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| came out of the Denishawn School. Known as one of the "pioneers" of modern dance. Her and Charles Weidman developed "fall and recovery" technique. Dancers studying this technique learned to be proficient in balancing and ceding to the pull of gravity. Started the Humphrey-Weidman Dance Company. She was interested in group dynamics and choreographed many dances that highlighted the group instead of soloists. Worked with "music visualization." Also choreographed dances that were danced in silence. She became artistic director of the Jose Limon Dance Company after her company was disbanded. |
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| A West Coast choreographer who developed his company in 1932 and was focused on presenting works depicting American Indian culture. He developed the Horton technique, which requires a strong torso and symmetrical and asymmetrical movements of the arms and legs. |
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| he was a student of Doris Humphrey who further developed a technique that develops balance, speed and control. He was a Mexican-American whose heritage influenced his work. After World War II, he formed the Jose Limon Dance Company and using the priciples of weight, and fall and recovery, developed a technique that was closely linked to the technique of Humphrey. |
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| In 1931, Dunham had her first concert in Chicago entitled Negro Rhapsody. This concert was to be the beginnings of black concert dance. She is known for combining native Caribbean and modern dance and is also known as a researcher and a scholar. She appeared in several musical theatre productions as well as movie musicals, and her work also had an influence on jazz dance. |
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| He was originally a ballet dancer and became the first male dancer to join Martha Graham's dance company. He later became her husband. After their breakup, he left her company and began to establish himself as an independent choreographer. He created a new technique that put emphasis on ease and free flow of movements. Today, the Hawkins School in New York and the Erick Hawkins Dance Company are still a viable part of the dance community. |
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| A student of Graham, Humphrey, Weidman, and Holm, she is also credited with bringing black concert dance to the forefront. In her choreography, her focus was mainly on African dance with African subject matter. In contrast to Dunham, whose movements were flowing and smooth, her movements were athletic and dynamic. |
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| Choreographer during the post-modern dance period who would not negate technique, theme or storyline and was not considered to be "post-modern." He was concerned with making dances that were accessible to the general public. He wanted his audiences to feel totally fulfilled and entertained while they were watching his dances. He was concerned primarily with creating works that had a definite form, unlike the improvised dances of the Judson Dance Theatre and Grand Union. (He was African-American and his dances celebrated the heritage and spirituality of African-Americans). He developed the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in New York. |
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| "Nik." Best remembered for his choreography that explores the use of lighting, costumes and props in a purely theatrical way. Was not concerned with showing emotion on stage, but rather motion, and is known as one of the forerunners of the post-modern movement. He established the Nikolais-Louis Dance Lab in New York as well as the Nikolais-Louis Dance Company established in later years. |
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| Came to dance because of tap lessons he received at a young age. He was a dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company for five years before establishing the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. He developed Cunningham technique, in which the spine acts as a spring and can coil, twist and turn. His technique also employs intricate direction changes and many shifts of weight throughout a given phrase of movement. He created dances that were devoid of meaning and were "movement for movement's sake." He is credited with being "the father of post-modern dance." |
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| choreographer who is credited with influencing the post-modern movement. He danced with both Graham and Cunningham, but went on to develop his own personal aesthetic. His earlier works utilized untraditional music, often referred to as sound scores, as well as pedestrian movements. In 1957 he stood motionless for an entire "dance." A critic responded by leaving a blank space in the review column. However, he went on to develop a very athletic and dynamic dance vocabulary. |
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| She worked with both Cunningham and Taylor and later developed her own company and created a movement style that was a blend of several dance forms, including ballet, modern, tap, and jazz. Although seemingly "loose," her choreography is technically difficult, with its use of a relaxed torso but dynamically charged arm and leg movements. She has also choreographed on several ballet companies and for a short while was a resident choreographer for American Ballet Theatre in New York. In 2002 she created the Broadway musical Movin' Out, with music by Billy Joel. |
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| A student of Martha Graham, Anna Sokolow and Jose Limon, he danced with a number of modern dance companies before creating his own. His choreography, which combines highly charged movement phrases with intricate floor patterns, has made his company one of the best-loved in America. |
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| One of the major figures in the dance-theatre (or tanztheatre) genre in Germany. Her company, the Wuppertaler Tanztheatre, combines dance and theatre to create disturbing pictures of real-life situations. These situations are almost always based on the male/female relationship shown in a bleak and disturbing way (lots of emotional and physical violence). Some American critics do not think that what she creates is dance at all and have called her work "indulgent" and "superficial." Other American critics feel that her work is riveting and important and that she presents issues to audiences that must be addressed. |
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Jamaican-born, was a student of Martha Graham, Pearl Primus and Alvin Ailey, among others. His company, Garth Fagan Dance, uniquely blends modern, jazz, and world dance. Based in Rochester, New York, his company is internationally known. He also created the choreography for the Broadway production of The Lion King
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| One of Alvin Ailey's principal dancers for many years. He created several roles and dances specifically for her, including the beautiful solo Cry. After Ailey's death she assumed the position of artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. |
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| one of today's most popular modern dance choreographers. He created the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. His choreography follows a strong narrative and dramatic line. Though it is often controversial, there is never an absense of passion and feeling in his work. Some of his dances involved nudity. One of his dances, Still/Here, created a major controversy. Because of his use of people with terminal illnesses in the dance, critic Arlene Croce refused to review the dance, which she said was "victim art." Because of this disagreement, the dance world, as well as the popular media, began a long and heated debate on "victim art" and his Still/Here. |
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| One of today's leading choreographer, he is well-known for his sophisticated use of music in his dances. Now residing in the United States, his company also had a three-year residency in Brussels, where he was the artistic director of the Theatre Royal de la Monnai. In 2001 the Mark Morris Dance Center was opened in Brooklyn, NY. |
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| developed a technique that was based on the idea of "contracting" and "releasing" through the center of the body. She was a Denishawn student who gave her first independent concert in 1926. She established the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance (still in existence today) and a company comprised of all women. She later expanded her company to include male dancers. |
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| many credit her with being the first dancer to present modern dancing to the public. "the mother of modern dance." After years of ballet training she began to feel that the pointe shoes and the cotumes that ballerinas wore were too confining, as was the ballet vocabulary. She was inspired by the movements of the trees, the ocean, and nature. Developed technique that used movements like hopping, running, swaying, and skipping. Inspired by Greeks, danced barefoot and in sheer tunics. Famous in Russia and parts of Europe from 1904-1927. Many believed her dance inspired many contemporary choreographers like Fokine. Loved Chopin's music particularly. |
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| began in the late 1800s and early 1900s, evolving as a direct revolt against the "restrictions" of ballet. "The modern dance is a point of view, an attitude toward the function of art in the contemporary world. As the world changes, the modern dance will change, for the symbols will again - as they become acceptable - lose their power to evoke the hidden realities. They will again have to be recharged, revitalized; even demolished and recreated anew in order to serve their function. Unless this happens, the modern dance is not modern - it is dead!" - Selma Jeanne Cohen |
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| center of the body, area from which all movement was generated in Duncan's modern dance |
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| After Duncan's two children were killed in a car accident she created this dance which depicted a sorrowful and broken figure. |
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| Duncan opened a school of dance. The critics used this name for six of her students whom she adopted and took her last name. Three of those - Irma, Ana and Maria Theresa - were responsible for teaching the Duncan technique after she died. |
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| Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn created this school which brought a view of the dance of other countries to the American audience. They were greatly influenced by different cultures, particularly of Asian countries. The main educational purpose of the school was to educate the "total dancer - body, mind, and spirit. Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman all came out of this school. |
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| the "pioneers" of modern dance |
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| Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman |
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| modern dance companies that are still in existance and teaching the techniques correctly (not "watered-down") |
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| Martha Graham Dance Company, Erick Hawkins Dance Company, and the Jose Limon Dance Company |
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| classical ballets vs modern dance |
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| Modern dance choreographers are more concerned with the human condition and real-life situations and emotions. Like how Martha Graham created dances that dealt with psychological issues. |
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| Martha Graham choreographed this dance which celebrates traditional domestic values by depicting the life of a young married couple. |
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| Martha Graham created this dance where she portrayed the jealous and bitter Medea. |
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| Humphrey used this technique. It was a way to "see" the music through the dance, sometimes having the dancers follow specific instruments or rhythmic patters. |
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| A perfect example of one of Humphrey's dances that is not bound to music, but is truly musical, simply because of the unique way in which the dance is choreographed. All sixteen dancers who originally performed the dance had to be very much in tune with each other in order to perform the movements in correct sequence and at the right time. |
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| Weidman used this technique in which music and movement performed in silence would alternate. |
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| In the 1950s dancers and choreographers began to feel restricted by the teachings of their predecessors. Until this time, most dance techniques were rigorous, requiring dancers to study and train for many years in order to become proficient in their art. These new choreographers were not concerned with the dramatic and the realistic, but believed that other factors were more important to reflect movement, rather than the storyline, as the primary focus of the dance. Because of the philosphy, the works of these choreographers, for the most part, came to be known as "abstract." |
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| These new choreographers and dancers of post-modern dance who did this "abstract" work were commonly referred to as being part of this. The leaders in a new and unconventional movement - specifically, the post-modern movement. |
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| One of Cunningham's methods. Might be used to determine specific movement order, phrase order, dancer's directions and floor patterns on stage, or in what order the sections of a dance will be. |
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| Cunningham created this dance in which a toss of a coin determined different aspects of spatial designs, timing, and order of movement sequences. |
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| Cunningham's method in which the elements of dance can change from performance to performance |
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| Cunningham's dance in which the dancers were permitted to take the movements that they were previously given and perform them in different ways, such as repeating a section, reversing a section, etc. Therefore, sing this method, a dance that is performed a certain way one night might not be performed the same way the next. |
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| Alwin Nikolais' dance in which the dancers appear (in one section) totally encased in bags made of material. The dancers inside manipulate the bags. The visual effect was unlike anything many dance audiences had ever seen. |
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| Paul Taylor's dance which had a strong narrative. It depicts a seemingly innocent family whose world is turned upside-down during an outing to an amusement park. |
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| post-modern dance in the 1960s and 1970s |
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| Choreographers in this time period wanted to reduce dance to its simplest form and to examine what they thought dance really was. They eliminated the idea of theme and storying, but they also eliminated the idea of formal technique. They examined the basic movements of dance such as walking, running, skipping, and hopping. They began to create dances based on these premises. In order to remain true to these ideas, some of these choreographers refused to work with trained dancers, so many used untrained dancers in their works. They performed in places other than theatres, such as gymnasiums, city streets, and even rooftops. They used improvisation, theatre games and other experimental tools in their performances. |
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| During the 1960s and 1970s, many of these choreographers and dancers performed at the Judson Church in New York (an actual church with a performance space in it). The dancers were determined to reject the conventional teachings of their predecessors. Many of the Judson Dance Theatre members had participated in the Happenings and therefore had experiences in spontaneous and collaborative work and taking risks in dance making. For a long time, the Judson Dance Theatre was ignored by the press and the dance critics, but had a strong and consistent following. Eventually it was accepted that "the experiments and adentures of the Judson Dance Theatre laid the groundwork for a post-modern aesthetic in dance that expanded and often challenged the range of purpose, materials, motivations, structures and styles in dance." |
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| Events that were popular with avant garde artists, musicians, writers, and dancers and usually involved participation from audiences members. |
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| After the Judson Dance Theatre disbanded several of its initial members regrouped and formed this. It was a collaborative effort - there was no specific director and all members had equality. Everyone contributed to the artistic processes of the group. Improvisations containing both dance and theatre were the focus of the company, with some of the material being political, some comical, some abstract and some literal. It stretched the material and formal limits of their art by incorporating objects and gestures from everyday life, using imagery (including sounds) from popular culture and making long, rambling works in a flexible format with a consistently changing stream of images and meanings. |
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| Yvonne Rainer created this, which became the creed of the post-modern movement. No to spectacle no to virtuosity no to transformations and magic and make believe no to glamour and transcendency of the star image no to the heroic no to the anti-heroic no to trash imagery no to involvement of performer or spectator no to style no to camp no to seduction of spectator by the wiles of the performer no to eccentricity no to moving or being moved. |
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| This genre blends dance and theatre, so that both forms are an integral part of the performance. These performances may include spoken words, text, singing and choreography, which is propelled by theme, dramatics and "theatrics." In the United States, the term covers a broad spectrum of creations, but mostly applies to dance companies or choreographers who infuse into their performances dramatic action that is similar to what we see in the theatre. Sometimes, these creations can also come under the heading of "modern dance," because the choreography used is ttypically from the modern dance genre. It was developed in Europe, specifically in West Germany and came directly out of the modern dance genre. |
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| Dance theatre: America vs Europe |
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| It is important to note that in the United States, the movement, or the dancing, usually takes priority in dance-theatre work; in Europe, dance-theatre is much more theatre than dance. Some European dance critics view the American version of dance-theatre as "outdated," while some American critics view the Europeans as negators of dance vocabulary. |
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| The Japanese dance form which falls under the category of dance-theatre. It is referred to as "dark soul dance" or "dance of utter darkness" and is characterized by its use of slow, sustained movements. Sometimes, the performers move at such a slow pace that it is difficult to see them move from one shape to another. |
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| famous company that performs Butoh whose members have shaved heads and cover their bodies with white makeup for each performance. It presents painful images of devastation that they perceive to be in the world around them. |
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| It is virtually impossible to categorize or label today's choreographers, because the category of modern dance has become so broad. In today's world of modern dance, there are no rules and regulations, just an underlying freedom to create in whatever way one wishes. To say that in modern dance "anything goes" would be an understatement, since today's choreographers have gone well beyond any traditional definition of what modern dance is. |
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| In recent years this dance (vertical dance) has become very popular. There are many different companies for this around the world but every company has a different aesthetic. Some do all of their work outside - on mountain cliffs, in canyons and on rock formations - while others utilize indoor spaces and theatres. All of these use harnessing and mountain climbing equipment and other special apparatus to perform their dances. |
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| aerial dance company in San Francisco that performed Romeo and Juliet on the 23rd story of a skyscraper. The dancers were 350 feet in the air while the Houston Symphony played below. It is estimated that there were 40,000 people who viewed that performance. |
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| the combining of different dance genres, as well as aspects from theatre, music and visual art. In these dances it is not uncommon to see modern, ballet, jazz, hip hop, African all blended together into one dance. |
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| Jones created this as a tribute to a friend who had died. Swimming motifs are combined with subtle gestures in a piece that is at once witty and poignant. In this dance, the dancers explode onto the stage with power, strength, and commitment, which are signature qualities of his company. |
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| Similarities between traditional modern dance and post-modern dance |
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- both presented dances that displayed innovative movement
- both utilized themes that were social, political and global
- both utilied the elements of space, time and energy in a way that was different from ballet
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| differences between traditional modern dance and post-modern dance |
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- some post-modern dances were plotless and devoid of narrative; many traditional modern dances had strong narrative lines
- traditional modern dances employed trained dancers; some post-modern choreographers used untrained dancers
- traditional modern dances often utilized costumes; post-modern dances were often presented in everyday street clothes
- traditional modern dance was often presented in theatres. Post-modern dance was presented in a number of different places
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