A Brief History of Modern Dance

This brief account of the history of modern dance is not written with dancers or historians of dance in mind. It is written, as is everything else on this website, for the parents of children who have Special Needs and the general public. I would like to tell parents not just about Dance Movement Therapy but about the wonderful world of dance in general. Modern dance is a label which covers a variety of styles and intentions. Its essential character lies in its turning its back on tradition and thinking anew about the role of different forms of art. This new attitude came about,in part, as a response to industrialization, the progress of science and the decreasing importance of organized religion.

The first generation of modern dance masters are no longer with us, and those of the second generation are declining in number year by year. Nevertheless, their influence lives on through a belief that dance is an expression of the individual body and soul, that it mirrors social and political ideals, and that it employs the technical vocabulary of the pioneers who went before them.

Modern dance developed in the twentieth century mainly in Germany and the United States. Modern dance in common with modern art and music is experimental and iconoclastic. The founders rebelled against regimentation, artificiality and the superficiality of classical ballet and against the banality of show dancing.

In the early 1900s a few dancers in Europe started to rebel against the rigid boundaries of classical ballet. Abandoning classical techniques, costume and shoes these early modern dance pioneers practiced free dance.

The first modern choreographer/dancer I would like to mention is the American ISADORA DUNCAN. Isadora Duncan developed a dance technique influenced by the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzche and a belief that ancient Greek dance was the future. Duncan developed a philosophy based on natural and spiritual concepts and she urged acceptance of pure dance as a high art.

She created what she referred to as "free dance" which she performed wearing a simple tunic like the Greek vase figures that inspired many of her works. She maintained that the flowing natural movement of her dances originated in the solar plexus. She wanted to give form and shape to the emotions aroused in her by the music. Unusually she used the work of such composers as Beethoven, Wagner and Gluck.

Isadora Duncan set up a number of dancing schools and she had many followers but her improvisational technique was too personal to establish any direct successors.She died in 1927 while driving in Southern France when her long scarf became entangled in one of the wheels of her car.

Another pioneer of this period was LOIE FULLER whose approach was very different to Isadora Duncans. She explored the new technology of stage lighting, which could produce extraordinary effects when playing over the translucent silk costumes she performed in. Loie Fuller used to perform to imitate and illustrate natural phenomena such as a flame, a flower, or a butterfly. She created illusionistic effects that remained unique until the works of Alwin Nikolais in the 1960s.

Both Fuller and Duncan were artists whose work was best known in Europe. Both discarded the corsets and point shoes worn for classical performances. To-day people perform naked on the stage so it is very difficult for us to understand the sensation caused by Duncan appearing barefoot.

Although often considered an American phenomenon, the evolution of modrn dance can also be traced to Central Europe and Germany where the most influential person was probably Rudolf von Laban He is generally acknowledged as the founder of modern dance theory. His great contribution lay in developing a systematic analysis of human movement in time and space that lead to a coherent system of dance notation known as kinetography or Labanotation. He championed Dance Movement Therapy and formulated theories on educational dance and studies of time and motion in relation to industrial production.

Although there is almost no documentation to describe his choreography, he founded (1910) a school in Munich. Exiled in the 1930s, he emigrated to England where he established (1946) the Art of Movement Studio in Manchester. Laban worked until his death on his system of notation.

One of Laban's most celebrated students and associates was MARY WIGMAN. She enjoyed fame as a choreographer and performer in the period between the two World Wars. She began studying dance under Rudolf Laban in 1913. Mary Wigman wanted to establish the independence of dance as an art form and began by divorcing dance from its dependence on music. Her work had great expressive force. After studying with Laban Wigman performed in Germany and opened her own school in Dresden (1920). She became the most influencial German exponent of expressive movement and toured extensively. Her school was closed by the Nazis but she reopened it in Berlin in 1948.

HANYA HOLM was a student of Mary Wigman and a teacher at the Wigman School in Dresden. In 1931 Holm founded the New York School of Dance. She introduced the Wigman technique to American modern dance, as well as Laban's theories. She was herself an accomplished choreographer. Her dance work "Metropolitan Daily" was the first modern dance composition to be copyrighted in the United States. Holm choreographed extensively in the fields of concert dance and musical theatre.

KURT JOOSS was also part of this Central European dance movement and formed together with SIGRID LEEDER, the Ballets Jooss. "The Green Table" (1932) was an Expressionist vision of the horrors of war which contained a famous scene of masked diplomats negotiating round the Green Table. He abandoned straight storytelling in favour of a variety of themes loosely interconnected. Like Laban he had to flee Hiltlers Germany.

Modern dance received a warmer welcome in the United States where traditional ballet had not really taken root at the turn of the 20th century.The school and dance company started by RUTH ST DENIS and TED SHAWN known as Denishawn was to be very influential. Ruth St Denis had been influenced by the actress Sarah Bernhardt and Japanese dancer Sado Yacco. Her source of inspiration was the ritual dances of eastern religions. She relied on elaborate costumes and sinuous improvised movements to suggest the dances of India and Egypt and to evoke mystical feelings

Ted Shaw became her partner and husband in 1914 and he advocated and embodied the vigour of the virile male on the stage. Shawn was responsible for teaching technique and composition. In 1933 he founded his all male group "Ted Shawn and His men Dancers".

St Denis later enlarged her repertoire to include dances of Native Americans and other ethnic groups.

The Denishawn company increased the popularity of modern dance throughout the United States and abroad and nurtured the leaders of the second generation of modern dancers amongst whom we must count Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman who were pupils at the school and members of the company.

MARTHA GRAHAM left Denishawn in 1923 to work as a solo artist. Both Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey were against the pantomime and spectacular effects of the Denishawn style as well as against the stranglehold of ballet. Graham's original technique was rooted in a form of Expressionism. She linked movement to emotional expression and developed a vocabulary to communicate emotions, exploring deep within her own psyche. The contraction and release of the breath and the muscular energy this created was central to her technique as was her expressive use of the weight of the body. She was a performer of great personal charisma and created a large repertoire that has been performed all over the world. Her own performing career stretched incredibly from 1916 to 1969 and she continued to choreograph into the 1970s.

She was deeply influenced by the psychoanalytical traditions of the twentieth century. Her inspiration came from archetypes of American myths, such as the pioneer women in "Frontier" (1935) and "Appalachian Spring" (1944) as well as those of Greek mythology - Medea in "Cave of the Heart" (1946) and "Clytemnestra" (1958).

DORIS HUMPHREY's work though nurtured in the same Denishawn mode, was very different. In 1928 she and WEIDMAN left Denishawn to found their own school and company. Humphrey's passions were under the control of her strong intellect. She wanted to disentangle the art form of dance from the vaudeville trappings of Dennishawn and the aristocratic language of ballet. She intended to create an independent, democratic form of expression that would deal with subjects worthy of consideration in a modern society. One of her earliest works "Water Study" was performed without music. She believed that dance should be the equal of all art forms and assert its independence and relevance to the present day. Themes of social organization were important to Humphrey as seen in works such as "The Life of the Bee" (1928). The things that concerned her found their expression in her organization of groups in space. She often placed groups at different levels on the stage. Her whole technique was based on the principle of fall and recovery.

Humphrey's performing career was cut short by a fall and arthritis. Her work was carried forward by Jose Limon. Her book "The Art of Making Dances" (1959) is a landmark publication in the story of modern dance. She explains with admirable clarity the theoretical principles of the choreographers art.

The development of modern dance took on board the contributions of African American dance artists regardless of whether they made pure modern dance works or blended modern dance with African Caribbean influences.

KATHERINE DUNHAM was an African American dancer and anthropologist who was originally a ballet dancer. She opened a school in New York in 1945 where she taught Katherine Dunham Technique a blend of African and Caribbean movement integrated with techniques of ballet and modern dance.

PEARL PRIMUS is another pioneer in this direction. She was also a dancer, choreographer and anthropologist. She drew on African and Caribbean sources to create dramatic works whose hallmark was large leaps in the air. Primus often based her dances on the work of Black Writers and on racial and African-American issues. Langston Hughes's "The Negro Speaks" was her inspiration for "Rivers" in 1944. Her company developed into the Pearl Primus Dance Language Institute which teaches her own blending of African American, Caribbean and African influences with modern dance and ballet techniques.

I well remember the Katherine Dunham companies first visit to London and the tremendous impact they made. The energy, colour, rhythms and vibrancy were a real tonic in drab post-war London.

I feel I must mention ALVIN AILEY who was a student of Martha Graham. In 1950 Ailey and a group of other young African-Americans performed as Ailey Dance Theatre in New York. His inspiration was memories of Texas, the blues, spirituals and gospel. This company was to go from strength to strength.I shall stop at this point because I only intended to mention something about the ideals, and inspirations of the founders of what we know today as modern dance.There have since been numerous brilliant and innovative dancers and choreographers.

Contemporary choreographers have assimilated ballet, martial arts, social dances, gymnastics, folk dances and other styles of modern dance movement. New forms are evolving world wide in the general globalization of culture.

DANCE TO HEALTH