Modern Dance History:
A new vision of dance was formulated in the 20th century. It wasn’t just created at the beginning of the
20th century; rather it was a synthesis of many people’s contributions and also the events that had occurred
during the last quarter of the 19th century. The term “New Dance” was used to describe the developing art
form, rather than “Modern Dance”, since the latter term had yet to be coined. The new dance emerged as a
response to the ballet that populated the variety shows and music halls, which had a rigid formula of steps and
poses. The new dance was a product of several strands that wove together through dancers’ studies and
backgrounds (History of Dance, Gayle Kassing 2007).
One strand of the new dance form consisted of the concepts, techniques, costumes, and stage settings
from around the world. For example, the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 contained the exotic dancing of Little
Egypt and other ethnic dancers who appeared in similar shows and on the Atlantic City boardwalk. In
vaudeville and variety shows, “skirt dancers” performed fancy dances that incorporated various dance forms
that wove together in a historical, political, and societal framework, which eventually led to the development of
the new dance form (Kassing 2007).
Another strand came from actress and teacher Genevieve Stebbens, who taught the Delsarte method.
Francois Delsarte’s system used poses and gestures to display emotions. Stebbins’ teaching influenced Isadora
Duncan, Ruth St. Denis, and Ted Shawn (Kassing 2007).
Additional Early Influences on New Dance Forms:
Diverse backgrounds and disciplines were instrumental in shaping early dance artists and their philosophies and
choreographic subject matter. In the last quarter of the 19th century, Melvin Gilbert developed aesthetic dance
in physical education for women, work that was furthered by dance teacher Louis Chalif. In the early years of
the 20th century, Gertrude Colby and Bird Larson taught their natural dance forms in colleges (Kassing 2007).
Aesthetic dance was first introduced as aesthetic calisthenics to avoid using the word dance. Melvin Gilbert (a
respected Maine dance teacher), changed it to aesthetic dance. Gilbert was an instrumental force in physical
education dance during the last decades of the 19th century. He taught aesthetic dance at the sources of the new
physical education: Harvard, Boston Normal School of Gymnastics, and Sargent College. He created aesthetic
dance for women’s physical education. Gertrude Colby, who had graduated from Gilbert’s program, taught
physical education and aesthetic dance at the Speyer School as part of Columbia University in New York. After
some experimentation, she developed a natural rhythmic movement program for children. Another colleague of
Colby, Bird Larson, taught at Barnard College had also studied the Delsarte method and taught natural rhythmic
expression with works that often paralleled musical forms. She had a background in corrective physical
education which provided her work with a scientific movement basis for the dance technique she developed
(Kraus and Chapman 1981; Spiesman 1960). These educational pioneers in the new dance were a direct link to
Margaret H’Doubler, who instituted the first dance major at the University of Wisconsin in 1926.
Major Figures in the “New Dance”:
Loie Fuller (1862-1928)Born in Fullersburg, IL (just outside of Chicago) and was a major innovator with interest in all aspects of
theater. Her fascination with material and lighting effects extended her repertoire, which used a choreographic
vocabulary of movement, light, color, form, and sound that had audience appeal in an age of movement and
experimentation. Her theories of dance included using natural, nonballetic gestures and movements. Her dance
was a direct response to sensation and emotions. She used few specific steps, instead interpreting the music
spontaneously. The major works in her repertory included Serpentine Dance, The Butterfly, Salome, and Fire
Dance. In contrast to Isadora Duncan, her rival, Fuller was a realist. She also preceded Duncan in training a
company of dancers in her style and in using classical music for her performances. She founded a school and a
company in 1908 called Loie Fuller and Her Muses so she could expand her artistic ideas. The company was
mainly girls and wore tunics and danced barefoot.
Isadora Duncan (1878-1927)Born in San Francisco, CA and began her professional career in 1898 as a show dancer in Chicago. She joined
Loie Fuller’s company for a brief time in 1902 due to artistic differences with Fuller. Unlike Fuller, Duncan
used few technical effects. Her only devices were her body and powerful personality (Kraus and Chapman
1969). She established a school in 1904 in Grunewald, Germany, and others in France and Russia, in which
students were trained through gymnastic exercises and encouraged to express themselves through movement
(This school was the basis for her program of education). Three of her dancers would later perpetuate Duncan’s
work in the U.S. Duncan’s dances were a combination of imagination and free-flowing movement, with some
pantomime. Usually, her face was uplifted toward the sky and her arms were extended in a lot of her
movements. Duncan’s legacy was her use of great music (Chopin, Schubert, and Wagner), her free-flowing
costumes, her bare feet, and the use of an empty stage space. Her theory of movement was that motion was
motivated by emotion and expressed with the instrument of the entire body. Her major works were Marseillaise
and Marche Slave.
*On a side note, Isadora Duncan suffered a series of terrible tragedies in her life:
Of her three children, one died soon after birth and the other two drowned.
Her husband, who was 20 years younger than her, committed suicide.
She ended up dying in an automobile accident when her long scarf she was wearing became tangled in the
wheel of the car she was driving.
Ruth St. Denis (1877-1968)Born in New Jersey, she was known as the “First Lady of American Modern Dance” and was a contemporary of
Isadora Duncan. St. Denis’ mother was a student of Genevieve Stebbens and taught Ruth the Delsarte elocution
and movement. For the most part, Ruth was a self-taught dancer, with only childhood training with ballet
dancer Marie Bonfanti. St. Denis’s unique style encompassed a variety of dramatic, cultural, historical,
mystical, and abstract themes. She brought glimpses of Eastern dance to her performances. She also presented
a religious view of dance that supported her interest in the spiritual values of her art. In 1914, St. Denis married
Ted Shawn, who had first seen her dance in 1910 in a Denver performance. The following year, the couple
established the Denishawn School in L.A. (Highly influential in introducing American audiences to new forms
of dance and educated many first-generation American modern dance artists and choreographers). From 19211925 Denishawn was the highest paid and most noteworthy dance company in the U.S. touring there and in the
Far East during the 1920’s. Ruth St. Denis had a presentation quality that was very unique. Her performance
quality and the combination of religious mysticism and her desire to bring dance to the American people made
St. Denis and Denishawn successful. In 1931, St. Denis and Shawn separated and Ruth St. Denis went on to
create Society of Spiritual Arts and the School of Natya and continued to remain active as a teacher throughout
the rest of her life. Her major works were Radha, Incense, and Soaring (Choreographed with Doris Humphrey).
Ted Shawn (1891-1972)Born in Kansas City, MO, he was advised to exercise for health reasons after being diagnosed with an illness
and became interested in dance as a form of exercise. After realizing the lack of American male dancers, he
began his crusade for men to dance with dignity. His emphasis on the male dancer and establishment of an allmale company provided balance in the matriarch-dominated early years of modern dance. It was not until after
his separation from Ruth St. Denis in 1931 that he began to explore in depth the role of the male as a dance
artist. He established Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers in 1933, which was based at his retreat in Lee, MA.
After touring the U.S. for seven years, the company disbanded and Shawn established Jacob’s Pillow on his
property in Lee which became a summer dance intensive and destination for students of modern dance.
Shawn’s choreography explored historical, cultural, and American themes, and often included contemporary
commentary. His major focus was the restoration of the male to a central role in dance. In his dance technique
and choreography, Ted Shawn used free adaptations of ballet technique (barefoot ballet), studies of ethnic dance
from around the world, and Native American forms. Delsarte was an influence on his early work, as was
German expressionism. His major works were Xochitl (The dance that was actually created for the young
Martha Graham), Death of Adonis, Prometheus Bound, and Kinetic Molpai (Performed at Jacob’s Pillow in
1962 and later by Alvin Ailey Company in 1972).
Major Figures in what was now called Modern Dance:
Four leading figures in modern dance, known as the “Four Pioneers”-Hanya Holm, Martha Graham, Doris
Humphrey, and Charles Weidman-were making their own artistic statements through dance beginning in the
middle of the 19th century. These four pioneers are often thought of as the first generation of modern dancers
because some of them had studied at the Denishawn School and also because they were the first to be called by
a new name: modern dancers (Kassing 2007).
Martha Graham (1894-1991)Born in Pennsylvania, she devoted her life to performing and creating dances. Her technique, which may have
been influenced by her physician father’s interest in mind/body relationships, provides a codified language of
modern dance. Graham enrolled in Denishawn School in 1916 and joined their company three years later. She
stayed with the company until 1923. She then headed to New York and performed in the Greenwich Village
Follies for two seasons. Then, she taught at the Eastman School for Dance and Dramatic Action for one year.
She opened her own studio in 1927. Her early dances were all solos. During the 1930’s, her dances were
angular and stark, expressing the conflicts within man. She then expanded her performances to trios, then to
ensembles. She began forming her technique when she taught at Bennington College from 1934-1942. Her
choreography then changed to characters, particularly female heroines, and she began to make larger dances
with more theatrical elements. During the 1940’s, her choreographic themes shifted to psychological and
literary themes. They then changed to Greek myths in the next decade and lastly, her final pieces were cosmic
themes. Graham’s movement theory was based on contraction and release. Her expressive codified movement
vocabulary requires a centered body and uses breathing and the opposition of forces. Her body of work consists
of 181 dances. Some of her major works are Lamentation, Primitive Mysteries, Letter to the World, Deaths and
Entrances, and Appalachian Spring (Kassing 2007).
Doris Humphrey (1895-1958)Born near Chicago, Humphrey always wanted to dance and taught ballet to earn money. In 1918, she
auditioned for the Denishawn School and was immediately invited into the company. She was a protégé of
Ruth St. Denis. Doris met Charles Weidman at Denishawn (a fellow company member) and left Denishawn in
1927 to establish a company and school in New York. In the 1930’s, Humphrey and Weidman were on faculty
at the Bennington College summer school program. Humphrey left the stage in 1945 for health reasons, but
continued to be instrumental to modern dance. She became Jose Limon’s artistic director for his company in
1945 and developed him as a choreographer and built the company’s repertoire. Humphrey’s technique and
philosophy of modern dance were based on the concepts of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Humphrey was an
intellectual and she analyzed gesture and meanings of gesture and the relationship of movement to the
emotional stimuli. Her style expressed the power of the human spirit (Stodelle 1978). Her choreography and
performance with Weidman balanced male and female forms, in contrast to Graham’s works, which reflected a
predominantly female point of view. Her technique used elements of physiological and psychological
experiences, natural movement of humans, and gravity. Her major works were Air for the G String, Water
Study, The Shakers, the trilogy New Dance, Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, and Lament for Ignacio
Sanchez Mejias (Kassing 2007).
Charles Weidman (1901-1975)Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Weidman danced during interludes between silent movies at the Stuart Theatre in
downtown Lincoln. He left Lincoln at age 19 to study at Denishawn, where he met Doris Humphrey. After
eight years with Denishawn, Weidman and Humphrey left and established a company in New York. He also
taught, choreographed, and was an artist-teacher with Humphrey at Bennington College. After parting ways
with Humphrey, he established his own company and continued to teach. He created mixed-media pieces in the
late 1950’s with sculptor Mikhail Santaro. In 1972, he restaged some of Humphrey’s choreography at
Connecticut College. Weidman’s choreography was a blend of dance with a subtle use of mime, comedy, and
wit. He often chose autobiographical subjects in his dances. He was one of the first artists to explore kinetic
pantomime, in which he took literal movement and moved it into the abstract. His major works were Flickers,
A House Divided, Fables of Our Time, and Brahms Waltzes, Opus 39 (A dance that was dedicated to Doris
Humphrey after she died). (Kassing 2007)
Hanya Holm (1893-1992)Born Johanna Eckert, Hanya Holm grew up in Germany. In 1921, she saw German expressionistic dancer Mary
Wigman perform. She was so impressed that she decided to attend Wigman’s school and later joined her
company. From 1923-1928, she toured Europe until the company disbanded because of a financial crisis. She
then went to New York and started a branch of the Wigman Company there in 1931 and eventually created a
company that toured the “gymnasium circuit” of colleges throughout the country. She also joined the summerschool faculty at Bennington College. In 1936, the Wigman School was renamed the Hanya Holm Studio and
later Hanya Holm School of the Dance. During 1940, Holm directed and taught modern dance at Colorado
College. Throughout her career, she also taught at Mills College, the University of Wisconsin, and Alwin
Nikolais’ school in New York. Holm’s choreography focused on movement in its relation to space and on
emotion as the basis for creating movement. Her work is an extension of Mary Wigman and Laban. Holm
worked on movement projecting into space and molding and being molded in space. She used space, emotion,
and feeling as the basis for movement. Her generic modern dance technique became the basis for modern dance
courses taught in colleges, disseminated through the work of Margaret H’Doubler. Her work is a continuum
from Wigman to Nikolais and Pilobolus. Her major works were Trend and Metropolitan Daily (Kassing 2007).
Major Figures in Modern Dance (Second Generation)
The first generation of modern dancers was predominantly female. In the second generation, strong male
figures tried to establish a broader base and to continue the pioneering work of Shawn and Weidman in the
1930’s. Some of the pioneers in this time frame were Jose Limon (1908-1972), Lester Horton (1909-1953),
Anna Sokolow (1910-2000), Erick Hawkins (1909-1994), and Pearl Primus (1919-1994).
Lester Horton was born in Indianapolis in 1909 and had a great interest in art, theater, and Native American
culture. He moved to L.A. in 1928 and danced and choreographed in Michio Ito’s company. Early on, he
choreographed works that had wide audience appeal, basing them on African American, Haitian, Mexican, and
Native American cultures. In 1942, he formed the Horton Dance Theater and School, which lasted until after
his death. His dance company was the first to integrate African American, Mexican, Japanese, and Caucasian
dancers. Horton’s choreography most often related to social activism, presenting themes that melded dance and
drama. His productions relied on costuming, décor, and theatricality to create a sense of a total theater
experience. He developed a movement technique with Bella Lewitzky, which was codified in the 1950’s. His
technique expands the body’s movement range and builds a strong, versatile dancer. His major works were The
Beloved and Salome (Kassing 2007).