Modern Dance

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Modern Dance

• Dance I

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Loie Fuller

• History
• Danza Serpentina
• Roman Sketches a dance inspired from the works
  of Loie Fuller

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Dance Assignment

• Create a dance phrase using fabric.
• Use the artwork of Loie Fuller as your
  inspiration.
• Your dance phrase should be at least 4 counts of
  8.
• We will show in class tomorrow.

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Isadora Duncan

• Isadora grew up being exposed to all of the
  arts. She taught dance classes to children to
  help raise money for her family. She performed
  as a soloist in the homes of society women as a
  teenager. Her reputation of her Free Dance and
  movement style took off and she began dancing on
  the stages in Europe. She opened a school for
  young children, teaching them art, culture,
  movement and spirituality as well as traditional
  academic lessons. After the death of her two
  children she adopted six and they were
  affectionately known as the Isadorables. They
  toured with their new Free Dancing technique.
  Her choreography consisted of skipping, running,
  jumping, leaping, with free-flowing costumes,
  bare feet and loose hair.

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Pedestrian Movement

• Isadora Duncan
• Isadora Duncan Company- Today

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Dance Assignment

• Create 4 counts of 8 using only skipping,
  running, jumping, and leaping.
• Think about pathways and the upper body as you
  create your phrase.

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Denishawn

• Denishawn dance school and company founded in
  1915 by Ruth St. Denis and her husband, Ted
  Shawn. Considered a pioneer of American modern
  dance, the Denishawn school promoted nonballetic
  dance movement and fostered such leading modern
  dancers as Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and
  Charles Weidman. Because St. Denis and Shawn
  believed that all dance techniques were valid and
  instructive, the school offered classes in
  Oriental, Spanish, and primitive dance the
  fundamentals of ballet their own innovative
  techniques and, later, the modern-dance
  techniques that had been developed in Europe by
  Rudolf Laban. Branches of the school were
  established in New York City and other American
  cities. The company's dances, choreographed by
  St. Denis and Shawn, ranged from solos to
  productions with Japanese, Hindu, Middle Eastern,
  or American Indian themes. The Denishawn dancers
  frequently toured the United States and performed
  in the Orient (192526). The company disbanded in
  1931 after St. Denis and Shawn separated.

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Denishawn

• Dance Inspiration
• Cultural Influences
• Statue Dances

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Dance Assignment
Dance of Shiva

• Create 4 counts of 8 based on a statue
• Think about level changes and dynamics (energy)
• Make sure your dance has a beginning, middle, and
  ending

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Martha Graham

• In 1916, at the age of twenty, Martha enrolled
  with the Denishawn Dance School, studying under
  Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. She was told that
  she was too old to begin to dance and that her
  body did not have the correct build for it. But
  she persevered. Martha proved to be a quick study
  with an impressive attention to detail and she
  worked incredibly hard to train her body to great
  precision. At the age of thirty she began
  teaching and choreographing. Her early works
  were not well received by audiences. They were
  so different from what they were use to seeing.
  She married a principle dancer with her company
  Erick Hawkins. She created ballets centering
  around their love. She danced until she was 76
  years old. In the last couple of years of her
  life she did not like to see dances she created
  for herself and Erick being danced by other
  people. She created a dance system called
  contract and release as well as a dance company
  and studio.

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Marthas Choreography

• Martha Graham

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Dance Assignment

• Today you are going to create a dance using
• body socks. You will use an emotion as you
• choreographic inspiration.
• Create 4 counts of 8 based on an emotion.
• We will try to guess your emotion.

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Final Assignment Due Monday

• Create 10 counts of 8 based on all 4 dancers we
  have studied.
• Your choreography is new and not borrowed from
  previous studies.
• When complete write (individually) a
  justification of where each dancer is represented
  in the dance. This should be one page.