Dance 101 Lecture Outline Week Seven TEXT CHAPTER SIX MODERN DANCE VIDEO THE INDIVIDAUL AND TRADITION THE HISTORY OF MODERN DANCE ISADORA DENISHAWN THE BIRTH OF MODERN DANCE MARTHA GRAHAM IN PERFORMANCE Modern Dance o Evolved in the late 1800s and early 1900s as a revolt against perceived restrictions limitations of ballet o Began in America by groups of individuals who thought ballet was too conventional o Themes inspirations involve real life situations and societal issues o Free flowing fabrics unrestricted clothing and bare feet connection with nature o Genre differs widely in style approach and methodology Isadora Duncan 1877 1927 o Born in California to lower middle class family o Charged wealthy to watch her perform o Breakthrough to primitive dance representative to freedom o Left US to go to Greece wanted to go to ancient world and discover o Continued fascination with the Ancient World India China Egypt Greece o After Greece went to England was essentially homeless o Created a stir in Europe dressed in free flowing fabric but also naked o Mother of modern dance o Mistress to many wealthy men taught their kids but classes were very unstructured o Married Russian count who later killed himself o First two children died at young age in Paris died by drowning o Strangled in the backseat of car with scarf very unusual o Air on the G String was played at her funeral o Isadorables was what professional dancers called her followers Rudolf Von Laban 1879 1958 o Had a background in ballet o Established own form of modern dance in Germany o Labanotation is a way of writing down dance o Laban Movement Analysis is analyzing moment through time movement space etc Ruth St Denis 1878 1968 o Was an upper middle class spoiled girl o From New Jersey New York City area o Loved theatre and became a show girl in early theatre and traveled throughout Europe o Came back to America to get more serious about dance and wanted to form her own company o Created works by musical visualization Ted Shawn 1891 1972 o o o o Took one of Ruth s classes and began a relationship with her Formed a dance school and company called it Denishawn Started dance school in New York and created another one in California Wanted to get back to nature found a place in Western Massachusetts called Jacob s Pillow and took the male dancers there to train also rebuilt the property Vaudeville o When Ted and Ruth ran out of money they would join this company as dancers more commercial dance and considered it selling there souls o First variety show o Done to entertain people across the country o Movies marked the end of Vaudeville Mary Wigman 1886 1973 o Student of Von Laban in Germany and took it back to America Loie Fuller 1862 1928 o Loved camera to be photographed o Pioneer in film and dance connection Pioneers of Modern Dance all studied with Denishawn 1 Martha Graham 1894 1990 o Contract and release technique o Danced until age 92 o First company was all women o Has a school on upper east side called Martha Graham s school of contemporary dance does a lot of touring today mainly in Europe o Company had to fly and when flying over Middle East plane experienced mechanical failure and almost crashed Martha created a piece called Night Journey o When company was touring Germany Martha saw young teens joining youth groups precursor to Nazi part sharing a message of hate Martha saw the danger and developed 3 part Chronicle o Cave of the Heart based on Greek mythology o Acts of Light o Last piece Graham created was Maple Leaf Rag out on the waterfront in Charelston and saw kids bouncing on bouncing boards and created dance on it o Graham reached out to American composers and commissioned music Aaron Copeland created music for Appalachian Spring 2 Doris Humphrey 1895 1958 and Charles Weidman 1901 1975 o Formed school with Charles called Humphrey Weidman school and company o Trained dancers together o Technique based on fall and recovery wanting to escape from gravity German Pioneers of Modern Dance 1 Hanya Holm 1898 1992 o Got involved in broadway scene o Choreographed in My Fair Lady and Kiss me Kate 2 Kurt Jooss 1901 1979 o The Green Table anti war statement Erick Hawkings o First male dancer in Martha Grahams school o Lead dancer in Graham s Appalachian Spring 1944 tribute to the American pioneers stern strict creature in the work a bride a groom and older woman and a core ballet groom Eric Hawkings and bride was Graham later got married for real o Formed own company based on ease and free flow of moment opposite of contraction and release Grahams technique