QUARTER 2: Module 5 HEALTH OPTIMIZING P.E.

Topic: MODERN DANCE

AND CONTEMPORARY DANCE
Content Standard: Demonstrates understanding of dance in optimizing
one’s health, as requisite for physical activity performance and as career
opportunity.

Lesson Objectives: This module will help you to;

 Explore the nature of modern and contemporary dance.
 Explains the value of optimizing one’s health through participation in
physical activity assessment.

Most Essential Learning Competencies;

1. Explains how to optimize the energy systems for safe and
improved performance.
2. Explains the role of physical actvity in managing one’s stress.
3. Sets FITT goals based on training principles to achieve and/or
maintain HRF.
4. Self-Assesses Health-Related Fitness (HRF) status, barriers to physical activity
assessment participation and one’s diet.
5. Discusses the nature of the different dances.
6. Participates in an organized event that addresses health/dance issues and
concerns.

What is modern dance?

 is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance
 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, rebellion against classical ballet.
 a term to describe contemporary dance
 is a style of dancing where dancers are free to express their feelings through movements without
adhering to any rules in dance particularly that of ballet.
 dancers of modern dance use their own interpretations instead of structured steps
 uses more of the torso on a horizontal rather than a vertical plane, and new varieties of tilting, twisting,
and bending movements
 makes use of the floor as part of the movements, whereas in ballet, the floor was merely for standing or
sitting purposes

Characteristics of Modern Dance

1. Technique. This teaches the dancer to control the body and making it the instrument. It also provides the skills
of dance movement to make the body move efficiently and with precision.
Famous techniques in modern dance:
a. Graham Technique
b. Humphrey-Weidman Technique
c. Limón Technique
d. Cunningham Technique
e. Hawkins Technique
f. Horton Technique
g. Nikolais/Louis Technique
2. Improvisation. This refers to the spontaneous movement performed by dancers in response to suggestions by
the choreographer. Various images, ideas, feelings, or other stimulating events may be motivations for
improvisations. Modern dance allows considerable freedom to the dancer.
3. Choreography. Modern dance allows choreographic freedom. The form in this dance mostly represents the
personal and emotional experiences of its creators. The intent and style of the dance choreography are not
limited to certain areas of subject matters, giving the choreographers freedom to choose their own. (Minton,
1984)

Where did modern dance come from?

Modern dance developed independently in America and Germany. It was then known in Germany as
Ausdruckstanz, meaning “expressive dance.” The pioneering artists were Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis, and Ted
Shawn. All of them had studied ballet but found it not suitable to their temperament and movement style (Minton, 1984).
Isadora Duncan’s style of dancing emanates from the center of the body where energy flow outward, providing
impulses for actions. Her dances “appeared natural and so free-flowing that it looked like it was being created on the
spot” (Minton, 1984).
Ruth St. Denis single-mindedly created a dance wherein she portrayed an Egyptian goddess. Her dances also
projected impressions of the ethnic dance forms. She married Ted Shawn and they both formed Denishawn, a touring
dance company that traveled throughout the United States. They established schools and trained many young performers
in dance technique who then became important personalities in modern dance. Some of these prominent students were
Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, and Martha Graham.

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Martha Graham was the first to leave Denishawn. She became a solo dancer, eventually turned into a renowned
choreographer, and formed her own Martha Graham Dance Company. She developed her technique based on her
expressional needs and her movement style is “based on the principle of contraction and release in the torso and is an
extension of the simple act of breathing” (Reynolds, 1979).
There are number of eminent names of personalities who have contributed significantly to the growth of modern
dance. Some of them are Mary Wigman, Charles Weidman, Erick Hawkins, Merce Cunningham, Agnes de Mille, Jose
Limón, and Lester Horton.

MODERN DANCE ARTISTS

Angela Isadora Duncan (May 26, 1877 or May 27, 1878 – September 14, 1927) was an
American dancer who performed to great acclaim throughout Europe. Born and raised in California,
she lived and danced in Western Europe and the Soviet Union from the age of 22 until her death at
age 50 when her scarf became entangled in the wheels and axle of the car in which she was riding
in Nice, France.
Duncan imagined she had traced dance to its roots as a sacred art. She developed from
this notion a style of free and natural movements inspired by the classical Greek arts, folk dances,
social dances, nature and natural forces as well as an approach to the new American athleticism
which included skipping, running, jumping, leaping and tossing.

Maud Allan (born as either Beulah Maude Durrant or Ulah

Maud Alma Durrant; 27 August 1873 – 7 October 1956) was a Canadian
pianist-turned-actress, dancer and choreographer who is remembered for her "impressionistic
mood settings".
In 1900, Allan is said to have illustrated an encyclopaedia for women, Illustriertes
Konversations-Lexikon der Frau. She began dancing professionally. Tall (5'7"), athletic, and
having great imagination, she had little formal dance training. She was once compared
to Isadora Duncan, which enraged her as she disliked Duncan.
In 1906, her production Vision of Salomé opened in Vienna. Based loosely on Oscar
Wilde's play, Salomé, her version of the Dance of the Seven Veils became famous (and to some
notorious) and she was billed as "The Salomé Dancer". That same year she toured England,
giving 250 performances in under a year. In 1910, she left Europe to travel. Over the next five
years she visited the United States, Australia, Africa, and Asia.
Loie Fuller (born Marie Louise Fuller; January 15, 1862
– January 1, 1928), also known as Louie Fuller and Loïe Fuller, was
an American actress and dancer who was a pioneer of both modern dance and theatrical
lighting techniques.
Born Marie Louise Fuller in the Chicago suburb of Fullersburg, now Hinsdale, Illinois, Fuller
began her theatrical career as a professional child actress and later choreographed and performed
dances in burlesque (as a skirt dancer), vaudeville, and circus shows. An early free
dance practitioner, Fuller developed her own natural movement and improvisation techniques. By
1891, Fuller combined her choreography with silk costumes illuminated by multi-coloured lighting of
her own design, and created the Serpentine Dance.
Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an
American modern dancer and choreographer. Her style,
the Graham technique, reshaped American dance and is still
taught worldwide.
Graham danced and taught for over seventy (70) years. She was the first dancer to
perform at the White House, travel abroad as a cultural ambassador,
and receive the highest civilian award of the US: the Presidential Medal
of Freedom with Distinction. In her lifetime she received honors ranging
from the Key to the City of Paris to Japan's Imperial Order of the
Precious Crown.
When she left the Denishawn establishment in 1923, Graham
did so with an urge to make dance an art form that was more grounded
in the rawness of the human experience as opposed to just a mere form
of entertainment.
In 1925, Graham was employed at the Eastman School of Music where Rouben Mamoulian was
head of the School of Drama.
In 1926, the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance was established, in a small studio on the Upper East Side. On
April 18 of the same year Graham debuted her first independent concert, consisting of 18 short solos and trios
that she had choreographed. On November 28, 1926 Martha Graham and others in her company gave a
dance recital at the Klaw Theatre in New York City. Around the same time she entered an extended
collaboration with Japanese-American pictorialist photographer Soichi Sunami, and over the next five years
they together created some of the most iconic images of early modern dance. Graham was on the faculty
of Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre when it opened in 1928.

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One of Graham's students was heiress Bethsabée de Rothschild with whom she became close friends. When Rothschild moved
to Israel and established the Batsheva Dance Company in 1965, Graham became the company's first director.
Graham's technique pioneered a principle known as "Contraction and Release" in modern dance, which was derived from a
stylized conception of breathing.
Doris Batcheller Humphrey (October 17, 1895 – December 29, 1958) was an
American dancer and choreographer of the early twentieth century. Along with her
contemporaries Martha Graham and Katherine Dunham, Humphrey was one of the second
generation modern dance pioneers who followed their forerunners – including Isadora
Duncan, Ruth St. Denis, and Ted Shawn – in exploring the use of breath and developing
techniques still taught today. As many of her works were annotated, Humphrey continues to be
taught, studied and performed.
Humphrey had some very particular theories on the fundamentals of movement. Her
theory of Fall and Recovery was the center point of all her movement. She described this as
"The arc between two deaths." Moreover, this idea was based in the change in center of
gravity, balance and recovery. Humphrey theorized that moving away from center should be
followed by an equal adjustment to return to center to prevent a fall. The more dramatic the
movement, the more dramatic the recovery should be.
Charles Weidman (July 22, 1901 – July 15, 1975) was a renowned choreographer, modern
dancer and teacher. He is well known as one of the pioneers of modern dance in America. He
wanted to break free from the traditional movements of dance forms popular at the time to create
a uniquely American style of movement. Born in 1901, he choreographed from the 1920s until
his death in 1975. While he is most famous for his work with Doris Humphrey, Weidman did
much work on his own. He created a bridge to a new range of movement that he only began
to explore. His work inspired many and helped to create a whole genre of dance that is still
evolving today.
Charles Weidman began choreographing in a time of great change in American
culture. He began his career as a dancer for the Denishawn Company, but soon decided to
break free from their exotic style of movement and create a new style that was unique to
America. He started the Humphrey-Weidman Company with Doris Humphrey in 1927, right
in the midst of the Roaring Twenties. In a time when change was coming rapidly and
innovations were popular, Weidman brought this to the dance world and changed dance
forever. While Weidman began his choreography during this immense time of change, he also
choreographed for four decades after he began.
José Arcadio Limón (January 12, 1908 – December 2, 1972)
was a dancer and choreographer who developed what is now known as
'Limón technique'. In the 1940s he founded the José Limón Dance
Company (now the Limón Dance Company), and in 1968 he created
the José Limón Foundation to carry on his work.
In his choreography, Limón spoke to the complexities of human life as experienced through
the body. His dances feature large, visceral gestures — reaching, bending, pulling, grasping — to
communicate emotion. Inspired in part by his teacher Doris Humphrey's theories about the
importance of body weight and dynamics, his own Limón technique emphasizes the rhythms of
falling and recovering balance and the importance of good breathing to maintaining flow in a dance.
He also utilized the dance vocabulary developed by both Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman,
which aimed at demonstrating emotion through dance in a way that was much less strict and stylized
than ballet as well as used movements of the body that felt most natural and went along with gravity.
Limón's most well-known work is The Moor's Pavane (1949), based on Shakespeare's Othello,
which won a major award. Other works were inspired by subjects as diverse as the McCarthy
hearings (The Traitor) and the life of La Malinche, who served as interpreter for Hernán Cortés. Limón
generally sets his dances to music, choosing composers ranging from Ludwig van Beethoven and Frederic
Chopin to Arnold Schoenberg and Heitor Villa-Lobos.
Mercier Philip "Merce" Cunningham (April 16, 1919 – July 26, 2009) was an American
dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of American modern dance for more than 50 years.
He was notable for frequent collaboration with artists of other disciplines, including musicians John
Cage, David Tudor, Brian Eno, and graphic artists Robert Rauschenberg, Bruce Nauman, Andy
Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella, and Jasper Johns; and fashion designer Rei Kawakubo. Works that
he produced with these artists had a profound impact on avant -garde art beyond the world of dance.
As a choreographer, teacher, and leader of the Merce Cunningham Dance
Company, [2] Cunningham had a profound influence on modern dance. Many dancers who trained with
Cunningham formed their own companies.
In 2009, the Cunningham Dance Foundation announced the Legacy Plan, a
precedent-setting plan for the continuation of Cunningham's work and the
celebration and preservation of his artistic legacy.
Frederick "Erick" Hawkins (April 23, 1909 – November 23, 1994),
was an American modern-dance choreographer and dancer.
Soon he was dancing with George Balanchine's American Ballet. In 1937, he choreographed his first
dance, Show Piece, which was performed by Ballet Caravan. The next year, Hawkins was the first man to
dance with the company of the famous modern dancer and choreographer Martha Graham. In 1939, he
officially joined her troupe, dancing male lead in a number of her works, including Appalachian Spring in

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1944. They married in 1948. He left her troupe in 1951 to found his own, and they divorced in 1954.
Not long afterwards, he met and began working alongside the experimental composer Lucia Dlugoszewski. They married and
remained together for the rest of his life.
Lester Horton (23 January 1906 – 2 November 1953) was an American dancer, choreographer,
and teacher.
In 1931, Horton created his first solo concert choreography, Kootenai War Dance. That same year
he was invited to perform this dance along with a new choreography Voodoo Ceremonial at the Los
Angeles Olympics. His success garnered an invitation to perform at the Paramount Theatre on the same
bill as Judy Garland and the Garland sisters for a two-week run. In 1932, Lester Horton formed his own
dance company called the Lester Horton Dancers. That company evolved into what was briefly known as
the Lester Horton California Ballets (1934) and then the Horton Dance Group (1934). The Horton Dance
Group, billed in its film appearances as the Lester Horton Dancers, lasted until early 1944. Later, Horton
attempted to develop a company on the East Coast for dancer Sonia Shaw, bu t Shaw's husband stopped
underwriting the venture and the company collapsed before it could give any public performances. [5] After
a brief hiatus, Horton formed the Dance Theater of Los Angeles with his longtime leading dancer, Bella
Lewitzky; their partnership ended when Lewitzky left in 1950. Horton's final company continued until 1960
under the direction of Frank Eng.
Alwin Nikolais (November 25, 1910 – May 8, 1993) was an American choreographer.
Nikolais was born in Southington, Connecticut. He studied piano at an early age and began
his performing career as an organist accompanying silent films. As a young artist, he gained skills in
scenic design, acting, puppetry and music composition. It was after attending a performance by the
German dancer Mary Wigman that he was inspired to study dance. He received his early dance
training at Bennington College from the great figures of the modern dance world.
Murray Louis (November 4, 1926 – February 1, 2016)
was an American modern dancer and choreographer.
Louis was known as one of the most influential American
modern dancers and choreographers. Born in Brooklyn, New York,
he grew up in Manhattan near Henry Street where he would later attend class at the Henry Street
Playhouse and also start his company. He was one out of five children an d his mother died when he
was eight years old. He was then sent to an orphanage until he was twelve. At this time his sister Ethel,
who was studying dance at the time, took him to many modern dance concerts. He graduated
from Samuel J. Tilden High School in 1944.
Louis was chosen as Associate Director to Nikolais and together they created the Nikolais/Louis dance
technique, which would go on to become a major influence on modern dance and is still taught by his
students. Louis founded his own company in 1968 known as the Murray Louis Dance Company. His
company was then chosen to represent the U.S. State Department on a two-month tour of India in
1968. In 1972 he piloted the “Artist in School” program. He also created two works for Rudolph Nureyev which premiered on Broadway
in 1978. In 1984 the Murray Louis Dance Company collaborated with the Dave Brubeck Quartet and had four very successful seaso ns,
which were broadcast in the United States, Europe and Japan. Some of his choreographed works produced for television station
outside of the United States include; Pulcinello for the Batsheva Dance Company on Israeli television and The Tales of Cri-Cri for
Mexico City television. In July 1987 PBS televised Nik and Murray, an award-winning documentary film by Christian Blackwood, in
their American Masters series. The Princeton Book Publishing Company released a video called Murray Louis in Concert , a collection of
solos in 1989.
Mary Wigman (born Karoline Sophie Marie Wiegmann; 13 November 1886 – 18
September 1973 in Berlin) was a German dancer and choreographer, notable as the pioneer
of expressionist dance, dance therapy, and movement training without pointe shoes. She is
considered one of the most important figures in the history of modern dance. She became one of
the most iconic figures of Weimar German culture and her work was hailed for bringing the deepest
of existential experiences to the stage.
Karoline Sophie Marie Wiegmann was born in Hanover, Germany. She came to dance
comparatively late after seeing three students of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, who aimed to approach
music through movement using three equally-important elements: solfège, improvisation and his
own system of movements, eurhythmics. Wigman enrolled in the Jaques-Dalcroze's school in
Dresden in 1911. Another key early experience was a solo concert by Grete Wiesenthal.
From the Laban school, she retreated to the mountains of Switzerland to develop her
expressionist style. She named her new dance style "New German Dance," using the word new to
express the break from traditional classical ballet. She wanted her dance to be an expression of
human's desires, passions, and inspirations.
She wanted to create a technique that did not need codification, but rather, it arose out of
visual interpretations of the desires of human being. In her mind, any movement could be considered dance if it is
expressing a true feeling. Her technique and choreography often consisted of "sliding, bouncing, vibrating,
falling/dropping, and tensions."
Agnes George de Mille (September 18, 1905 – October 7, 1993) was an
American dancer and choreographer.
De Mille arrived in New York in 1938 and later began her association with the fledgling American Ballet
Theatre (then called the Ballet Theatre) in 1939. One of Agnes de Mille’s most overlooked but important
pieces was Black Ritual or Obeah, which she began choreographing for the newly formed Ballet Theatre’s
first season.

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De Mille’s first actually recognized significant work was Rodeo (1942), whose score was by Aaron Copland, and which she staged for
the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Although de Mille continued to choreograph nearly up to the time of her death —her final ballet, The
Other, was completed in 1992—most of her later works have dropped out of the ballet repertoire. Besides Rodeo, two other de Mille
ballets are performed on a regular basis, Three Virgins and a Devil (1934) adapted from a tale by Giovanni Boccaccio, and Fall River
Legend (1948) based on the life of Lizzie Borden.

Contemporary Dance
 is a dance performance genre that developed during the mid-twentieth century
 closely related to modern dance, ballet and other classical concert dance styles
 contemporary dance tends to combine the strong and controlled legwork of ballet with modern dance’s stress on
the torso, and also employs contract-release, floor work, fall and recovery, and improvisation characteristic of
modern dance
Cunningham’s Key Idea
- contemporary dance does refuse the classical ballet’s leg technique in favor of modern dance’s stress on the
torso
- contemporary dance is not necessarily narrative form of art
- choreography that appears disordered, but nevertheless relies on technique
- unpredictable changes in rhythm, speed, and direction
- multiple and simultaneous actions
- suspension of perspective and symmetry in ballet scenic frame perspective such as front, center, and
hierarchies
- creative freedom
- independence between dance and music
- dance to be dance, not analyzed
- innovative lighting, sets, and costumes

Reasons why contemporary dance is good for your mind, body and soul
1. Activates your creative whim of self-expression
- through contemporary dance, you get time to open up, think and react
- you get to blend your mood with the time and express yourself thoughtfully
2. Physical and Mental Fitness
- dancing and free movements in contemporary helps your body become flexible
- our body picks up the movements and mold itself to the flexibility required to get a perfect move
3. Learn the techniques of using gravity and transitions on the floor
- in contemporary form of dancing, you are taught how to use gravity and transitions
- you learn the technique and floor work
- the contemporary dancers use their body enhanced movement
4. It develops versatility and improvisation
- as contemporary dance form can be infused with almost any kind of dance and can be performed with any
music, it’s the most versatile form of modern dance

Basic Modern Dance Skills

It is the application and the incorporation of the meaning of the movement that turns the simple movements to
dance movements.
1. Dance walk – an even rhythm pattern in which an alternate transfer of weight occurs from one foot to the
other. Walks help maintain body weight ready for immediate action.
Different directions of dance walks:
a. Forward
b. Backward
c. Sideward (grapevine action)
2. Run – an even rhythm pattern in which there is an alternate transference of weight from one foot to the other. It
is faster than a walk and requires more energy.
3. Triple (plié, relevé, relevé) – basic modern dance experience performed in an even ¾ meter with each step
requiring a complete change of weight. Its pattern consists of one step with a slight flexion of ankle, knee and hip
(plié), followed by two steps on half-toe (relevé).
4. Waltz – even rhythm with counts 1 2 3/ 1 2 3/. Begin as in the walk, turned out fifth position.
5. Gallop – this is two steps performed in uneven rhythm 1 & 2/ 1 & 2/, long-short, long-short. One foot always
maintains the lead.
6. Chasse/Slide – uneven rhythm with counts 1 &/ 2 &/ with one foot maintaining the lead. It is smoother in
quality than the gallop, the slide retains other of its features.
7. Jumps
a. Basic (Sauté)
b. Échappé
c. Sissone
8. Leap – in the gap between take-off and landing, the body is suspended in the air with both feet off the floor for
a short flight of freedom.
a. Jeté
b. Prance
9. Falling – falling action can be aesthetically breathtaking when performed quickly and with control. It can be
done in any direction.

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a. Simple side fall

b. Simple forward fall
c. Overcurves (Glissade)
d. Tombé
e. Front falls
f. Back falls
g. Spiral falls
10. Rolls
a. Log rolls
b. Forward roll
c. Backward roll
11. Turns – this involves establishing an axis within the body, through the body’s point of contact with the floor. It is
vital to learn how to spot – in order to execute the turns efficiently and smoothly.
Spotting. Is an attempt to trick the eye and inner ear balance receptors into thinking one has not turned at all.
This is done by selecting a spot at eye level upon which to focus.
a. Three step turn – begin with weight on left foot, right leg extended to side.
b. Cross over turn (Soutenu/turn) – weight on Left, Right arm extended to second position.
c. Chainé – keeping the feet close together on ½ toe, step on Right doing ½ turn.
d. Grapevine – exaggerate the twists so that both hips and shoulders turn from side-to-side on each step.
e. Coupé Turn – related to the chainé with the same footwork only on each step with the working leg is placed
slightly above the front of the supporting ankle.
f. Pas de Bourrée Turn – begin with weight on right foot, left foot behind.
g. Pique turn – start with weight on Right, left foot extended forward.
h. Pirouette – the preparation always begins with the supporting leg turned out in demi-plié.

Checked and Corrected by:

Mrs. EROS B. ESTRADA

Principal

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