I’m taking someone who thinks he hates contemporary along to see Matthew Bourne’s Dorian Gray – only because I’ve seen it before and I know it will blow his mind away. But you do have to be careful – if I had taken someone to see Vincent Dance Theatre’s anti-conceptual conceptual piece at dx on Wednesday they would have been put off contemporary dance forever!

There is a barrier and contemporary has the least following of all the dance styles – possibly because some people don’t realise it can mix in a whole load of other styles too – like Keisha Grant’s recent piece at The Patrick Centre.

Those barriers will continue to be broken down when choreographers take contemporary to the people rather than waiting for audiences to come to them – like Hofesh Schecter’s (genius) workshops at the Roundhouse in London last year. Great way to get young people interested in an art form they would otherwise not hear about.

Take my Mum – I’ve tried to get her to see Hofesh Schechter and Diversions with me and both times she’s refused because it’s contemporary dance and feels she won’t understand it. The point about both companies is their striking, beautiful dance – there’s not much more than that to understand! Now if I’d offered her tickets the ballet, she’d have bitten my hand off.

There seems to be a real barrier there for many people – whether it’s real or imagined.

A rough guide to contemporary dance for audiences is a great idea. You’re right many people feel they ‘don’t get it’ but sometimes there isn’t anything to ‘get’ – contemporary dance seems to be moving from choreographers building on a theme or an emotion to simply exploring movement itself. Vincent Dance Theatre who just finshed their stint at The Patrick Centre went a little bit too far with this though, with their ‘No more dancing’ anti-contemporary manifesto – a little bit of meaning is required to get the thing off the ground. But sometimes the best contemporary dance I’ve seen has been just a beautiful, vibrant and energetic display of excellent dancing – no meaning required – just something for the audience and the dancer to both enjoy. Will get onto the rough guide.

Dance is definitely a great workout too – and the classes at DanceXchange are all free for October – a great way to try a few new things. As contemporary is my usual pot, I’m going to try Club Jazz tonight!

I’d really like to see a Bluffers Guide to Contemporary Dance for audiences as well as people thinking of doing it. Because contemporary dance gets a lot of stick and there are preconceptions out there, many won’t give attending a show a go – even those that might enjoy a ballet or musical dance show.

Many feel they don’t ‘get it’ – that there’s some deeper meaning to the pieces they can’t comprehend because they don’t speak the lingo. I’d love to see some of the basics spelled out in simple terms so people can get a grasp of things, and get possibly get past that feeling that the dancers are expressing themselves in an alien language.

You up for it?