One app for all your study abroad needs
As a type of art, modern dance represents an active mixture of expression, innovation, and creativity. Modern dance first appeared in the early 20th century as a means for choreographers and dancers to experiment with new types of movement and self-expression. Modern dance overcomes boundaries and invites both performers and fans to connect with contemporary themes, issues in society, and personal tales. It is characterized by its fluidity, adaptability, and effective storytelling. Learning about modern dance will help you understand the dance in more detail. Questions related to this subject can also appear in competitive exams such as UPSC, SSC, and EPFO. So, if you want to enhance your knowledge about India’s modern dance and its types, then this blog is for you!
Table of Contents
What is Modern Dance?
The strict dance technique of classical ballet is challenged by the more passionate style of modern dance. Instead of sticking to a strict set of postures or technical positions that ballet dancers are educated in, modern dance focuses on expression. The free-form, flowing movements of modern dance are frequently shaped by other dance forms, such as ballet, folk dance, and African dance. Modern dance styles can require a lot of power and core work, even though they’re thought to be more effortless and natural than ballet. Modern dancers frequently perform in tight outfits that highlight their body forms while they are barefoot.
History of Modern Dance
Modern dance has a long history that defines how it was introduced and later became famous. People of all ages can now take modern dance classes at dance schools across the globe.
- By the late 19th century, modern dance had become an individual performing art form, challenging the rigid structure of classical ballet.
- With their powerful, lyrical performances, dancers Isadora Duncan and Loie Fuller promoted this art form as a new kind of artistic expression and entertainment in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
- Ted Shawn and Ruth St. Denis who established the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts in Los Angeles in 1915, are two other notable personalities in modern dance.
- The following generation of modern dancers, including Martha Graham, Charles Weidman, and Doris Humphrey, were taught at the Denishawn School.
- These dancers took the Denishawn methods and adapted them into modern American dance.
- By the middle of the 20th century, modern dance had gained popularity and had given rise to other modern dance movements, including contemporary and lyrical dance.
- It also gave birth to some of the most legendary performers, such as Twyla Tharp, Katherine Dunham, and Alvin Ailey.
Traits Of Modern Dance?
Each and every art form has its own unique traits and that is the reason for that art form becoming famous or getting criticized. Similarly, modern dance also has some of its own unique traits, which are as follows:
Freeform and Improvisational: A common description of modern dance is that it’s flexible and freeform, with long, comfortable movements mixed with quick ones that showcase the body’s compression and expansion. Some dancers even use improvisation in their performances, creating their own special steps for routines.
Emotional: The emotions that the music has in the dances are expressed through modern dance. Dancing is just a raw or passionate performance of emotions to music.
It rejects Protocol: Modern dancers use their body weight to move themselves over the floor rather than aiming for the weightlessness and grace of ballet, frequently falling, tumbling, or rolling to express rhythm.
Basic Movements of Modern Dance
Modern dance involves flexible, free-style movements as its basis. The basic movements are taken from the ballet style of traditional dance.
- This traditional ballet step is frequently executed in twists and at body angles in modern dance. Similar ballet routines found in modern dance choreography include chasse, pas de bourree, and port de bra of the arms.
- When performing modern dance moves on stage, some are done on half-pointed bare feet or in modern dance sandals.
- Chaine tour (chain turns), glissade (gliding steps) before jumps, tour de basque (leaps), and front-to-back and side-to-side steps resembling the ballet step “chasse” are examples of modern dance moves.
- Geometric shapes like triangles, rectangles, and circles are frequently used in group modern dance choreography by the dancers’ bodies, which helps the audience understand the theme and subject of the modern dance better.
- These days, “jazz dance,” a different dance style that also draws from fundamental ballet technique, is sometimes mistaken for modern dance. In contemporary music, it is performed at faster tempos.
- Modern dance choreography is performed with a theme in mind, which sets it apart from jazz.
- Jazz dance is a free-form dance style that features a range of turns, hops, jumps, leaps, and jazz walks set to lively music. These are softer, more flowing movements in modern dance.
Also read: Gandhara Art: Features,History, Themes & More
Famous Modern Dancers
There have been numerous modern dancers over the years who have made a lasting impression on the dance stage. Here are a few well-known personalities in the field of modern dance.
Katherine Dunham: After years of study, Katherine Dunham was inspired to create her now-famous Dunham Technique by the dance cultures of the Caribbean. Dunham creates something entirely original and revolutionary by fusing ballet and modern dance with African Diaspora dances.
Lester Horton: Known for his different theatrical style that tackled social, political, and ironic themes, Lester Horton formed his dance group in the 1930s. Horton was an accomplished choreographer who created routines for commercials and Hollywood motion pictures.
Doris Humphrey: One of the most important modern dancers and choreographers of the early 20th century was Humphrey. She invented several methods, such as the breathing technique known as “fall and recovery,” that influenced countless dancers for generations to come.
José Limón: Encouraged by his teacher Doris Humphrey, José Limón gained popularity for growing and molding his form to produce strong, personal gestures and movements using his body weight and breathing techniques.
Pearl Primus: A Trinidadian dancer, Primus was greatly influenced by black experience and African dance. Through her work, she aimed to challenge Western misconceptions about Africa and African people. Primus was a type of creative activist who incorporated social justice and cultural sensitivity into her dance.
Charles Weidman: Charles Weidman developed a unique style of dancing known as “kinetic pantomime,” which featured unexpected, angular motions that gave his dance a mysterious appearance. It was his dancing that drew other men to the art form.
Recent Posts
FAQs
Some of the famous examples of modern art are hip-hop, lyrical, freestyle and fusion.
Uday Shankar is known as the father of modern Indian dance.
The formality and discipline of ballet gave rise to modern dance in the early 1900s. Instead of just moving vertically high, as was typically done in ballet, dancers wanted to move freely and naturally through empty space.
This was all about the “Modern Dance”. For more such informative blogs, check out our UPSC Exams Section and Study Material Section, or you can learn more about us by visiting our Indian exams page.