Contemporary dance is the name given to a group of 20th century concert dance forms. It is a collection of systems and methods developed from Modern and Postmodern dance. Thus contemporary dance is not a specific dance technique. European, Canadian and American contemporary dance differ from each other in a number of ways.

Rather than emphasizing technique per se, which is seen more as a tool for the dancer and a means by which to strengthen the body, increase flexibility, and through a deliberate exposure of the contemporary dancer to a wide range of techniques to ensure versatility, contemporary dance as a field is more concerned with examining the choreographic and performing process: as a result there has been limited development of dance techniques by seminal dance artists. Instead, contemporary dance draws on modern dance techniques (developed in the first sixty years of the 20th century) and an array of still developing philosophies of movement based on study of the human body and body/mind inter-relationships