojocaru and Alessandra Ferri.

I always thought of Mariana Tcherkassy (former ABT principal) as a lyrical dancer.

I would cite Moira Shearer's dancing in Tales of Hoffman as an example of this.

In a sense all words are evolving all the time, but I would be careful about using some of the less established ones in certain contexts. It may not always be clear to your professor, say, that you are using a word because you are aware of the different forms of usage and have deliberately chosen a particular one or that you simply don't know any better. 'Standard' usages have their good points.



Thank you, Michael, that's a very succinct way of putting it.

More comments, please.

I've always felt that "lyrical" is like "musical" in that you sort of know it when you see it. And then you find out that the person sitting next to you disagrees entirely.

I've learned a lot from this thread. Thanks.

OK, I'll admit it. I was known as an "adagio" or 'lyrical' dancer in my former life. And the best way I can describe it is FLOW: a continuous phrasing, even in allegro. Like a breath suspended, held, and slowly expelled as the movement continues. And innate use of arms, hands, AND especially epaulement to extend line. Ditto extension that unfolds, opens, and extends the line to infinity. Emotionally? I don't know, but I certainly "felt" the music inside, through me and supporting me. Best analogy: think of a bird in flight: held up by the air, surrounded by the air, using it to move. Mobilis in mobili. That's how I moved--surrounded by the music, through the music, with the music. Or in complete silence, I would use the "filled space" of the silence to do the same. But it was primarily an adagio technique, that had to be adapted (and in many cases truncated) for more athletic, allegro performances.
In short, I could "feel" the music, innately understood phrasing, balance till the cows came home, had decent extension (if not the 180/6 o'clocks they do now), and knew how to use my arms, hands and epaulement. But as someone posted above, most adagio dancers do not become stars, which is why it is so important for dancers to be well-rounded technicians. I had to work on the speed and "attack" of Balanchine, or preciseness of Bournonville battu. No one just does Act2 of Swan Lake, and I never mastered the 32. So the generic comments I got were all about being "the most graceful dancer... purity of line, Romantic style blah blah blah." Les Sylphides ad infinitum on tours.

Apropos the topic if not the immediately above...
Seeing Angel Corella do "Allegro Brillante" in London with Alexandra Ansanelli I was struck by the same thing I noticed after seeing a clip from 7 years ago of his Bronze Idol at the ROH re-opening gala... that an innately lyrical dancer was being forced into a mould. It was NOT a technical issue; EXTERNALLY the ballon, speed, tight precise fifths, tours, extension, elevation, and musicality etc.etc. all normal, all fine. But...I kept thinking INTERNALLY a too graceful softened edge for that very sharp, quick, almost robotic attack of Balanchine, (or a stiff bronze idol). Ansanelli looked like she was thoroughly enjoying herself and her partner, but the difference in technique was evident to me. She was a Balanchine dancer both internally and externally, whereas for Corella it definately was more an external expertise. (I agree about H. Cornejo.)

Dancerboy's professor is a member of Ballet Talk??? Now, I did not know that!

It was meant as a generic reference only, a 'for instance.' Sorry for any confusion. :

Of course, you know I'm pulling your leg. I think Ballet Talk is a good place for students of all ages to try out a language that's new to them, in order to define their knowledge of it. The professor isn't here, and we can discuss usage and vocabulary in a friendly and informal environment, which can only be helpful to the linguist.

Ahhhh, thank you for describing the feeling of "flow" in dance. Never having been a dancer, but admiring and envying both dancers and birds, I truly appreciate the way you have vivified your experience.

In college and for about 15 years following, I sang in small Renaissance choirs, usually a cappella, and often felt something similar. I put myself in a "gear" that connected me visually and spiritually to the conductor, which connected me -- voice, body, breathing -- to the music.

Music and dance is like a river which stretches through time, perceived at an instant, yet each instant is different, never the same, and always connected to what came before and will come after.

An interesting aspect of dance photography is the inherent implication of time which I think is impossible in music. You can see the flow captured in an instant.

I suspect (not being a dancer), that skillful lyrical or adagio dancers can support the thread of time weaving through their movement in perfectly fluid transitions from one instant to the next.