Modern dance

Modern dance is a theatrical dance form that emerged in the early twentieth century, challenging ballet conventions through individual expression, experimentation, and new movement techniques.

Ballet: A theatrical dance form built on codified technique, pointe work, and formal training traditions. Modern dance developed partly in opposition to ballet’s codified movement and ideals.
Isadora Duncan: An American dancer who rejected ballet conventions and developed expressive solo dances inspired by nature and ancient art. Her free movement and bare feet helped establish early modern dance.
Loie Fuller: An American dancer who used flowing fabric and colored lighting to create experimental stage spectacles. Her late nineteenth-century performances anticipated modern dance’s theatrical experimentation.
Postmodern dance: A dance movement that emerged in the 1960s, questioning modern dance’s expressive and technical conventions. Postmodern choreographers challenged the assumptions that modern dance had made its own.
Dance notation: Systems for recording dance movement through symbols or written descriptions. Modern dance pioneers developed and used notation to preserve choreography and movement ideas.
Improvisation: The creation of movement in the moment rather than through a fully fixed sequence. Improvisation lets dancers explore personal movement beyond inherited steps.
Martha Graham: An American dancer and choreographer who created a modern dance technique based on contraction and release. Her technique and dramatic works became central to modern dance’s development.
Denishawn: An American dance school and company founded by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn in 1915. It trained several influential founders of American modern dance, including Graham and Humphrey.
Contemporary dance: A broad present-day concert dance practice drawing on modern, postmodern, ballet, and other forms. The label is often confused with modern dance, though it describes a later and broader field.
Dance therapy: The therapeutic use of movement and dance within clinical and community settings. Modern dance’s attention to personal expression helped inform movement-based therapeutic practices.

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