Modern Dance – Flashcards
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Modern Movement
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-movement reflecting new ideas and values of the 20th century influencing literature, art, and dance
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Modern Dance
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-challenges traditional dance ideas and represents a seeking for the new rather than replaying of established work
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Modern Dance Technique
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-movement language was no longer based on ballet technique. Techniques developed were based on impulses, nature, feelings, sexuality, design, etc.
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Modern Dance Function
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vehicle for humanitarian/political statements, expressing individual feelings and abstract design
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Innovator
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-people at the time who developed their own unique and radical movement styles
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Avant-garde
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-new and unusual or experimental ideas, especially in the arts, or the people introducing them
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Chance Dance
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-a semi-improvisational form of choreography in which set movements were rearranged for each performance in terms of the sequence, location, and dancers involved
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Happenings
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-involvement of the viewer, requiring them to actively participate. Inspired by futurists (italian avant-garde movement) and thought learning should be continual
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American Modern Dance Pioneers
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Isadora Duncan, Maud Allen, Loie Fuller, difference in styles based on social and cultural values
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European Modern Dance Pioneers
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Rudolph Laban, Kurt Jooss, Mary Wigman, difference in styles based on social and cultural values
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1890-1920 Movement Characteristics
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-middle torso articulation -use of bare feet -free swinging motion of the entire body -use of breath initiating movement
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1890-1920 Movement Characteristics
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-treatment of the space as three dimensional-use of the back -importance dedicated to expressing feelings and ideas -key idea- revealing/unmasking in the individual
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1915-1920's Important People
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Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn
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Ruth St. Denis
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-very theatrical -made use of color, lighting, scenery, exotic costuming
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Ruth St. Denis
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-skills were not highly developed and technique was to use many poses and manipulation of decorative costumes and props; performances were very pictorial and performed with an "air"
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Ruth St. Denis
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-works were ethnic based, but not truly authentic however more accurate than those that were included in ballets
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Ruth St. Denis
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-gift for improvisation -very aware of her audience
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Ted Shawn
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-more analytical, less mystic -respect for technical training and presented a barefoot adaptation of classical ballet instruction -presented beginning Modern Dance of Wigman Technique
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Ted Shawn
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-began the practice of commissioning music for original dance works -focused on the need to develop male dancers and their worthy recognition
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Ted Shawn
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-made widespread use of themes related to Americans, early pioneers, American Indians, African American, and Mexican peoples -both he and St. Denis did intensive research in preparation for their dances -founded Jacob's Pillow
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Denishawn School and Company
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very influential on the youth of America and spread the new art form across the land
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Late 1920's Modern Dance Founders
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Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, Lester Horton
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Martha Graham
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-Technique based on system of contraction and release of the center of the body -Emphasized the torso as the emotional center, movement initiating from the pelvis and lower back -Dance works were psychological dramas based on themes from Greek mythology as well as American pioneers, and Native American Indian
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Martha Graham
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-Costuming and set design were modernistic, symbolic and functional in the work -Louis Horst- her music director, mentor, and friend developed a method of teaching dance composition, which became very influential in the study of choreography
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Doris Humphrey/Charles Weidman
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-Subject matters dealt with real life situations and people, man and woman as they coexist in modern times -technique based on a system of "fall and recovery" with a major emphasis on balance and suspension
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Doris Humphrey
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had a major impact as a teacher of choreography
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Charles Weidman
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created dances about life and family using satire and humor
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Lester Horton
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-established the first racially integrated dance company in the U.S. -established the first permanent theatre dedicated to Modern Dance in LA
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Lester Horton
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-developed specific technique and style -choreographic subject matters were humanitarian based -noted student- Alvin Ailey
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Dance became an accepted subject of academic study in Higher Education at UW-Madison in what year
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1926
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1950's Post Modernists
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-Materials of the art-rebelling against conventional structures of theme, development, climax, and resolution -Development in painting, sculpture and music labeled pop, minimal, collage, found art, action paintings -Concept and Process, trial and error were as important as the art work itself
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Post Modernist Dance Innovators
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Merce Cunningham, Alwin Nikolais
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Post Modern Dance Ideas
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Collaboration, avant-garde, chance, events, happenings
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Merce Cunningham
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-inventor of chance dance and dance events. Dance became "for and about the movement", no longer about emotion -technique based on the spine acting as a spring, quick change of directions and weight shift, detail-oriented
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Merce Cunningham
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-choreography was based on movement, devoid of meaning or emotion and without gender context. Movement was not typified as male or female -choreographed "movement for movement's sake" -collaborated with John Cage, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg
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Alwin Nikolais
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-choreographer/non-collaborative, multi-media innovator -did not develop a systematic dance technique
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Alwin Nikolais
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-theatrical approach to dance -focus on "motion not emotion"
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1960's-1970's
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Post-Post Modern Movement
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Judson Dance Theatre
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the new avant garde (frontier) of the 1960's-1970's
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Innovators
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-Steve Paxton in contact improvisation, Meredith Monk in vocals, music poetry -borrowed ideas from pedestrian activities -included contact improvisation, voice, poetry and further experimentation/collaboration with theatre arts -movement technique based on release and flow, influenced by somatic arts such as tai chi and yoga
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Dance Theatre-Nora Ambrosio
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-a genre that blends dance and theatre so that both forms are an integral part of the performance. These performances may include spoken word, text, singing and choreography which is propelled by theme, dramatics and theatrics
