mod lit modern dance 2
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Modern DanceMegan and Mandy
HISTORY
COSTUMESOld vs. New
Classical Ballet
“Jewels”
The Nutcracker
Modern Dance
Martha Graham
Isadora Duncan
Merce Cunningham
ROLESMen Vs. Women
Swan Lake
The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker Clip
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_13kRdRAyc
Modern BalletMark Morris Dance Group
BACKGROUNDS
The Nutcracker
Swan Lake
Sleeping Beauty
Mark Morris Dance Group
Early
Times
• Main people• Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis, and Mary Wigman
• Began using natural, expressive gestures• Eurythmics, system for teaching musical rhythm through body movements• Make dance communicative• Costume changes begin
1930’s
• Main People• Martha Graham, Doris Humphry, and Charles Weidman
• Rejected external movement sources and focused on internal ones• Focused on human movement experiences • Confronted crisis
Post War
Developme
nt
• Main People• Alwin Nikolais, Merce Cunningham, James Warin, Paul Taylor, and Alivin Ailey
• No longer interested in traditional techniques• Relied on theatrical elements• Use of literary and pictorial devices
Isadora DuncanThe dancer's
body is simply the luminous manifestation
of the soul.
Isadora Background
• Mother provided 4 children with foundations of a love and respect for art, language, and history
• Dad, famous poet, left at early age• Taught dance lessons starting at 6• America wasn’t ready for her
Wanted each spectator to be able to picture themself as a dancer
You
You as a dancer
Life Showed Through Dance
Dancing Performing
Aware of One’s Own Body
Solar Plexus
Isadora DuncanCostume
Isadora DuncanGreek Inspiration
Isadora and the “Isadorables”
Isadora Duncan and Sergei Yesinin
Isadora Duncan
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKtQWU2ifOs
Martha Graham1894-1991
Background
• Inspired by Ruth St. Dennis
• Wasn’t supported by family
• Attended Denishawn, toured
• Greenwich Village Follies• Taught in NYC• Created Martha Graham
Dance Company
Graham, center, with the Denishawn touring company
Innovations• Serious themes –
ordinary people and modern life
• Convey unspoken needs, desires, dreams
• Emotions• Pull of gravity• Contraction and release• Simple costume and
stage
• Exploration, celebration• Stark, angular
movement• Made people think
Works by Graham“Lamentation” - 1930http://youtu.be/vJHrGpw0zj0?t=45s
“Heretic” - 1929
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6r-hN2ndIw
Merce Cunningham1919-2009
“You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive.”
-Merce Cunningham
Background
• Studied at Cornish School of Performing and Visual Arts
• Bennington College – discovered by Graham
• Joined Martha Graham Dance Company
• Admired Graham, but had different ideas about dance
• Worked with John Cage• Formed Merce Cunningham
Dance Company
Work With John Cage
Relationship between dance and music:“May occur in the same time and space, but should be created independently of one another.”
Innovations
• Randomness or chance• Dance and music
separate• Mechanics of
movement• No storyline or narrative• No focus on emotion• Subject is dance itself• Strong technique
• Enlarge range of movement
• Film
Working Process
Cunningham’s working process – video - 1981:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhK3Ep4HiI0
“The Coast Zone” - 1983
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBcwL8ROBAk
“Beach Birds for Camera” - 1993
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhg_Z3nt674
Reactions
• Mixed reactions• Some thought Graham’s dances were ugly• Others appreciated emotions of the dances• Critics of Cunningham : “dancers moving
about on stage in no relationship to one another or to the audience”
• More appreciation later on
Impact of Modern Dance Movement
• Freedom from strict ballet style• Exploration• Less structure• Convey emotions, ideas
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