Contemporary & Modern Dance
“The present enters the body before it enters history.”
History & cultural context
Modern dance began as a revolt against the rules of ballet. At the start of the twentieth century Isadora Duncan danced barefoot to concert music, and in Germany Rudolf Laban and Mary Wigman developed expressive dance. In the United States, Martha Graham built a technique on contraction and release, and Doris Humphrey on fall and recovery.
After the Second World War, Merce Cunningham and composer John Cage introduced chance procedures, and in 1962 the Judson Dance Theater questioned what dance could be. Pina Bausch's Tanztheater Wuppertal, which she led from 1973, joined dance and theatre. Contemporary dance today is open to every method and body.
Masters, schools & legacy
Alvin Ailey's Revelations (1960) became one of the most performed modern dance works. Training centres include the Martha Graham School, The Ailey School, Trinity Laban in London and P.A.R.T.S., founded in Brussels in 1995 by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. Contemporary companies and festivals now exist on every continent.
Dances of this world
- Graham technique
- Humphrey-Limón technique
- Cunningham technique
- Horton technique
- Dunham technique
- Isadora Duncan dance
- Ausdruckstanz (German expressionist dance)
- Tanztheater (dance theatre)
- Judson Dance Theater (postmodern dance)
- Contact improvisation
Further reading
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