Acro Dance: Style, Trend, or Takeover?

Is acro really a legit style of dance? Or just gymnastics with music?

In this episode of Hey, Dancer!, I dive into the roots of acro dance, its rise in competitions and studio culture, and why — despite its popularity — some major dance institutions still don’t recognize it as a core genre. I also explore why I respect acro, even love it… but still can’t quite call it home.

Whether you’re team “It’s a style!” or side-eyeing the flips in lyrical solos, this one’s for you.

Previous acro episode: Acro in Dance: Then vs Now (and My Suprising History)

Check out my ⁠Return to Dance docuseries!⁠

Support my Instagram — where I post daily dance inspo, insights and fun! ⁠@backtogreat

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
But wait, is Acro actually a legit style of dance?

(00:05):
That is what I'm talking about today on my podcast, Hey Dancer.
I'm your host, Miller Daurey, and yet my podcast is a one-stop shop for all things dance,
dance class, dance culture, the evolution of training and everything in between.
Help a podcaster out by subscribing or following wherever you're watching or listening, and

(00:28):
like the podcast, rate, review, share with your dance fam.
Now, I got to tell you something every time I post about Acro online.
The traction is kind of wild.
It's one of those topics that dancers and dance teachers and judges all have big feelings
about like this recent reel I put up on IG maybe a month ago or something.

(00:52):
It was just a text overlay, kind of simple, and it said, if you're watching this, you will
see this.
Dance performance without tricks and Acro is still a dance performance.
A dance performance filled with tricks and Acro is basically rhythmic gymnastics.
Now yes, are you satire to, you know, exaggerate some truths, add some humor, but you know,

(01:16):
you get the point.
I also want to say I don't need people to agree with me ever.
I mean, I'm just posting things that align with my POV, my gut, my soul, my dance,
values, if you will, but it's social media and I welcome conversation and debate and dissenters,
you know, to be honest, because I love adding to the conversation.

(01:40):
I love hearing, you know, different perspectives.
Now, I'm just saying all that because when I post about Acro, 98% of the time people seem
to agree with my sentiments, which only really means by the way that the algorithm is showing
my post to people who agree with me, it doesn't mean that that's the majority of the dance world
or anything.

(02:00):
We know how social media works.
Anyway, but one such example of somebody who did not agree with that particular post,
this was by Acro Academy_2016, quote, "Acro is an art, just like any other style.
Its magnitude is like no other and it's taking the world by storm because of its beauty,

(02:22):
don't hate."
Now, let me just say personally, I'm never coming from a place to hate, okay?
And it's unfortunate when people create a story around why anybody may say something online.
They attribute something nefarious, you know, to a pretty innocent kind of post, but that's
social media it is what it is.
Regardless, comments like this, you know, "I read everything and I take it in and I pause

(02:47):
and I sit with it and I think, 'Oh, this person said Acro is an art.
Not sure I agree, but okay, interesting.
I do hear that from time to time."
And then, on another even more recent post that I put up, which was my version of this trend
going on about propaganda, I'm not falling for, it's a cute trend and I did mine, of course,

(03:11):
based on dance.
And one of the things I said, dance propaganda, I'm not falling for is that Acro is a style
of dance and/or belongs in cops.
And while again, most of the comments seem to support, I did notice, again, some people
stating with confidence and very kindly, which is important to me, that Acro is an actual

(03:36):
style of dance.
So here are just two examples.
Quote, "respectfully, Acro is always going to be a style in dance, whether you believe it
or not."
And that was said by @SECR.
At a count, 4, 8, 2, 5, people have some weird handles, everybody.
And somebody else said, "Acro is a style of dance, but Acro tricks should only be done in

(03:59):
Acro routines, not in other styles like lyrical or contemporary."
And that was said by a cursed decamble, 1991.
So there it was, again, is there something I'm missing?
Because here's the thing.
I'm not married to my opinions.
I care about truth, first and foremost.
I care about clarity.
And I try not to get stuck in ideas that may be no longer fit, may not be true or right,

(04:25):
maybe they've evolved.
I've even talked about my own surprising Acro background in a previous episode you may
remember, which I'll link to below if you didn't listen.
I think it might be a good thing to check out so you get more of my history.
Because yeah, as I said in that podcast, here's the twist, I was actually a gymnast before

(04:46):
I was even a dancer.
And yeah, choreographers absolutely used my skills back in the day, my Acro skills.
So I'm not speaking from the sidelines here, but still, okay, growing up in the 80s and
90s, nobody I knew considered Acro a genre.
It wasn't even called Acro then.
It was just gymnastics tumbling.

(05:07):
So is there more to the story?
Has Acro dance become an actual thing?
What even is it exactly?
And most importantly, if it is a thing, should it be a thing?
And has it gone too far?
Well, let's talk about it.
First we got to define Acro dance, okay, which is short for obviously Acrobatic dance.

(05:31):
It is the fusion of classical dance technique with Acrobatic elements.
Acrobatic walkovers, aerials, back bends, crazy handstands all blended into choreography.
It's not gymnastics in gymnastics, your judge done form, amplitude and landings and probably
a whole bunch of other things in Acro dance.

(05:54):
Ideally, this is the operative word, ideally, your judge on musicality, flow and how the
tricks enhance the overall expression.
But whether or not you're always judged on those things and not just the ooze in the
eyes of your Acro tricks is a different story altogether.
Here's something I didn't really know.

(06:16):
Acro dance has a surprisingly long and legit history.
It goes all the way back to Vodville where performers like Sherman Coates and Tommy Woods
were blending flips and choreography as early as the 1910s.
And Lord knows I tried to find footage on them, but just nothing exists sadly.

(06:37):
And you might think, yeah, it's the 1910s, but let me tell you, in all the episodes I've
done, especially for my "The Rest of the Story" series, I have found dance footage going
back to the very early 1900s, but not this time.
Anyway, this wasn't just about flash, okay, back when they were doing it all the way back
then.
It was rhythmic, it was musical and fully integrated into the act.

(06:59):
Dance and acrobatics were not separate, they fed each other.
And now all these decades later, we got Cirque du Soleil and they elevated that same fusion
for the modern stage.
They didn't invent acro as art, but they reintroduced it to a global audience in a new way, more theatrical,

(07:20):
more poetic and on a massive scale.
Then came dance moms, which honestly, with all my research and their arches.
And there's reddits and all kinds of things online dedicated to this exact topic and dance
moms.
They played a huge role in this area of acro dance.

(07:41):
And then it went on to like you know, so you think you can dance and social media, TikTok,
and now suddenly acro is mainstream.
Today entire certification programs are built around it.
Like Arts, which is a comprehensive training program for dance educators to safely teach
acro dance.

(08:02):
They're huge.
Oh my god, like thousands and thousands of studios worldwide use them, you know, as their
guide.
They defined acro dance as the fusion of classical dance technique and the precision and athleticism
of acrobatic elements.
Their structured syllabus includes strength, flexibility, balance, limbering, and humbling

(08:24):
with progressions designed for studio dancers and studios across the world like Denoyer
Dance Studio in the US City Dance Academy in the UK and Dance Struck in Australia list
acro right alongside jazz, ballet, hip hop.
So yes, acro dance, I am shocked to say I must admit to say it exists.

(08:52):
It is structured, it is codified, it is everywhere.
That much is true.
But here is the twist because it's my podcast and I'm always bringing in the twist.
While acro is widely taught, especially to kids and competition studios, it isn't formally
recognized as a foundational genre by major dance institutions, not the national dance education

(09:17):
organization, not the international dance council, not most conservatory level college programs,
even major educational resources like the New York State Dance Glossary or the LA Music
Center's Glossary, both of which list dozens of terms related to dance from all the styles
you can imagine to, you know, balance and aesthetics and contractions, all the things they

(09:44):
don't mention acro.
Not even once, so on the one hand, you've got massive studio adoption, full syllabi and
kids everywhere training in acro as a genre on the other silence from the highest levels
of academic and professional dance institutions.
And that silence says something, it says a lot to me at least because these institutions

(10:09):
define styles based on cultural lineage, musicality, choreographic tradition and technical foundations.
Acro borrows from those things, but it doesn't originate from them.
So here's where I land.
Yes, acro dance is a style.

(10:29):
That's not up for debate anymore.
I am saying that out loud.
Some of you are falling over if you're driving, please be careful and don't get in an accident.
It is practiced, taught, certified and it is widely performed.
If something is that present in the ecosystem, it's real.
You know, let's not deny realities or truths here, but for me, it's a hybrid acro dance.

(10:55):
It's not rooted in the musical phrasing of jazz or the cultural foundation of hip hop or
the technical traditions of ballet.
It's something else entirely.
And while I fully respect the strength, dedication and artistry required to do it well because
Lord knows I do, acro still feels like an and to me, dance and acro, not dance alone, even

(11:23):
at Broadway dance center, one of the most respected adult training spaces in the country.
The only listing I could find was simply called acro.
Not acro dance, it's marketed as a class to improve strength and flexibility, a supplement,
not a genre, not a style of dance.

(11:45):
And that distinction matters.
And trust me, when I saw that they had acro under schedule because I did my due diligence
and I was looking like, you know, at all the different schedules of the major places.
And then I saw acro at BDC and I was like, oh my god, there goes my thesis because part
of how I feel about this is that a lot of it is geared toward children because you're

(12:07):
going to find acro on studio schedules for kids mostly, but in the real world drop in adult
classes, super rare.
And I feel like that correlation is a big deal because it's illustrating that acro is about
maybe comps and tricks for show, but not about longevity, long term career.

(12:30):
Do you know what I'm saying?
So yeah, acro dance exists.
It has its own lane.
And like I said in my earlier acro episode linked below, I genuinely love acro.
Oh my god, I've been obsessed with gymnastics since I was a little kid.
And once my body is fully healed because I'm going through a healing chronic pain injury

(12:53):
journey and I'm getting back on the dance floor slowly, but surely you can trust that once
I am back on that dance floor, I absolutely plan to get some of my flips back.
It's important to me.
It just is.
I love it.
So there.
And honestly, I think that makes my stance even stronger because despite how much I admire

(13:14):
acro and love it, I still don't see it as a legitimate style of dance, at least not
in the same way at all.
The way I see jazz, lyrical, ballet, modern hip hop, you know?
Now I know some people are thinking, but you know, acro dance does if it's done right, if
it's done well, it has the phrasing, it has feeling, it can tell a story, Miller, it really,

(13:37):
really can.
And yeah, I've seen those routines that absolutely did that, but those things aren't embedded
in the art form in dance.
They're not the foundation.
And let's be honest, of course, a lot of dancers, regardless of style, struggle with that,
you know, to tell a story.
But with styles like jazz or contemporary, the music and phrasing are at least baked into

(14:03):
the technique itself.
Acro doesn't start there.
That's the difference.
I can't quite shake because when you strip away the comps, the trends, the algorithmic
flash, what I always come back to is this, the phrasing, the feeling, the story.
That is dance.
That is home.

(14:24):
Before I get to the outro, I thought I was finished, but I just want to say one more thing about
tricks versus acro.
And maybe I'll do a whole podcast on this eventually, but just very, very quickly because
a lot of people defend acro is just, you know, tricks and dancers do tricks and what's the
difference between, you know, extensions and leaps and crazy pirouettes and, you know,

(14:45):
a back handspring or an aerial.
And I'll tell you what the difference is.
These tricks, like those I just mentioned, extensions, leaps, crazy, beautiful turns, they're all
rooted in dance technique.
Literally, acro is not just simply put.
It's just not rooted in anything to do with dance.

(15:06):
Anyway, do you agree with acro being a style of dance?
Do you think that dance competitions should have an entire acro category, but that acro
shouldn't be used in the main dance styles or as I like to say, the core, the real dance
styles, you know, jazz, lyrical, hip-hop, all be above.
If it is used, should it be used very, very sparingly?

(15:29):
If this episode gave you something to chew on, subscribe, share with your dance fam.
You know, this is a topic we all can relate to.
And I would never want to delegitimize, you know, a style of anything, an art form of anything.
I do believe that acro dance as it is defined is an art form of some kind, but does it deserve,

(15:50):
you know, its own slot, you know, next to core dance styles?
For me, no, but what do you think?
I'd love to know your thoughts.
You can shoot me a DM on Instagram and back to great.
You could leave a comment down below if you're watching on YouTube or Spotify.
I'm always listening.
I'm always here.
I'm always engaging and responding.

(16:11):
I appreciate your time.
Until next time, stay grounded and most importantly, stay dancing.
(upbeat music)