Modern dance, developed in the early 20th century, began as a rebellion against the strict guidelines of ballet. The founders of the first modern dance studios abandoned ballet's restrictive costumes and set-in-stone steps and focused instead on expressing emotion through dance. Emotions and ideas are more important to modern dances than perfect technical executions of difficult twirls and leaps. While modern dance does have rules and techniques, modern dancers are much more likely to break these rules than ballet dancers. Instead of ballet's predetermined sets of dance moves, modern dancers often create new moves for each dance, using their emotions to guide them into a much freer choreography. Another characteristic of modern dance is the use of body weight, incorporating falls into the choreography rather than insisting on a rigid, upright body as in ballet.

The founders of modern dance, including Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis, and Martha Graham, developed dances based on their own emotions and passions. Later, modern dancers used dance to make political statements, speaking out against fascism and the Great Depression.

Today, modern dancers are no longer dancing to rebel against ballet, but are using the now-mainstream medium of modern dance to express ideas and emotions important to them. Modern dancers might choreograph a dance on any subject from domestic violence to global economic relations. Today's dance routines may involve any number of props, light, music, and sound effects, and may even incorporate video. Prospective dancers interested in modern dance as a hobby or as a career will have many studios and schools from which to choose.