|
HISTORY
 Modern
dance was developed in the 20th century, mostly used in the
United States and Germany, modern dance is similar to modern
art and music in being experimental and iconoclastic. Modern
dance began at the turn of the century, its pioneers were
Isadora Duncan, Loie Fuller, and Ruth St. Denis in the United
States, Rudolf von Laban and Mary Wigman in Germany. Each
rebelled against the formalism, artifice of classical ballet,
and against show dancing. Each sought to inspire audiences
to a new awareness of inner or outer realities, a goal shared
by all modern dancers.
Isadora Duncan shocked and delighted audiences by baring
her body and soul in what she called “free dance.”
Wearing only a tunic like the Greek vase figures that inspired
many of her dances. she whirled in flowing, natural movements
that emanated, she said, from the solar plexus. She wanted
to idealize abstractly the emotions brought on by the music
that was her force, daringly chosen from the works of serious
composers including Beethoven, Wagner, and Gluck. Although
Duncan had schools and had many imitators, her improvisational
technique was too personalized to be carried on by direct
successors.
The work of the two other American pioneers was far less
abstract, although no less free. Loie Fuller used dance to
imitate and illustrate natural phenomena such as the flame,
the flower, the butterfly. Experimenting with stage lighting
and costume, she created illusionistic effects that remained
hers in the history of dance theater until the works of Alwin
Nikolais in the 1960s.
|
