The purpose of modern dance

The problem

Modern dance is one of the most difficult genres to define using technique. Modern is not necessarily fast or slow or made with specific music or any music. It doesn’t necessarily highlight a specific physical ability or tell a story. It is not necessarily nothing. And it can include everything. This is fine and cool from the point of view of many choreographers and dancers because, in theory, it gives them endless possibilities to play with.

The problem is that the “infinite possibilities” make modern dance really difficult to speak and very difficult for the general public to understand. (This is important since they are the ones who pay the bills.)

This identity crisis is understandable for an art form whose sole purpose seems not to be to do what was done before. Studios and even universities often don’t have time to delve into modern dance theory. However, only those who take the time to learn where modern dance comes from have what it takes to give it a serious future.

Define purpose, define gender

The heart of this problem has a lot to do with the fact that the original purpose of modernity was very, very vague. Something like, “Push the limits set by ballet! Break the assumed rules and find a new way to move!” That’s an inspiring place to start, but a definition like “modern is a movement that is different …” doesn’t give us much to work with.

As modern dance developed, so did purpose. Each era had its own twist on what the purpose of modern dance should be. And interestingly, each purpose has a follow-up that survives today.

The original purpose

The beginnings of the modern, fortunately, are well documented. We can read the thoughts of the founders to understand what the purpose of modern dance was for them. As we know, a strong purpose was the opposition to the rules of ballet. Doris Humphrey spoke about the beginnings of modern dance:

“This is not to say that the ballet form was bad, but only that it was limited and underdeveloped: a permanent sixteen, Sleeping Beauty herself. So well established was the formula for so many hundreds of years that, like the century XX dawned with an avalanche of new ideas, there was considerable resistance to any change from the light love story and the fairy tale, and there still is “(Doris Humphrey The Art of Dancing, p.15-16)

And as Hanya Holm said: “You should not dance academically. It has no way out, there is no breath, it has no life. The academic moves within a set of rules. Two plus two equals four. The artist learns rules in order to break them.” . Two plus two is five. They are both right from a different point of view. “(Visiones, p 78)

Well, originally they wanted an alternative to the rules and structure of ballet, but what did that mean? A genre has to have definitions of what it is and not just what it isn’t, right?

For Martha Graham, modern technique was the beginning of getting closer to the heart of dance in general. Martha herself said: “The function of dance is communication … Dance no longer fulfilled its function of communication. Communication is not meant to tell a story or project an idea, but to communicate an experience … This is the reason for the appearance of modern dance … Ancient forms could not give voice to the most fully awake man. ” (Vision, p.50)

In “The Vision of Modern Dance: In the Words of Its Makers” (edited by Jean Morrison Brown, Naomi Mindlin, and Charles H. Woodford), they describe their work this way:

“Martha Graham had also begun to develop a new dance technique … For the first time, American dancers created new movements for new themes and reflected their own era rather than an earlier one. Their movements evolved from the meaning of dance , rather than previously learned steps developed by peoples of a different culture.In the process of finding new techniques to express their art, these pioneers of modern dance broke existing rules – in fact, that was their intention, because they were. .. -ballet, anti-past “. (Vision, p. 43-44)

The founders did not agree on everything, but they all agreed that the old rules of dance were too restrictive and that the purpose of modern dance would be to explore new possibilities in motion. Between 1900 and 1930, modern dance was current and exciting because it reflected the change that everyone wanted. As this initial excitement faded, the purpose of modern dance began to change.

The purpose of the third and fourth generation

Modern dance underwent a subtle but interesting change between the 1940s and 1960s. The genre had been around long enough that the excitement of a new way of expressing ideas had died down. Now, instead of continuing to invent new techniques, people were excited about practicing the techniques that had been created. The dancers wanted to learn the “Graham technique” or the “Lemon technique” and perfect this new genre of dance. The dancers also forgot about the ballet boycott and began taking ballet classes to strengthen their modern technique.

“By the 1960s, technical competence had become an end in itself for modern dancers, rather than a means to an end. Technique became fixed and strict, encoded in the style of the creator, with emphasis In the Laban-Wigman-Holm tradition he included improvisation in his classes. Aspects of ballet were increasingly incorporated into modern dance classes, ballet bars were installed in dance studios. Modern dance and many modern dancers took ballet classes regularly. Hence the wide philosophical gap between the two dance forms began to narrow. ” (Vision, p. 137)

The new purpose of modern dance was to take what they already had and improve it. This meant creating “modern technique” and patterns, the very things that first and second generation modern dancers were trying to avoid.

Anna Sokolow, a second generation modern dancer, firmly believes that “… an art must constantly change; it cannot have fixed rules.

“The problem with modern dance now is that it is trying to be respectable … We shouldn’t try to create a tradition. Ballet has, and that’s fine, for ballet. But not for us. Our strength lies in in our lack of tradition. Some say the big change came in the late 1920s, and now is the time for modern dance to assimilate and solidify. That’s wrong, because it’s like building on another tradition. change there may be no growth and not enough changes are taking place today. ” (Vision, p. 108)

There were enough new dancers who wanted to learn the new modern technique for what it was, and not explore the options now, that they “won.” Techniques were solidified and rules were made.

We see that today some companies continue to preserve the technique and original ideas of their creators. Something like a living museum. Recently, the Martha Graham Dance Company specifically announced that their new purpose is to preserve Graham’s work.

So modern dance has gone through its own growing pains as it tries to decide whether the purpose is to stay true to the philosophy of always exploring and changing or preserving the new techniques we gained. Some chose technique, some chose philosophy, and some tried to do both. This three-way split in purpose made it even more difficult to give a clear definition of modern dance.

In an effort to keep things in order, the world of dance created a new sub-genre. Modern dance they were now the techniques and rules created to preserve and enhance the work of the creators. Dancers who wanted to maintain the philosophy of modernity and continue to reinvent the movement were now called postmodernists.

The postmodern agenda

So the next generation has tried to uphold the philosophy of the original modern dancers by continuing to work against established techniques. Except now, often the established techniques are the modern techniques of the creators! So how do you reinvent yourself?

Currently, postmodernism is in a new change. They may have reached a point where, as Don McDonagh put it, “there were apparently no rules left to break … In the late 1970s there was nowhere left to go to eliminate traditional practices.” (Vision, p. 199)

The postmodern agenda is to continue breaking the rules, and since this has been done for a century, it is running out of things to try. (Maybe this has something to do with the reputation the modern world now has for being difficult to understand and sometimes just plain weird.)

McDonagh continues …

“The generation of the eighties and nineties began to work with new unconventional forms of theatrical presentation … [They] continued to create works that did not require dance training, but emphasized gymnastic and highly skilled body control … Other choreographers shaped aerial acrobatics and cartwheels in spectral shows … The human voice reciting narrative or descriptive material sometimes became in an accompanying sound for dances. “(p. 200)

Postmodern popular experiments have emerged to test not only the definition of modern dance, but dance and even art in general. Speech has been added, music has been removed, and the technique has been reduced to “pedestrian movement” (also known as walking across the stage).

Mary Fulkerson, a self-proclaimed postmodernist, puts it this way. “Modern works seek to show, communicate something, transcend real life. Postmodern works seek to be, question the textures and complexities of real life.” (“Vision of modern dance”, p. 209)

Ironically, this statement sounds very similar to what the creators of the modern were saying almost a century earlier.

Going forward

Erick Hawkins, trained by Graham, had this to say: “More than ever in history, society needs the rich variety of powerful artists who do not simulate science, but explore sensitivity and do not destroy the senses.” (Erick Hawkins, p. 14)

Modern dance has come full circle: acknowledging the norm, questioning and pushing the boundaries, and then becoming the new norm as specific techniques are accepted.

The goals of breaking the rules of ballet, and then dance and art in general, have been achieved by many brave and passionate modern dancers. Now is the time for the modern to enter a new phase. It has matured in its own genre and needs to adopt it. So what is the purpose of modern dance now that the rebellion has run its course?

Martha Graham still has the answer. “The reality of dance is its truth for our inner life. Therein lies its power to move and communicate the experience.” (Vision, p.53)

This is the purpose of modern dance that will endure: to put self-expression first. Of course, it is not always successful, but dedication to communication is what will continue to distinguish modern dance from other dance genres.

Modern has served us well as artists. By exploring all that can be called dance, everyone has the opportunity to find a place that works for them. The doors of free movement have been opened. Now is the time to take what we have learned over the last hundred years and use it to express what is in the human soul.