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Modern dance
Modern dance arose from Germany and the United States in the late 19th and 20th centuries. It is considered to have emerged as a rebellion against classical ballet. The development of modern dance was also associated with cultural and socioeconomic factors. Many dancers, including Isadora Duncan, Maud Allan, who pioneered on fee dance for performance. The change in the dance approach presented a different perspective that focused on creating a more structured emphasis on these changes (Thomas, 71). Freedom of movement offers a more specific ad diverse approach, which helps in defining a necessary change for improved integration and level of change in freedom in movement.
Modern dance has evolved significantly with different generations focusing on different measures that sought to improve the artistic nature of dance. Different choreographers integrated different styles of dance and techniques. Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey were revolutionary dancers. They have played a central role in the development of modern dance based on their unique styles and different approaches, which helped present a more strong context that helped build change and positive level integration (Thomas, 75).
Isadora Duncan is greatly credited as the first dancer in the modern dance and played a crucial role in making the dance public. She is also referred to as the mother of contemporary dance due to her role in nurturing modern dance and ensuring that different individuals adopted it across different parts of the world. She was inspired by nature, especially the movement of trees and the oceans. This inspiration led to the development of different dancing techniques such as hopping, running, swaying, and skipping, which have remained fundamental to dance techniques developed after that (Roseman, 16).
Martha Graham is a renowned modern dance artist famously known for the Graham technique. As a dancer and choreographer, Graham broke many fundamental rules that had been previously identified to help build a more influential platform for practice. She developed a dance technique that helped spark a revolution resulting in modern dance. The changing choreographic needs meant that there were frequent changes in dance vocabulary to help improve the overall commitment to better measures that focused on building change.
The class structure of Graham dance technique includes a set series of seated floor exercises and across the floor sequences. The technique consists of contraction and release, the opposition of weight as well as spirals. It is considered as the most powerful and vibrant dance technique of the modern dance era. There has been major evolution to this dance technique taking into consideration essential measures that promote improved commitment to improved dance styles and procedures based on the needs of individuals (Roseman, 29). Martha had a high level of creativity, which presented a more reliable approach in helping maintain a well-defined system for change and adoption of crucial measures that promote change.
Doris Humphrey was an American choreographer and dancer in the early 20th century. She was one of the second-generation modern dance pioneers who made major efforts to create a different style of dance based on the changing dancing needs of individuals in the 20th century. She is famously known for her unique dancing technique known as the fall and recovery technique (Main, 89). It focuses on being proficient in balancing and yielding to the pull of gravity. She was more interested in groups rather than solo dances. Music visualization was an essential aspect that helped in the development of this technique.
References
Main, Lesley. “The Transmission–Translation–Transformation of Doris Humphrey’s Two Ecstatic Themes (1931).” Transmissions in Dance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2017. 85-107.
Roseman, Janet Lynn. Dance Was Her Religion: The Spiritual Choreography of Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis and Martha Graham. SCB Distributors, 2015.
Thomas, Helen. “Reconstruction and dance as embodied textual practice 1.” Rethinking dance history. Routledge, 2017. 69-81.