BRIEF HISTORY OF MODERN DANCE

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BRIEF HISTORY OF MODERN DANCE By Wendy Oliver
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Co..
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Early Modern Dance

• Modern dance in the US started about the turn of
  the 20th c. as a revolt against ballet and show
  dance, or vaudeville.
• It is uniquely American, although a similar,
  parallel movement evolved in Germany.
• Modern dance is based on the idea of free
  artistic expression for the individual

Isadora Duncan
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Differences Between Ballet and Modern Dance
Movement

• Ballet conceived on grand scale, with opera house
  in mind
• Strives to defy gravity
• Looks to European aristocracy for its traditions
• All ballet movement starts and ends with the 5
  positions
• Focus on arms and legs

• Modern dance usually designed for smaller spaces
• May give into gravity or defy it
• Looks within the individual
• Modern dance may use ballet positions but has as
  many additional positions as needed by
  choreographer
• Focus on torso

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More Differences

• Subject matter of ballet typically draws on
  European fairy tales
• Ballet tends to be about make believe
  situations
• Ballet companies structured as hierarchy corps
  de ballet, coryphees, soloists, principals
• Ballet companies tend to perform choreography by
  many different people, and are named after their
  location (ie. Boston Ballet)

• Modern dance draws on non-European themes,
  sometimes American or Greek
• Modern dance may deal with social concerns of
  time
• Modern dance companies usually smaller usually
  all dancers serve as soloists
• Modern companies often perform mainly work of the
  director, after whom the company is named
  (i.e.Trisha Brown Co.)

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Forerunners of Modern Dance

• In the early 1900s, modern dance was spearheaded
  by Isadora Duncan, Loie Fuller, Maude Allan, Ruth
  St. Denis, and Ted Shawn.
• These artists all began performing in the popular
  theatres of the day, but were drawn to making
  more serious work.
• They emphasized creative use of lights, costumes,
  and décor.

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Isadora Duncan

• The most famous of these was Isadora Duncan, who
  had a huge impact on dance and society
• Was an early feminist believed marriage was too
  restrictive
• Thought dance should be inspired by nature, and
  also looked to ancient Greece
• Thought dance was an expression of the spirit
• Danced barefoot in simple tunics without a
  corset, with bare legs
• Felt ballet was artificial
• Had a dramatic personal life

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Loie Fuller was known for her lighting effects
she used colored lights on voluminous silk
costumes. She invented new lighting equipment
and traveled with many technicians. Her style,
with its natural forms, wavy lines, and
curlicues, influenced Art Nouveau,
Ruth St. Denis was inspired by the Orient. She
managed to be both spiritual and financially
successful, touring the US and the world.
Ted Shawn was St. Denis dance partner and
husband. Together, they created a famous school
in Los Angeles called Denishawn, where hundreds
of young dancers were trained.
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The Founders

• Just as the Forerunners revolted against ballet
  vaudeville, the Founders rebelled against the
  Forerunners in 1920s 30s.
• Some of them studied at Denishawn, and found the
  dance too commercial.
• They wanted to establish the freedom and
  independence of modern dance.
• They called it modern dance to distinguish it
  from expressionist dance and ballet.
• The dance was severe rather than pretty, and
  emphasized integrity over commercial success.

Martha Grahams Appalachian Spring
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Martha Graham

• Martha Graham studied at Denishawn 1916-1923
• Founded her own school in NY in 1927
• Created a technique based on contraction and
  release
• Style stressed angularity extreme muscle
  tension to show passion
• Known for creating works with psychological
  themes, exploring inner emotions
• Many of her works based on Greek themes, such as
  Clytemnestra, and Errand into the Maze

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Journey Into the Maze, based on Jason and the
Minotaur
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Doris Humphrey

• Went to Denishawn in 1915 left in 1928 to create
  her own company
• Like Graham, felt Denishawn technique was
  artificial wanted a more serious dance form
• Created a technique based on fall and recovery
• Wrote the classic text on choreography, The Art
  of Making Dances, in 1959.

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The Post-War Generation

After WWII, in the late 1940s, modern dance came
into its own. Dancers were less concerned with
rebelling and more interested in building on
current trends. Modern dance became established
in higher education, and became more accepting of
ballet. Black artists began to be recognized.
Alvin Ailey Co.
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Alvin Ailey

• Ailey created an all-Black dance company in the
  late 1950s it became integrated in 1962.
• He wanted to create opportunities for African-Am.
  to perform concert dance.
• His style blends elements of modern, ballet,
  jazz, and African, and stresses Black themes.
• Despite his death in 1989, his company and school
  are still going strong and his work is known
  around the world.
• His signature work, Revelations, is based on
  spirituals and the African American experience

Revelations
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Merce Cunningham

• Unlike others of the postwar era, Cunningham was
  a rebel.
• Although he performed with Graham in his youth,
  he formed his own company in the 1950s, where he
  invented a new choreographic style.
• He believes that dance does not need a story the
  subject of dance should be the dance itself.
• Contrary to Grahams approach, he does not use
  characters or emotion dance, music, and décor
  operate independently
• Uses chance operations to determine order of
  movements.

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Judson Dance Theatre

• A group of artists who followed Cunninghams path
  to create a dance revolution in the 1960s
• The Judson Church in NYC supported political
  causes the arts, and was the main performing
  venue for this group
• The performance could happen anywhere in the
  churchsanctuary, choir loft, gymnasium, meeting
  room performances were free
• Spirit of freedom and creativity what is art?

• Non-traditional audiences
• Dancers were sometimes untrained
• performed pedestrian movements
• Blended theatre, film, and dance

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Yvonne Rainer

• Rainer believed that any movement could be dance,
  and that anyone could be a dancer
• Her famous Trio A is a series of quirky movements
  performed without emotional overtones. No
  dramatic accents are used all movements flowed
  from one to the next without pause.
• Trio A has been performed as a solo, trio, or
  large group piece, by people of various shapes
  and sizes, in varying physical conditions.
• This was the beginning of post-modern dance

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Trisha Brown

• A post-modern choreographer concerned with form
• Very systematic and design-oriented
• She invented the accumulation technique
• One of her dances from the 1970s, Group Primary
  Accumulation, had 4 dancers lying on their backs,
  each on a separate raft on a lake. Each dancer
  accumulates 30 movements in 8 minutes, rotating
  45 degrees each on last 2 movements, until the
  dancer has rotated 360 degrees.

• Her newer work
• uses more traditional
• theatre settings, but
• still formalist

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Modern Dance since the 1980s

• Modern dance today offers a broad range of
  approaches, some narrative, some structural, some
  mainly athletic
• Technical skills of varied types are back in
  demand
• New kinds of dance include aerial dance,
  integrated dance (wheelchairs), and various
  hybrids of modern ballet, modern and hip hop,
  and other combinations
• Still emphasizes individual expression

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Elizabeth Streb/Ringside

• Choreographer Streb has a ferocious desire to
  conquer gravity
• Uses flying harnesses, trampolines, aerial
  platforms, walls, etc.
• A bit like the circus or gymnastics, yet created
  with a different purpose in mind
• Why spend all your time on the bottom of your
  feet? There are many parts of the body.

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Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane

• Often uses narrative or theme to relay a message
• Creates full-length works such as Last Supper at
  Uncle Toms Cabin/The Promised Land, which
  examines race in the US.
• Works with dancers of varied races, shapes,
  sizes, and backgrounds
• Kept his partner Zanes name in the company name
  after Zane died of AIDS

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Integrated Dance

• "Who says you can dance only if you have two
  feet," she asks. "Dancing is an expression and an
  emotion, and you can show it in many different
  ways."
• Ms. Verdi-Fletcher founded, and is co-artistic
  director of the Cleveland Ballet Dancing Wheels,
  a dance company that combines dancers in
  wheelchairs with dancers on foot. Since joining
  with the Cleveland Ballet in 1990, the
  eight-member company has given more than 1,000
  performances. They have danced before 125,000
  people a year in venues from Belgium to New York.
  
• Ms. Verdi-Fletcher was born 41 years ago with
  spina bifida, which left her paralyzed from below
  the waist. Her parents feared she would not
  survive. She underwent 10 surgeries and tried to
  get around on crutches or with her legs in
  braces. But by age 12, she had to use a
  wheelchair. All the while, Ms. Verdi-Fletcher
  dreamed of dancing.

Cleveland Ballet Dancing Wheels
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Cleveland Dancing Wheels

• As she grew up, Ms. Verdi-Fletcher found
  teachers and dance partners who showed her how to
  perform in her wheelchair. She learned to spin
  gracefully and perform elegant moves.
• In 1978, Ms. Verdi-Fletcher and partner David
  Brewster decided to enter a dance competition in
  Cleveland, but they did not tell the organizers
  she was in a wheelchair. She remembers the
  hushed audience that watched, spellbound, as they
  began to dance. "They didn't know what to make
  of somebody in a wheelchair, and I remember one
  of the judges had his mouth open," she said.
  "At the end of the dance, my partner did an
  acrobatic stunt on my chair while I was sitting
  on it, and the audience went wild. We had a
  standing ovation." Buoyed by that reaction,
  Ms. Verdi-Fletcher formed Dancing Wheels in 1980,
  with Mr. Brewster as her partner

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Integrated Dance
The National Integrated Dance Company of South
Africa
There are currently many integrated dance
companies around the world. Dancers using
crutches wheelchairs team up with able-bodied
dancers to perform many different kinds of modern
dance. The term integrated refers to dancers of
differing physical abilities working together.
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Rennie Harris
Rennie Harris fuses modern dance with hip-hop he
brought his show Rome and Jewels, loosely based
on Romeo and Juliet, to RI College in 2004, and
also performed at Veterans Memorial Auditorium
in 2005.
Founded in 1992 by North Philadelphia native
Rennie Harris , Rennie Harris Puremovement (RHPM)
was conceived with the vision for sharing an
appreciation for diversity and is dedicated to
preserving and disseminating hip-hop culture
through workshops, classes, lecture-demonstrations
, dance residencies, mentoring programs and
public performances. RHPM's work encompasses rich
and diverse African-American traditions of the
past while simultaneously presenting the voice of
a new generation.
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Liz Lerman
Liz Lerman works with dancers of mixed ages,
including people in their 70s. In 1975 Liz
Lerman created Woman of the Clear Vision,,a
dance about her mother's death featuring
professional dancers and adults from a
Washington, DC senior center. Combining the
creative and community aspects of this project
with the dance classes she was teaching
throughout DC, Lerman established the Dance
Exchange, incorporated in 1976, which has
explored issues such as violence, education,
aging, healthcare, and community history. In
2002, Lerman was awarded a MacArthur genius
grant.
Modern Dance continues to evolve
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Modern Dance Images References

• http//www.cmnw.org/images/Bill T
  Jones_dancersandorion.jpg
• www.upenn.edu/pennnews/current/2000/102600/calenda
  r.html
• http//www.streetswing.com/histmai2/gif/9loie2.jpg
  
• www.dancewritig.org/library/duncan/prelude/prelude
  04.jpg
• http//www.fusionanamoly.net/loiefuller.jpg
• http//www.streetswing.com/histomai2gif/1ruth1.gif
  
• http//www.streetswing.com/histmai2/gif/1shwn1.gif
  
• http//www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9806/images/g-appset.g
  if
• http//www.cameraobscuragallery.com/morgan_1.jpg
• http//www.duke.edu/saundra/graham.jpg
• www.criticaldance.com/images/mgraham-medea.jpg
• http//www.windhover.org/images/danceco/Doris_Hump
  hrey.jpg
• http//www.calperfs.berkeley.edu/presents/events/i
  mages/alvin_ailey.jpg
• www.fordfound.org/about/images/2000_education1.jpg
  
• http//www.ballet.co.uk/images/merce_c/av_loose_ti
  me_494.jpg
• www.joyce.org/images/merce.jpg
• http//www.israeldance.co.il/the_Judson_Dance_Thea
  tre_rauch.jpg
• http//www.israeldance.co.il/Trisha_Brown.jpg
• http//exchange.state.gov/pac/images/5_part.jpg