Pavlova- Ann One of Diaghileffs greatest stars. Embededthe romantic era that remained within the ballet psyche of commercial theatre for years to come. The Dying Swan was a solo choreographed for her by Michael Fokine-was modern and revolutionary. Was a traditional and conservative dancer-perforamcesfeatured herself and another male dancer. Style atmoshphere. Represented Romantic era and stared in The Dying Swan, choreographed by Fokine-was revolutionary. Ballet Russe-The first dance company to break the ice and perform in America for which Balanchine choreographed in 1932 and Massinelater became the choreographer. The ballet russe years (1909-1929) created works such as Michael Fokines Scheherazade and Nijinskys Rite of Spring-They were grand and expensive, requiring full orchestras, elaborate sets, large theatres and a wealthy producer. Diaghilev-Diaghilev replaced Fokine with Nikinskyas Choreographer. Born 1872 was a member of Russian nobility, studied law and music and became interested in ballet and opera and was given a supervisory post at Maryinsky theater. Was independent-became theatrical impresario and it was that role that he made his greatest contribution to dance. Gathered leading Russian dancers of the Imperial Ballet and the dancers consisted of Michel Fokine, Anna Pavlova and Nijinskythose ballets were mostly the work of Fokine. His choreographers included: Fokine, Nijinsky, Massine, Nijinska and Balanchine. Diaghilev sighed a contract with the principlility of Monaco which became the Les Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo-before this the art was considered exclusively Russian. He recognized the ballet was a combination of choreography, painting and music and was able to get artists in these areas to collaborate fully with each other. Leon Bakst/Picasso-Painter that Diaghilev used for his collaborations. Diaghilev influenced every aspect of art in his era and brought together the great creative artist of his time in a hotbead of collaboration Michael Fokine-Entered Imperial School of ballet in 1880; was a brilliant dancer but became known as a choreographer and teacher rather than a premier danseur. Was much disturbed by the rigidity and sterility of Russian ballet. Described pas de deux as little more than an exhibition of agility and physical virtuosity-little choreography involved. Stressed the need for unifying ballet as a meaningful dramatic enterprise and for fusing its major elements of dance, music and painting. Dancers played role of Greeks with bare feet. In Parris he achieved success as a choreographer and staged performances such as Les Sylphides. Wanted to make ballet fully expressive art the mirrored life. In 1912, Diaghilev replaced Fokine with Nijinsky as choreographer. Fokines 5 Major Principles- 1) It is necessary to create for each dance new forms of movement, suitable to the subject matter, period, or country and appropriate to the music, rather than ready made movements. 2)Dramatic action of ballet should be continuously developed by means of movement rather than using
pantomime to relate the story. 3) Pantomime should be abandoned and the entire body of the dancer should be used to communicate ideas and feelings. 4)The entire group of dancers should be used to develop the theme of the ballet and should be part of the plot instead of using corps de ballet. 5) Ballet should reflect active and equal cooperation of all the arts involved in it; music, scenery, dancing, costuming are all crucial to a unified creative effort. Music should be part of the plot. Schehrazade- Choreographed by Fokine during the ballet ruse years Partrouchka/Le Spectre de la Rose- Ballet choreographed by Fokine and danced by Nijinsky. Nijinsky-Diaghileffs two greatest stars were Nijinsky and Pavlova. Nijinskyis credited to be the greatest male ballet dancer of all time. Attended St. Petersburg Imperial School of Ballet-brilliant performer but weak in his studies. Fokines greatest stars and resigned for the Imperial School to join Diaghileffs company. He obtained schizophrenia and later became mentally ill. His choreography was similar to modern dance (dancers fell to ground). Did not reject classic ballet, choreography required highly trainedartists, dramatic portrayal. secure for the male dancer dignity which had not been present for generations Afternoon of a Faune- Choreographed by Nijinsky and slightly resembled modern dance. Arroused great controversy because of the radical break with traditional movement and because of its frank deciption of sexual behavior. Debussy-composer used by Diaghileff. Jeux-Choreographed by Nijinsky Rite of Spring-Millicent Hodson helped reconstruct the choreography of Rite of Spring for a 1987 Joffery Ballet revival-led to conclusion the Nijinsky was precursor of modern dance. Stravinsky-Composer for Diaghileff. Massine-Choreographer/dancer; attented Imperial School of Ballet and joined Diaghileff. Replaced Nijinsky as choreographer. Known for two ballet styles: 1) Symphonic ballet-consitedof works with symphonies by Tchaikovsky, Berlioz and Beethoven and these works were highly abstract. 2) Story ballets which had a high degree of comedy, satire and character dancing. Had a reputation for a high degree of musicianship and for great color, inventiveness and choreographic soundness. Nijinska-dancer and choreographer for Diaghileff company and was the sister of Nijinsky. Choreographed Les Noces and Le Train Bleu and set her dances to music by Stravinsky. Respected classic ballet grammer but was also a prolific inventor of new dance movement. George Balanchine-Member of Diaghileffs choreographic team who had the greatest influence on ballet in America. Replaced Nijinska as ballet master and
created Apollo. Balanchine and Kirstein laid foundation for American Ballet and founded School of American Ballet-Russian dancers brought to America with works emphasized by Fokine. Reaction was initially negative and some said Balanchine was not an appropriate choice to develop American ballet because of the clash of the Russian style which was too dynamic, explosive, sharply precise and the FrancoItalian stage employed by singers of the opera stage whichwas slow broad and much softer. Kirstein made an attempt to develop a performing company called Ballet Caravan after Balanchineended his relationship with the Metropolitan. Balanchine created the Four Temperaments after Kirstein formed the Ballet Society. New York City Ballet-The Ballet society joined forces with the New York City Center of Music and drama under the title New York City Ballet. Under Balanchine achieved reputation as one of the outstanding ballet companies in the world. Key factor in growth was that the Schoolof American of Ballet had continued and had trained young dancers since the demise of the original company. Artistically NYCB was a success but was financially a failure because of the competition with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Obtained international recognition from Ninette de Valois. efficient problem solving while the Afrricanist aestheticembraces difference and dissonance, rather than erasing or resolving it. Embraces conflict and poses questions Arthur Mitchell-Balanchines legacy, like Africanist legacy, is described by Mitchellis not being codified or constraint by steps. Mitchellscultural training helped Balanchine. Acclaims that the black dancing body. American Ballet Theater-Company developed more native American performers than any other; its repertoire was broad, diverse; it mounted the works of all great modern choreographers; and it presented superb ballet to audiences throughout the USA. Isadora Duncan-Most famous revolutionary outside the male dominated ballet and valued the expressivity of romanticism more than the technique and form of the pure or classicist in music and art. True classic art inspired by ancient Greece and the sensibilities of accepted musical masters of the time. Fundamentally American and influenced by nature. Loie Fuller-Followed by Ruth St. Denis and their modern heirs such as Martha Grahm grew up during the establishment of the late 19th century classic ballet as demonstrated by PetipasSleeping Beauty and Swan Lake. Was an actress and singer and when she received a piece of cloth from a friend she developed a theatrical movement known as her serpentine dance. Ruth St. Denis-was willing to promote her art within established commercial theatrical contexts in the early 20thcentury, but in the venues the search for new
dance foundation depend ultimately on their audience appeal as defined by producers, who in the world of commercial theatre understood little of the spiritual fervor of dances revolutionary energy. Married Ted Shawnand he helped her create dances within the given confines of commercial theatre. Their Denishawn schooland company lasted from 1915-1931 and the company concert tours gave them more leeway for artistic experimentation than the works created for the vaudeville circuit. Ruth St. Denis was more a seeker of spiritual truth and led her into the field of ethnic dance where she composed pieces of dual Asian and spiritual orgin. She attempted to emulate the spiritual impetus and movements of East Indian dance through a sort of self-withdrawn trance state in which she assumed a committed oriental authenticity. American audiences didnt always appreciate her dances. Jaques-Dalcrozes philosophy influenced her, who explored music visualization wherein melodic lines, harmonies and forms of a piece of music were visually translated into corresponding dance movements. Ted Shawn-Began studying dance to compensate for ill health as a young man. His father was a Methodist minister who encouraged his sons combined interests in spirituality and physical movement. Added opportunities for greater commercial success by bringing more theatricalized versioans of Asian, Spanish, Aztec, American Indian, ballroom and other dance forms to the Denishawnrepertoire. He understood and followed a spiritual view of dance but adapted the companys work to a more pragmatic theatrical needs. Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, Martha Grahm and Louis Horst worked for Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawat various times. Although Ted Shaw was an ardent supporter of Delsartian ideas, his all male dance company from 1933-1940 helped reform Americas sense that modern dance was only for woman. 19th Constitutional Amendmentvote-gave these revolutionary dance artists a greater position of leadership, at least in the eyes of those dedicated to the all burgeoning feminism of the time. Expression of a new self awareness in all the arts, influenced by religions and philsoshies such as Christian Science, theosophy and spiritualism, further charged their spirit. Louis Horst- was a musician and Martha Grahmamslongtime mentor. He saw that choreographers, like composers and visual artists needed a better understanding of theories about materials, forms and style. Based on his knowledge of composition, theory and style in music and other arts, he became the foremost of proponent an orginial style for teaching dance composition, thus becoming an important theorist for 20thcentury dance. His interst in the field was fosterd while he was the music director for Denishawn. Later became the dance critic for his own journal, the Dance Observor. Martha Graham-Although many choreographers disregarded the entertainment value of the art dance, many pioneers of modern dance, such as Martha Grahm, Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman learned valuable lessons about salesmanship and about the rules and regulations of commercial theatre from an
independent company called Denishawn. Being a commercial draw was a matter of survival, but the diverse personalities of modern dance cared more about expression, honesty, creativity and social/political issues. Doris Humphrey and Martha Graham wereoften able to use their intimate understanding of and training of music as inspiration for their more sophisticated choreographic arrangements. Her dramatic dances required the Stanislavsky perspective of acting and Graham created emotionally charged choregraphicdramas based on characters and situations from Greek plays and literary canon. Her technique included falls, suspensions, jumps, lifts and just about any conceivable movement, but her signal gesture of the torso was the contraction, a sudden upward tilting of the pelvis with its immediate and inevitable tension-flexion of the entire torso. This movement impulseswas designed to support her dramatic dances. Each gesture-with carrying degressof tension-release, distance and speedbecomes a propulsive chain of movement. Can be emotional, sensual and even sexual means for creating powerfully controlled movements such as falls to the floor, turns and total body gestures. No less rigorous than the skills needed for classical ballet. Percussive movement-percussive force of independent body parts, with rhythm as a principal value is not a part of the European ballet aesthic. Doris Humphrey-Developed the concept of fall and recoveryjust one her major bequests to modern dance. Her fall is a letting go from the weight of the arms, head, ribs and torso in the standing position, while allowing the torso or a body part to drop toward the ground with the speed and force of gravity, the legs folding at the same rate. The energy from the automatic contraction of the fully stretched muscles of the legs provides the energy for the rebound. Fall-recovery could be used as a metaphor of biblical proportions, such as death and rebirth otas a reference to something as simple as the constant pull and struggle against gravity on all matter. Whereas the movement sequences of romantic and classical ballet seem to defy gravity, Humphrey took advantage of weight and pull to compose shapes and movement patterns into phrases, sections and whole dances. Equally facile with complex even contrapuntial designs, she was an architect of group movements that involved these regular displacements of weight and there subsequent rebounds. The Art of Making Dances-Created by Humphrey, which remains a defining text for choreographers the world over. To hundreds of her budding choreographers, including her student Jose Limon, Humphrey imparted a stong sense of architecture and composition, which served as a guidepost for solving the unique problems of choosing subject matter and developing movement for making dance.. Humphreys theories would be the 20thcentury touchstones for dance composition. The post-modern and alternative generations to come would both respectfully and disrespcefully violate these theories.
Jose Limon-Infused his dances and technique with several important elements, the least being signature gestures. His contribution was in making his dancers see the glory and power of the human spirit in dance on stage as well as in the classroom. For him as Humphrey every gesture on stage needed to have clear motivation wheatherdramatic emotional or abstract. He talked about the human body as a tangible instsurmentat least as complex as an orchestra. Felt that the dancers needed to treat all body parts of the body as individual instruments that when sounded individually or in sequence could a play a symphony of movement for an audiences senses. Rudolph Laban-Helped devise the theoritcal movmentsubstructure of the modern dance and was a European theorist. Was the contemporary of Jaques-Delcrozes and was inspired by Delsartesfailure to develop further means of analyzing and writing movement. His special genious lay in the conceptual analysis of movmentin space and time with its characteristic energies. Analyzed movement according to the speed, direction and level of the body and its parts within an imaginary twenty sided combination sphere-cube called in icosaherdorn. His scientific approach provided a clear language for movement in space that gave the work of modern dancers especially Mary Wigman an analytical basis from which to aquire greater sensitivity toward mostion in relation to surrounding space. Mary Wigman-The architectural dances of choreographers such as Wigman, Hanya Holm and Humphrey were choreographies of uniform goupsof people, with sections of solos, duets, trios and larger numbers contributing to a group affect. Saw space as a force to be used, not as a necessary enviornementfilled with air. She moved with an awareness of the conceivable qualities that her immediate stage space could have as a partner in motion-cutting through, piercing and being enveloped by it as in which dance. Her intersest in space as well as her knowledge of the German Bauhaus group of artist and designer who experimented with stage space in relation to masked figures, props, body extensions and furniture inspired her to creare some of her goup dancers. Hanya Holm-student of wigman came to the united states in 1932 and her choreographies wasfull of social criticism and spatial effects, especially her early group dances such trend. Explored German exressionsim-the dark, emotional aesthetic within art, literature and drama-in an attempt to find emotional truth in her solo work and support for her interstin space design. Used dance to create forms out of the technique and geometric suggestions of the body shapes themselves. Alvin Ailey-Combined elements of modern jazz and African dance with his own flamboyant and accessible aesthetic. Well trained through the broad, physically powerful technique and worked with Grahm, Humphrey and Holmd and although he remains part of modern dance he has a lot of African and asisn dancers which provide the commercial attack.
Paul Taylor-Third generation modern dancer, his style emplys a large vocabulary in his style of movement. His dancers are capable of virtuoso feats, but Taylor has not treidto create one particular technique from his style, concentrating instead on just making dances. Started the avant-garde upstart, (process rather than performance and meaning a group of people leading the way in new development or ideas)) some dances done in total silence with very little movement or with abusrdanthropomorphic creature. Large number of his dances are musically sensitive and athletic, yet also quit lyrical Had a sense of umorand ability to symbolize the troubled foibles of our society are evident in his works. We can easily see the bouncy and graceful musicalty in his works such as Aureole. Merce Cunningham-Considered the father of the post-modern and continues to redefine dance today in his eighties. Constructed pieces such as Minutiae, Rain Forest and Points in Space in whole or in part by deliberately incoroporating chance or randomness into their designs, an approach he redeinfed more recently through use of computer programs. His dances do not attempt to fulfill any preconceived poetic sense of natural beauty but instead express spatial centers and random, seemingly chaotic multiple strands of activity. Knows that his dances will create a unique atmoshpoere and audience can interpetit how they want. He keeps his dancers partially hidden, tucked away in corners, flitting here and there onstage. Includes street sounds and tree branch rustlings more often than convential music. Studied and performed for Ghram. John Cage- avant-garde, whose sound and music accompaniment gave atmospheric life to their collaborators unique philosophies. Judson Church-post modern dance,expanded our conscience about the very meaning of dance. Audiences had to find their own way to understand and embrace these new and challenging performaces. Twyla Tharp-individualist modern dancer had a more electric background than her contemoproraries, having studied piano, violin, viola, acrobatics, ballet, tap, modern, jazz, drums, baton twirling and even gypsy dancing in her growth as a dancer and choreographer. Embraced a wide range of experimental approaches including dances in slience, dances heard but not seen, dances to jazz and rock n roll, and classical. Alwin Nikolais-transformed the natural shapes of his dances into depersonalized, intergalactic figures and created a wholly new dance theatre aesthetic through use of fabric and body extensionsm which he lit colorfully and dtamatically. He also created his own electronic audiotapes containing musical sound effects that accented these strange figursts movments, which seemed to gambol about anthropomorphsyciallyall over the stage. His world resemble our own often depersonalized age of technology, where the visual experience is made more facile through moving lighting insturnments, video images and new fabrics that can
change their designs in an instant. Non literal dances are not to be explained, but simply watched Pilobolus-collective company of dancers and gymnast started in 1971 and create complex, visually compelling and humorous mobile-like structures through their dancers muscular strengthand proximity. Creations such as Ocellus, Untitiled and Momix in Orbit performed with and without props and clever costuming, continue to surprise audiences around the world. Bill T. Jones-contemporary dancer-choreographer trained in modern dance, AfroCaribbean and contact improvisation, incorporates multimedia and spoken text into his gracefully athletic, emotionally provocative dances. Deals with issues such as homosexualiy, gender bias, racism, unfashionable body types and other difficult topics. Still/Here generated a heated debate in the world of dance through its in deapthin your face investigation of people dealing with terminal illness. Non dancers of all ages, classes, races, sexual preferences and states of health shared their very real and struggling lives through excerpted large-screen projection video footage in direct to audience narratives, mixed with technically demanding onstage dancing and gesture. Jones interst certainly lie somewhere within the post modern realms of confronataion, experimentalism and intellectualism, but they also draw on traditional modern dance and modern balled conventions such as concert stages, strong technique and a sophisiticated music sensibility.