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Home , Agnes de Mille, Anna Halprin, Antony Tudor, Charles Weidman, Choreography, Choreography (dance)

THE HISTORY OF MODERN Austin’s Michelle Thompson and Frank Shott Compiled and edited by Pei‐San Brown, Community Education Director, ‐

The Pioneers of greatest acceptance. Duncan was truly revolutionary. She discarded the corset, Modern Dance was born in America during slippers, and of conventional ballet dress, the turn of the when a number of adopting choreographers and dancers rebelled against instead tunics the two forms of dance that were prevalent at that the time, ballet and . They rejected freed the body what they interpreted as the rigid and and revealed its imperialistic nature of ballet, and they wanted movement. to be taken seriously as artists rather than be She used seen simply as entertainers. , by , Ruth St. Denis, and Ted Chopin, Shawn are considered to be the pioneers of Beethoven, modern dance in America. Gluck, Wagner, and other In 1891, Loie Fuller first rank began experimenting composers. with the effects of Isadora Duncan at the Parthenon Theater gas lighting on her She danced on stages and in silk costumes. Fuller houses. She spoke of her dancing not as developed a form of but as with a high moral natural movement purpose. Most of all, she insisted upon the and improvisation essence of dance as movement. Her techniques that were vocabulary was simple but performed with a used in , dynamic subtlety, and charisma that made it powerfully expressive. In 1904, Loie Fuller in La Danse Blanche circa 1896 Duncan established her first school of dance conjunction with her revolutionary lighting just outside of Berlin, where she began to equipment and translucent silk costumes. develop her theories of and Fuller was an inventor and craft to assemble her famous dance group, later innovator who held many patents for stage known as the Isadorables. Between 1904 and lighting, including the first chemical mixes 1907, Duncan lived and worked in Greece, for gels and slides and the first use of Germany, and Scandanavia. luminescent salts to create lighting effects. Most of the movement was performed with the arms, as Fuller had minimal dance Ruth St. Denis training. She emphasized visual effect rather was raised in a than storytelling or expressing emotions. Bohemian environment and Considered the founding mother of American was modern dance, Isadora Duncan was largely encouraged to perform from a self‐taught. She presented her first young age. She recitals in 1898, and by 1900 she was in

Europe, where she would spend most of her remaining life and win the studied ballroom and skirt dancing, and was Dancers, which was based at Jacob’s Pillow drilled in Delsarte poses by her mother. Her farm in Massachusetts. In 1939 St. first professional job was as a variety act in Denis published her autobiography, An 1894 at Worth’s Family and Museum Unfinished Life. in . Important early influences were her work with the eminent director David The First Generation of Modern Dance Belasco, eastern spiritualism and imagery, along with European travel. She called her During the 1920s, a passion for interpretive translations (ethnically‐inspired dancing swept America. Isadora Duncan’s movement that included fame and Denishawn’s tours had introduced steps that became famous for their audiences and dancers alike to the concept of theatricality), which were inspired by a new form of serious theatrical dancing. The Eastern and mythologies including ground work had been laid for the first those from and Egypt. generation of modern dancers, who began developing the art as we know it today. This first generation included Graham, , , , , , and .

In 1916, began studying at Denishawn. During the next seven years, Graham evolved from a student, to a teacher, to one of the company’s best‐known performers. She often worked as ’s partner, and became the co‐star of Xochtil, his famous duet about an Indian girl and an Aztec emperor.

Ted Shawn in Mysteries of Dionysus

By 1906 with Radha, St. Denis had found the essence of her distinctive dance style, which combined spiral form with equal parts voluptuousness, mysticism, and erotica. She built a stunning career as a and, in

1914, acquired a professional and personal partner in Ted Shawn. A year later the two opened Denishawn which, as a school and company, nurtured leaders of the next wave Martha Graham in Letter to the World (1940) of modern dancers, including Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles In the late 1920s, Graham began working Weidman. St. Denis was responsible for most closely with , who she had known of the creative work, and Shawn was when he was the musical director at responsible for teaching technique and Denishawn. Horst introduced Graham to the composition. In 1933, Shawn founded his all work of Mary Wigman, the German modern male dance group, Ted Shawn and His Men dancer who studied with Jaques Dalcroze and then with . The style of member of her company and chief instructor dancing Wigman evolved was, in her words, at her school. In 1931 Holm settled in New mostly ʺdark, heavy, and earthbound.ʺ Her York to direct the Wigman Institute founded style was introduced to the in at the behest of . In 1936, in 1930 by her student, Hanya Holm. response to rising antifascist sentiment, it was renamed the Hanya Holm School of Dance. By 1930, Martha Graham had identified a She choreographed successfully on Broadway new system of movement she called with dances for Kiss Me, Kate (1948), My contraction and release, which was based on Fair Lady (1956), and Camelot her own interpretation of the Delsartean (1960). principle of tension and relaxation. This method of muscle control gave Graham’s Holm’s teaching dances and dancers a hard, angular look that emphasized contrasted with the smooth, lyrical bodily space, and in motions of Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. choreographing, Denis. she made regular use of Mary Wigman was the most highly regarded improvisation. modern dancer and choreographer in Central Her theater and one of the principal proponents of work achieved a modern dance during the 1920s and ‘30s. rare degree of Wigman’s often employed dramatic and non‐Western instrumentation such as choreographic fusion. bells, gongs, and drums from Asia and . Doris Humphrey was a choreographic However, the master, theoretician, and creator of the primary technique known as fall and recovery. She musical studied at the in Los accompaniment Angeles, where her teaching and creative for her most abilities were quickly recognized. In 1928 she well‐known left Denishawn and gave her first independent dances was percussion, which contrasted greatly with her use of silence. Wigman also utilized ecstatic spinning in her choreography. She was concerned with fundamental emotions, relationships, and superstitions. Influenced by non‐western and tribal motifs, Wigman’s costumes were simple, made with dark rough fabrics, and often included masks.

One of the legendary pioneers of American modern dance in the1930s, Hanya Holm was concert with Charles Weidman, with whom born in Germany and studied at the Dalcroze she formed the Humphrey‐Weidman Studio Institute. She studied in the 1920s with Mary and Company in New York. From the start Wigman in , eventually becoming a her work demonstrated an unerring sense of form, as well as an interest in large‐scale modern dance. During the 1940s de Mille abstract works. Her book, The Art of Making created a number of works for Ballet Theatre Dances (1959), was based on her theories that revealed the light touch of her about dance composition. Broadway choreography and the interest in American material that inspired her to form the Agnes de Mille Heritage Dance Theatre in the 1970s. A gifted writer, she is the author of several books, including a highly‐regarded biography of Martha Graham. Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman, 1938 Besides early classes in ballet and Native‐ Charles Weidman was inspired to become a American dance, Lester Horton studied at dancer at fifteen after seeing Ruth St. Denis the Denishawn School. The Lester Horton during a touring . In 1920, he Dance Group first appeared in 1932 and received a scholarship to spend the summer became noted over the ensuing two decades studying at the Denishawn school in Los for an individual technique and theatrical Angeles. Before the session had ended, style that embraced themes of social and Weidman was hired as a dancer for the political protest as well as . Highlights Denishawn company. Weidman brought a of his repertory include at least six versions of very masculine approach to dancing that drew Oscar Wilde’s erotic Salome, Le Sacre du other men to the art form. His wit, kinetic Printemps pantomime (his own style of modern dance), (1937). Horton and abstract movement added remarkable also appeal to his dances. With Doris Humphrey, choreographed he founded the Humphrey‐Weidman Studio commercial and Company in New York in 1928. When projects and she retired from performing in 1945, he created the established the Charles Weidman dances for Theater Dance Company. nineteen Agnes de Mille made her solo debut in New films. Companies such as York in 1928. In the 1930s in , she American Dance Theater teach Horton studied with , danced in the technique. Lester Horton premiere of ’s Dark Elegies (1937), and worked on concert pieces that The Second Generation of Modern Dance inspired her successes of the 1940s. Among these was (1942), the Americana By the end of World War II the original classic she choreographed for the Ballet founders of modern dance had produced a Russe de Monte Carlo, and the dances for the crop of talented students who set out to create Broadway musical Oklahoma! (1943). their own kind of dance. The great battle for Oklahoma! was a turning point in Broadway the position and respectability of modern history, and required training in ballet and dance had already been fought and won. It was not necessary for the second generation to take themselves or their art with the same deadly seriousness that had characterized has been a dominant their predecessors. The second generation of force in modern dance since the 1960s. modern dance included artists such as Erick Trained at the Cornish School, , Hawkins, Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, and the School of American Ballet, he danced José Limón, , Pearl with the Martha Graham Company from 1939 Primus, Alvin Ailey, , Yvonne to 1945, creating lead roles in a number of Rainer, and . works, including . He began to present his own choreography in the was a modern dance 1940s and in choreographer with an independent approach 1953 founded to movement based on natural kinesthetic what became the response. Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Those first initiated a collaboration with the composer that lasted for five decades. Under Cage’s tutelage, Cunningham rejected psychological and dramatic content from his work. He experimented with chance procedures, worked closely with avant‐garde artists such as and , and developed a collaborative approach that Martha Graham and Erick Hawkins, 1938 insisted upon the autonomy of music, design,

and dance. Cunningham’s controversial After receiving his B.A. in classics from choreographic methods and technique, which Harvard University, he enrolled at the School emphasized balletic leg action and flexibility of American Ballet, where he studied until of the back and torso, influenced generations 1938. At the same time he danced in George of dancers and choreographers, beginning Balanchine’s American Ballet and Lincoln with the Judson group. Kirstein’s Ballet Caravan, for which he choreographed his first work, Showpiece Modern dance choreographer Paul Taylor (1937). In 1938 he joined Martha Graham’s trained at the during the company, becoming its first male member 1950s, and performed in works by Doris and the choreographer’s partner in numerous works including Appalachian Spring (1944). Humphrey, Charles Weidman, Merce In his modern dance choreography of the Cunningham, Martha Graham, and George

Balanchine. He was a soloist with Graham’s 1940s Hawkins first drew on Native‐ company from 1955 to 1962, even as he American motifs; this intensified over the continued to choreograph and present years, as did his interest in Daoist theory and works with his own company, which he Asian forms. He celebrated natural founded in 1954. Duet (1957) was an phenomena, made frequent use of masks, and developed a free‐floating technique that gave his dancing its characteristic lightness arid fluidity. worldwide. Limón moved to in 1928, and it was here that he saw his first dance program. “What I saw simply and irrevocably changed my life. I saw the dance as a vision of ineffable power. A man could, with dignity and towering majesty, dance... dance as Michelangelo’s visions dance and as the music of Bach dances.” In 1946, after studying and performing for 10 years with Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman, he established his own company with Humphrey as Artistic Director. Limón’s choreographic works were quickly recognized as masterpieces and the Company

experimental piece in which Taylor stands next to a woman in street clothes, and neither one moves. This four‐minute piece called attention to posture and the interconnection of people within a space. His later pieces combine this minimalist performance with ballet. Among the best known of these are 3 Epitaphs, Orbs, The Book of Beasts, and Airs. His Aureole is one of the most highly respected dance works of the time for its grace and technical difficulty. It is Taylor’s combination of the subtlety of ballet with the spontaneity of everyday gesture that has made him such a powerful force in modern dance. itself became a landmark of American dance. Taylor’s works have a universal and long‐ Many of his dances are considered classics of lasting appeal because, according to London’s modern dance. In 1997 he was inducted into Sunday Telegraph, ʺthey are about people, the National Museum of Dance’s Hall of about the way they feel, the way they interact, Fame in New York. His autobiographical and about their social institutions.ʺ His body writings, An Unfinished Memoir, were edited language always carries an incredible range of by Lynn Garafola and published in 1999. motion, emotion, and imagination. He has developed a style that celebrates vigor, The grande dame of African‐American dance, athleticism, and strength. Frequent Katherine Dunham, studied at collaborators have included painters Robert the University of . In 1935‐6, with Rauschenberg and Alex Katz, and composer support from the Rosenwald Foundation, she Donald York. He was the subject of spent eighteen months investigating the dance the award‐winning documentary, cultures of the . This research Dancemaker. became the basis for the African‐American style she was then developing. Settling in José Limón was a crucial figure in the New York, she appeared at the 92nd Street Y, development of modern dance. His powerful and with her company took part in the 1940 dancing shifted perceptions of the male Broadway hit Cabin in the Sky, dancer, while his choreography continues to choreographed by . In the bring a dramatic vision of dance to audiences 1940s her preferred format was the , buoyant and charismatic performer, Primus which introduced audiences around the lectured widely and taught courses in country to the anthropology and ethnic dance on many best of African‐ campuses. She once said ʺI dance not to American dance entertain, but to help people to better talent. Her understand each other.ʺ technique, which drew on Alvin Ailey movements from began his the Pacific as dance training well as Africa as a teenager and the with Lester Caribbean, led Horton in Los toward an Angeles. He experience of danced on total rhythmic Broadway immersion. In and made 1966 she began a long association with appearances Southern University. with , Anna , dancer, choreographer, and Sokolow, and Donald McKayle. He founded outspoken advocate for , Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in 1958 received a scholarship from the New Dance as a repertory ensemble for modern dance Group and in 1943 made her debut at the classics and new works by Ailey and others. 92nd Street Y. She studied African and In 1960 he choreographed Revelations, a African‐ beloved modern dance classic. Cry (1971), American the solo dedicated to “black women material, and everywhereʺ that made a star, developed a was set to gospel music. In the 1970s Ailey repertory of choreographed several works to music by dances Duke Ellington, a favorite composer. Ailey’s emphasizing best works drew on African‐American the rich traditions and subject matter, and AAADT is variety of one of the country’s outstanding companies as African well as a showcase diasporic for African‐American talent. traditions. In 1948, she Anna Halprin was a pioneering dancer and received a choreographer of the modern dance grant to movement. She founded the San Francisco collect material and document dances in Dancer’s Workshop in 1955 as a center for Africa that in some cases were fading into movement training, artistic experimentation, history. Back in New York, she opened the and public participatory events open to the Pearl Primus School of Primal Dance. In 1961 local community. Halprin has created 150 she became the director of the African full‐length dance theater works and Performing Center in Monrovia, , the first organization of its kind in Africa. A Twyla Tharp’s early training included a variety of including ballet, baton twirling, and the study of several musical instruments. Her technique is similarly eclectic, integrating classical discipline and vocabulary with the avant‐ garde. Tharp has choreographed for dance, theater, film, television, and video. Anna Halprin in The Prophetess (1950) Her selection of musical is the recipient of numerous awards including composers has the 1997 Samuel H. Scripps Award for been equally Lifetime Achievement in Modern Dance from broad, ranging the . Her students from classical include , , and masters to many others. and pop superstars. Yvonne Rainer began training as a modern Tharp’s aesthetic dancer in New York in l957 and began to evolved during the highly experimental choreograph her own work in l960. She was 1960s. She joined the Paul Taylor Dance one of the founders of the Judson Dance Company in 1963, but left two years later to Theater in l962, the genesis of a movement form her own company. She received early that proved to be a vital force in modern accolades for The Fugue (1971), which uses dance in the following decades. Rainer no music but is accompanied by sounds made pioneered the use by the dancers. Two years later she of improvisations choreographed Deuce Coupe (1973) for the based on ordinary, to songs by The Beach Boys. nondance movements ranging Modern Dance Today from , to military marching, The social and artistic upheavals of the late to sports and 1960s and 1970s signaled even more radical games. Some of her departures for modern dance. Modern dance better known today is much more sophisticated, both in dances and theater technique and technology, than the dance pieces are Terrain begun by its pioneers. Current pioneers in (1963), The Mind is modern dance find a much softer dividing line a Muscle (1968), between modern dance and ballet. In truth, Continuous ballet, modern, and contemporary dance Project‐Altered Daily (1969‐70), This is the companies today have come to regard fluency story of a woman who... (1973), and After in all genres of dance as important to their Many a Summer Dies the Swan (2000), which work. was commissioned by the Baryshnikov Dance Foundation. Today’s modern dance has become a fusion of multiple dance genres, as demonstrated by choreographers Mark Morris, , and Shen Wei.

Mark Morris is most influenced by George Ohad Naharin began dancing at age 22 with the , which was founded in 1964 by Martha Graham and Baroness Batsheva De Rothschild. In 1975, Naharin left Israel to study in New York with Martha Graham, Julliard and the School of American Ballet. He choreographed and presented his first dances in 1980. In 1990, Naharin was appointed the artistic director of the Batsheva Dance Company. His movement

Mark Morris’ V

Balanchine and Merce Cunningham. He formed the Mark Morris Dance Group in 1980 and the White Oak Dance Project with in 1990. He is known as one of the greatest living modern dance choreographers, a dancer of extraordinary power, and an unpredictably imaginative Ohad Naharin’s Hora theater artist. One of his most popular works is The Hard Nut, which is Morris’ faithful style is often described as “liquid.” interpretation of E.T.A. Hoffman’s The Naharin’s signature style and technique, Nutcracker and the Mouse King. It is set in Gaga, is distinguished by stunningly flexible the 1960s and features sets inspired by limbs and spines, deeply grounded graphic comic books and wildly colorful movement, explosive bursts, and vitality. period costumes. The choreography is Dancers work without a mirror, feeling the described as quirky and humorous despite the movement from within. There are two story’s dark themes. Morris’ ballet work is avenues for this technique, one for dancers included in the repertory of the San who will perform and one for non‐dancers Francisco Ballet, , who are learning the technique for Opera Ballet, , Pacific themselves. In his technique, Naharin uses a Northwest Ballet, , series of words that signify particular ways to New Zealand Ballet, , and The initiate movement and the parts of the body Royal Ballet. Morris is noted for his involved in initiating and feeling that sophisticated musicality and has been movement, which establishes a flow described as “undeviating in his devotion to throughout the entire body that allows music.” called Mark complete fluidity no matter where the Morris “our Mozart of modern movement is initiated. Naharin’s works have dance.ʺ The Times calls him, been commissioned by the Frankfurt “intensely musical, Ballet, Opéra National de Paris, Grand deceptively cerebral, insinuatingly sensual, Théâtre de Genève, Sydney Dance Company, fabulously funky.” The company of dancers is Lyon Opera Ballet, Les Grand reinforced by Morris’ use of live Canadiens, , musicians in every performance. Compañia Nacional de Danza, Cedar Lake , Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and Hubbard Chicago.

Shen Wei, founder and artistic director of . Wei moved to New York City in 1995 Shen Wei Dance Arts, is a choreographer who and was approached to present his work by combines Eastern and Western influences the American Dance Festival. His work has and multiple artistic disciplines to create a subsequently appeared worldwide at bold and visually arresting form of dance‐ prestigious dance festivals and venues, and he theater. Through choreographed was commissioned as one of the principal movements that are precise and inventive, he choreographers of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and his dancers perform highly stylized steps Opening Ceremonies. Among his most recent and gestures inspired by Western works are Near the Terrace Part One (2000), dance traditions as well as Chinese opera, Folding (2000), Behind Resonance (2001), acrobatics, and . He incorporates Near the Terrace Part Two (2001), Rite of vivid colors, striking costume design, and Spring (2003), Connect Transfer (2004), imaginative use of space into theatrical works Second Visit to the Empress (2005), Map that are kinetic paintings. Wei began his (2005), Re‐ Part One (2006), and Re‐ Part career by performing opera with the Hunan Two (2007). For each dance and opera work created with his company, Shen Wei also creates the sets, costumes, and make‐up designs. Wei has received numerous awards. He is a 2007 MacArthur “Genius” and United States Artists Fellow. He has received a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, a New York Foundation for Fellowship, and the American Dance Festival’s Ben Sommer Fellowship. Wei also received the Nijinsky Award for Emerging Choreographer in 2004, Australia’s 2005 Helpmann Award for Best Shen Wei’s Behind Resonance Ballet or Dance Work, and the 2006 Les Etoiles de Ballet, Palais des Festival, in State Xian Opera Company. In 1991, he Cannes, France. He has received commissions became a founding member, dancer, and from the American Dance Festival, Lincoln choreographer of the Guangdong Modern Center Festival, the John F. Kennedy Center Dance Company, the first such company in for the Performing Arts,New York City Opera, and Alvin Ailey Dance Theater.