Modern dance 1

Modern dance
Modern dance is a term usually referring to 20th-century concert
dance, although it has also been applied to a category of 20th-century
ballroom dances. Modern dance refused classical ballet's stress on feet
as the primary catalyst for dance movements. It, instead, put stress on
torso employing such elements as contact-release, floor work, fall and
recovery, and improvisation.[1] It was usually performed in bare feet,
often with non-traditional costuming.

A dance team from the University of Georgia

Predecessors performs 'Indian fusion dance' at the Koger
Center, University of South Carolina. This
Isadora Duncan, born in San Francisco in 1877, was a predecessor of combines traditional and modern dance.
modern dance with her stress on the torso movements, bare feet, loose
hair, free-flowing costumes, and incorporation of humor into emotional expression. She was inspired by classical
Greek arts, folk dances, social dances, nature, natural forces, and new American athleticism such as skipping,
running, jumping, leaping, and abrupt movements. She thought that ballet was ugly and meaningless gymnastics.
Although she returned to the United States at various points in her life, her work was not very well received there.
She returned to Europe and died in Paris in 1927.

Free dance
• 1891: Loie Fuller (a burlesque skirt dancer) began experimenting with the effect that gas lighting had on her silk
costumes. Fuller developed a form of natural movement and improvisation techniques that were used in
conjunction with her revolutionary lighting equipment and translucent silk costumes. She patented her apparatus
and methods of stage lighting that included the use of coloured gels and burning chemicals for luminescence, and
also patented her voluminous silk stage costumes.
• 1905: Ruth St. Denis, influenced by the actor Sarah Bernhardt and Japanese dancer Sada Yacco, developed her
translations of Indian culture and mythology. Her performances quickly became popular and she toured
extensively while researching Oriental culture and arts.

Expressionist and early modern dance in Europe

In Europe, Mary Wigman, Francois Delsarte, Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, and Rudolf von Laban developed theories of
human movement and expression, and methods of instruction that led to the development of European modern and
Expressionist dance.
• Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (Eurhythmics)
• Rudolf Laban
• Kurt Jooss
• Mary Wigman
• Harald Kreutzberg
Modern dance 2

Radical dance
Disturbed by the Great Depression and the rising threat of fascism in Europe, the radical dancers tried to raise
consciousness by dramatizing the economic, social, ethnic and political crises of their time.
• Hanya Holm, a student of Mary Wigman and instructor at the Wigman School in Dresden, founded the New York
Wigman School of Dance in 1931 (which became the Hanya Holm Studio in 1936) introducing Wigman
technique, Laban's theories of spatial dynamics, and later her own dance techniques to American modern dance.
An accomplished choreographer, she was a founding artist of the first American Dance Festival in Bennington
(1934). Holm's dance work Metropolitan Daily was the first modern dance composition to be televised on NBC
and her labanotation score for Kiss Me, Kate (1948) was the first choreography to be copyrighted in the United
States. Holm choreographed extensively in the fields of concert dance and musical theater.[2]
• Anna Sokolow—A student of Martha Graham and Louis Horst, Sokolow created her own dance company (circa
1930). Presenting dramatic contemporary imagery, Sokolow's compositions were generally abstract, often
revealing the full spectrum of human experience reflecting the tension and alienation of the time and the truth of
human movement.
• José Limón—In 1946, after studying and performing with Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman, Limón
established his own company with Humphrey as artistic director. It was under her mentorship that Limón created
his signature dance The Moor’s Pavane (1949). Limón’s choreographic works and technique remain a strong
influence on contemporary dance practice.[3]
• Merce Cunningham—A former ballet student and performer with Martha Graham, he presented his first New
York solo concert with John Cage in 1944. Influenced by Cage and embracing modernist ideology using
postmodern processes, Cunningham introduced chance procedures and pure movement to choreography and
Cunningham technique to the cannon of 20th-century dance techniques. Cunningham set the seeds for
postmodern dance with his non-linear, non-climactic, non-psychological abstract work. In these works each
element is in and of itself expressive, and the observer (in large part) determines what it communicates.
• Erick Hawkins—A student of George Balanchine, Hawkins became a soloist and the first male dancer in Martha
Graham's dance company. In 1951, Hawkins, interested in the new field of kinesiology, opened his own school
and developed his own technique (Hawkins technique) a forerunner of most somatic dance techniques.
• Paul Taylor—A student of the Juilliard School of Music and the Connecticut College School of Dance. In 1952
his performance at the American Dance Festival attracted the attention of several major choreographers.
Performing in the companies of Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham, and George Balanchine (in that order), he
founded the Paul Taylor Dance Company in 1954. The use of everyday gestures and modernist ideology is
characteristic of his choreography. Former members of the Paul Taylor Dance Company included Twyla Tharp,
Laura Dean, Dan Wagoner, and Senta Driver.
• Alwin Nikolais—A student of Hanya Holm. Nikolais's use of multimedia in works such as Masks, Props, and
Mobiles (1953), Totem (1960), and Count Down (1979) was unmatched by other choreographers. Often
presenting his dancers in constrictive spaces and costumes with complicated sound and sets, he focused their
attention on the physical tasks of overcoming obstacles he placed in their way. Nikolais viewed the dancer not as
an artist of self-expression, but as a talent who could investigate the properties of physical space and movement.

Early modern dance in America

In 1915, Ruth St. Denis founded the Denishawn school and dance company with her husband Ted Shawn.[4] Whilst
St. Denis was responsible for most of the creative work, Shawn was responsible for teaching technique and
composition. Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman were all pupils at the school and members of
the dance company. Seeking a wider and more accepting audience for their work, Duncan, Fuller, and Ruth St. Denis
all toured Iran. Fuller's work also received little support outside Europe. St. Denis returned to the United States to
Modern dance 3

continue her work.

Martha Graham is often regarded as the founding mother of modern 20th-century concert dance.[]
Martha Graham saw ballet as European, imperialistic, and un-American.[] She became a student at the Denishawn
school in 1916 and then moved to New York City in 1923, where she performed in musical comedies, music halls,
and worked on her own choreography.[] Graham developed her own dance technique that hinged on concepts of
contraction and release.[] Her principal contributions to dance are the focus of the ‘center’ of the body, coordination
between breathing and movement, and a dancer’s relationship with the floor.[]
• 1923: Graham leaves Denishawn to work as a solo artist in the Greenwich Village Follies.
• 1928: Humphrey and Weidman leave Denishawn to set up their own school and company (Humphrey-Weidman).
• 1933: Shawn founds his all male dance group Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers based at his Jacob's Pillow farm
in Lee, Massachusetts.
• 1967: Ashley Beger begins work at her new studio in New York. Her dance methods later evolved to what we
now know as pole dance.
After shedding the techniques and compositional methods of their teachers the early modern dancers developed their
own methods and ideologies and dance techniques that became the foundation for modern dance practice.
• Martha Graham (and Louis Horst)
• Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman and Martha Graham
• Helen Tamiris—originally trained in free movement (Irene Lewisohn) and ballet (Michel Fokine) Tamiris studied
briefly with Isadora Duncan but disliked her emphasis on personal expression and lyrical movement. Tamiris
believed that each dance must create its own expressive means and as such did not develop an individual style or
technique. As a choreographer Tamiris made works based on American themes working in both concert dance
and musical theatre.
• Lester Horton—choosing to work in California (3000 miles away from New York, the center of modern dance),
Horton developed his own approach that incorporated diverse elements including Native American dances and
modern jazz. Horton's dance technique (Lester Horton Technique) emphasises a whole-body approach including
flexibility, strength, coordination, and body awareness to allow freedom of expression.

Popularization in America
In 1927, newspapers regularly began assigning dance critics, such as Walter Terry, and Edwin Denby, who
approached performances from the viewpoint of a movement specialist rather than as a reviewer of music or drama.
Educators accepted modern dance into college and university curricula, first as a part of physical education, then as
performing art. Many college teachers were trained at the Bennington Summer School of the Dance, which was
established at Bennington College in 1934.
Of the Bennington program, Agnes de Mille wrote, "...there was a fine commingling of all kinds of artists,
musicians, and designers, and secondly, because all those responsible for booking the college concert series across
the continent were assembled there. ... free from the limiting strictures of the three big monopolistic managements,
who pressed for preference of their European clients. As a consequence, for the first time American dancers were
hired to tour America nationwide, and this marked the beginning of their solvency." (de Mille, 1991, p. 205)
Modern dance 4

African American modern dance

The development of modern dance embraced the contributions of African American dance artists regardless of
whether they made pure modern dance works or blended modern dance with African and Caribbean influences.
• Katherine Dunham—An African American dancer, and anthropologist. Originally a ballet dancer, she founded
her first company Ballet Negre in 1936 and later the Katherine Dunham Dance Company based in Chicago,
Illinois. Dunham opened a school in New York (1945) where she taught Katherine Dunham Technique, a blend of
African and Caribbean movement (flexible torso and spine, articulated pelvis and isolation of the limbs and
polyrhythmic movement) integrated with techniques of ballet and modern dance.
• Pearl Primus—A dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist, Primus drew on African and Caribbean dances to
create strong dramatic works characterized by large leaps in the air. Primus often based her dances on the work of
black writers and on racial and African-American issues. Primus created works based on Langston Hughes The
Negro Speaks of Rivers (1944), and Lewis Allan's Strange Fruit (1945). Her dance company developed into the
Pearl Primus Dance Language Institute which teaches her method of blending African-American, Caribbean, and
African influences with modern dance and ballet techniques.
• Alvin Ailey—A student of Lester Horton, Bella Lewitzky, and later Martha Graham, Ailey spent several years
working in both concert and theater dance. In 1958, Ailey and a group of young African-American dancers
performed as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York. Ailey drew upon his blood memories of Texas,
the blues, spirituals and gospel as inspiration. His most popular and critically acclaimed work is Revelations
(1960).

Legacy of modern dance

The legacy of modern dance can be seen in lineage of 20th-century concert dance forms. Although often producing
divergent dance forms, many seminal dance artists share a common heritage that can be traced back to free dance.

Postmodern dance
Postmodern dance occurred in the 1960s in United States when society questioned truths and ideologies in politics
and art. This period was marked by social and cultural experimentation in the arts. Choreographers no longer created
specific 'schools' or 'styles'. The influences from different periods of dance became more vague and fragmented.[]

Contemporary dance
Contemporary dance emerged in the
1950s as the dance form that is
combining the modern dance elements
and the classical ballet elements.[] It can
use elements from non-Western dance
cultures, such as African dancing with
bent knees as a characteristic trait, and
Butoh, Japanese contemporary dancing
that developed in the 1950s.[][] It is also
derived from modern European themes
like poetic and everyday elements,
broken lines, nonlinear movements, and
repetition. Many contemporary dancers
Modern dance 5

are trained daily in classical ballet to keep up with the technicality of the choreography given. These dancers tend to
follow ideas of efficient bodily movement, taking up space, and attention to detail. Contemporary dance today
includes both concert and commercial dance because of the lines being blurred by pop culture and television shows.

Teachers and their students

This list illustrates the basic teacher / student links in modern dance. For more detailed information see the individual
artists entries.

• Ted Shawn—Shawn Fundamentals

• Denishawn (school and company)
• Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman—The Art of Making Dances (Humphrey)
• Humphrey-Weidman school—Humphrey-Weidman technique (fall and recovery)
• José Limón—Limón technique
• Martha Graham—Graham technique (and Louis Horst)
• Erick Hawkins (via George Balanchine)—Hawkins technique
• Anna Sokolow
• May O'Donnell
• Merce Cunningham—Cunningham technique (also see Postmodern dance)
• Yvonne Rainer
• Steve Paxton
• Richard Alston
• Paul Taylor
• Twyla Tharp
• Trisha Brown
• Lester Horton—"Horton Technique"
• Bella Lewitzky
• Alvin Ailey
• Rudolf von Laban
• Kurt Jooss (see Ausdruckstanz)
• Pina Bausch (see Tanztheater)
• Mary Wigman (see Expressionist dance)
• Ursula Cain
• Heike Hennig (see Dancing with Time)
• Sonia Revid
• Lola Laban
• Hanya Holm
• Valerie Bettis
• Alwin Nikolais—decentralization
• Murray Louis
• Beverly Schmidt Blossom
• Émile Jaques-Dalcroze
• Mary Wigman
• Marie Rambert
• Katherine Dunham—Katherine Dunham Technique
• Pearl Primus
Modern dance 6

• Garth Fagan
• Helen Tamiris
• Daniel Nagrin

Notes
[2] Ware, Susan. "Notable American Women". Harvard University Press, 2004, p. 305-306.
[3] Siegel, Marcia B. "The Shapes of Change: Images of American Dance". University of California Press, 1979, p. 168-169.
[4] Cullen, Frank. "Vaudeville: Old & New". Psychology Press, 2007, p. 449.

References
• Dunning, Jennifer (1991-03-02). "Eleanor King, a modern dancer and choreographer, dies at 85" (http://query.
nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CEEDE1F38F931A35750C0A967958260&scp=2&sq="eleanor
king"&st=cse). New York Times.
• Dunning, Jennifer (1989-03-11). "Review/Dance; Recalling the Spirit of Doris Humphrey" (http://query.
nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE4D71330F932A25750C0A96F948260&scp=9&sq="eleanor
king"&st=cse). The New York Times.

Further reading
• Adshead-Lansdale, J. (Ed) (1994) Dance History: An Introduction. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-09030-X
• Anderson, J. (1992) Ballet & Modern Dance: A Concise History. Independent Publishers Group. ISBN
0-87127-172-9
• Au, S. (2002) Ballet and Modern Dance (World of Art). Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-20352-0
• Brown, J. Woodford, C, H. and Mindlin, N. (Eds) (1998) (The Vision of Modern Dance: In the Words of Its
Creators). Independent Publishers Group. ISBN 0-87127-205-9
• Cheney, G. (1989) Basic Concepts in Modern Dance: A Creative Approach. Independent Publishers Group. ISBN
0-916622-76-2
• Daly, A. (2002) Done into Dance: Isadora Duncan in America. Wesleyan Univ Press. ISBN 0-8195-6560-1
• de Mille, A. (1991) Martha : The Life and Work of Martha Graham. Random House. ISBN 0-394-55643-7
• Duncan, I. (1937) The technique of Isadora Duncan. Dance Horizons. ISBN 0-87127-028-5
• Foulkes, J, L. (2002) Modern Bodies: Dance and American Modernism from Martha Graham to Alvin Ailey. The
University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-5367-4
• Graham, M. (1973) The Notebooks of Martha Graham. Harcourt. ISBN 0-15-167265-2
• Graham, M. (1992) Martha Graham: Blood Memory: An Autobiography. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-57441-9
• Hawkins, E. and Celichowska, R. (2000) The Erick Hawkins Modern Dance Technique. Independent Publishers
Group. ISBN 0-87127-213-X
• Hodgson, M. (1976) Quintet: Five American Dance Companies. William Morrow and Company. ISBN
0-688-08095-2
• Horosko, M (Ed) (2002) Martha Graham: The Evolution of Her Dance Theory and Training. University Press of
Florida. ISBN 0-8130-2473-0
• Humphrey, D. and Pollack, B. (Ed) (1991) The Art of Making Dances Princeton Book Co. ISBN 0-87127-158-3
• Hutchinson Guest, A. (1998) Shawn's Fundamentals of Dance (Language of Dance). Routledge. ISBN
2-88124-219-7
• Kriegsman, S, A.(1981) Modern Dance in America: the Bennington Years. G K Hall. ISBN 0-8161-8528-X
• Lewis, D, D. (1999) The Illustrated Dance Technique of Jose Limon. Princeton Book Co. ISBN 0-87127-209-1
• Long, R. A. (1995) The Black Tradition in Modern Dance. Smithmark Publishers. ISBN 0-8317-0763-1
Modern dance 7

• Love, P. (1997) Modern Dance Terminology: The ABC's of Modern Dance as Defined by its Originators.
Independent Publishers Group. ISBN 0-87127-206-7
• McDonagh, D. (1976) The Complete Guide to Modern Dance Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-05055-5
• McDonagh, D. (1990) The Rise and Fall of Modern Dance. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 1-55652-089-1
• Mazo, J, H. (2000) Prime Movers: The Makers of Modern Dance in America. Independent Publishers Group.
ISBN 0-87127-211-3
• Minton, S. (1984) Modern Dance: Body & Mind. Morton Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-89582-102-7
• Roseman, J, L. (2004) Dance Was Her Religion: The Spiritual Choreography of Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis
and Martha Graham. Hohm Press. ISBN 1-890772-38-0
• Shelton, Suzanne. Divine Dancer: A Biography of Ruth St. Denis. New York: Doubleday, 1981.
• Sherman, J. (1983) Denishawn: The Enduring Influence. Twayne. ISBN 0-8057-9602-9
• Terry, W. (1976) Ted Shawn, father of American dance : a biography. Dial Press. ISBN 0-8037-8557-7
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