HISTORY OF MODERN DANCE

Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance, primarily arising out of
Germany and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Modern dance is often considered to have emerged as a rejection of, or rebellion against, classical
ballet. Socioeconomic and cultural factors also contributed to its development. In the late 19th
century, dance artists such as Isadora Duncan, Maud Allan, and Loie Fuller were pioneering new
forms and practices in what is now called aesthetic or free dance for performance. These dancers
disregarded ballet's strict movement vocabulary, the particular, limited set of movements that were
considered proper to ballet, and stopped wearing corsets and pointe shoes in the search for greater
freedom of movement.
Throughout the 20th century, sociopolitical concerns, major historical events, and the development
of other art forms contributed to the continued development of modernist dance in the United States
and Germany. Moving into the 1960s, new ideas about dance began to emerge, as a response to
earlier dance forms and to social changes. Eventually, postmodern dance artists would reject the
formalism of modern dance, and include elements such as performance art, contact
improvisation, release technique, and improvisation.[1]
American modern dance can be divided (roughly) into three periods or eras. In the Early Modern
period (c. 1880–1923), characterized by the work of Isadora Duncan, Loie Fuller, Ruth St.
Denis, Ted Shawn, and Eleanor King, artistic practice changed radically, but clearly distinct modern
dance techniques had not yet emerged. In the Central Modern period (c. 1923–1946),
choreographers Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Katherine Dunham, Charles Weidman,
and Lester Horton sought to develop distinctively American movement styles and vocabularies, and
developed clearly defined and recognizable dance training systems. In the Late Modern period
(c. 1946–1957), José Limón, Pearl Primus, Merce Cunningham, Talley Beatty, Erick Hawkins, Anna
Sokolow, Anna Halprin, Paul Taylor introduced clear abstractionism and avant-garde movements,
and paved the way for postmodern dance.[2]
Modern dance has evolved with each subsequent generation of participating artists. Artistic content
has morphed and shifted from one choreographer to another, as have styles and techniques. Artists
such as Graham and Horton developed techniques in the Central Modern Period that are still taught
worldwide, and numerous other types of modern dance exist today.

Modern dance is often considered to have emerged as a rejection of, or rebellion against,
classical ballet, although historians have suggested that socioeconomic changes in both the United
States and Europe helped to initiate shifts in the dance world. In America,
increasing industrialization, the rise of a middle class (which had more disposable income and free
time), and the decline of Victorian social strictures led to, among other changes, a new interest in
health and physical fitness.[3] "It was in this atmosphere that a 'new dance' was emerging as much
from a rejection of social structures as from a dissatisfaction with ballet."[4] During that same period,
"the champions of physical education helped to prepare the way for modern dance,
and gymnastic exercises served as technical starting points for young women who longed to
dance."[5] Women's colleges began offering "aesthetic dance" courses by the end of the 1880s.[6] Emil
Rath, who wrote at length about this emerging artform at the time stated,
"Music and rhythmic bodily movement are twin sisters of art, as they have come into existence
simultaneously...today we see in the artistic work of Isadora Duncan, Maud Allan, and others the use
of a form of dancing which strives to portray in movements what the music master expresses in his
compositions—interpretative dancing."[7]
Free dance

Isadora Duncan in 1903

 1877: Isadora Duncan was a predecessor of modern dance with her stress on the center or
torso, 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 Nice in 1927.
 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 actress 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.

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.[8]
 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.[9]
 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.