Timeline

• Isadora Duncan (1877 – 1927)
  • Started the evolution of contemporary dance
  • American – style broke free of ballet conventions
  • Icon of this movement
  • Freedom from convention
• Rudolf Laban (1879 – 1958)
  • Experimented with
    • Movement choirs
    • Theories of movement
  • Invented a form of modern dance notation
  • Founder of “Ausdruckstanz”
    • Dance of feeling and expression
  • Devoted himself to the relationship of dance and music, that until dance is relieved from being music visualization it can not lift itself from being bottom of the pile in terms of hierarchy and significance of the arts.
• Mary Wigman (Former student of Laban) (1886 – 1973)
  • Witch Dance (1914)
    • Dances without music
    • Pure Dance
    • never done before
  • Witch dance (1929)
    • Creates movement her self
    • musical accompaniment of gongs and drums is set to it
    • Movements have a powerful force
    • The musician is following her not her following the music. Changes the relationship that has come thought out the creating of modern dance. Following Laban’s ideas.
• Kurt Jooss (Prodigy Of Laban) (1901 – 1979)
  • danced in Laban methods and used ballet techniques
  • Created political theater
    • Green Table (1932)
      • Anti war piece won the first international award for choreography.
      • Tells a story about if it continues it’ll just end back in war.
      • Year after Hitler became Chancellor of German
• Martha Graham (1894 – 1991)
  • Pioneering her own language in America
  • Big impact in american modern dance
  • Graham Technique
    • Became her lasting language
    • Based on breath and contractions
• Merce Cunningham (1919 – 2009)
  • Wanted to dance for dance sake
    • Removed story, meaning
  • His was strongly influenced by composer John Cage
  • Uses Chance in the creation of choreography
  • makes music and dance separately.
  • dance became pure movement
    • Links with Dance being relieved from being music visualization (Laban)
• Karole Armitage (1954 – Present)
  • Classically trained Ballerina who danced with Merce Cunningham
  • New York, 1970, she rebelled against her mentors and peers.
    • combined ballet with the energy of punk
  • First Punk Ballerina
•  Michael Clark (1962 – Present)
  • been Inspired by Karole Armitage
  • Royal Ballet school prodigy
  • 1984 – Michael Clark Company launched
  • he was a free spirit taking ideology from Isadora Duncan from breaking from the conventions of ballet
• Anne teresa de Keersmaeker (1960 – Present)
  • Inspired by Trisha Brown
    • accumulation piece (repeating movements)
  • Keersmaeker uses the repeating movement but gave it attitude.
•  Pina Bausch (1940 – 2009)
  • She brought dance close too theater
  • Works usually Three hours long
  • Including dialogue and props/acting
  • Prodigy of Kurt Jooss
  • She was the Old Lady at 26 in Jooss work – The Green Table
• Akram Khan (1974 – Present)
  • Trained in contemporary dance, while dancing Kathak.
  • In dance piece’s he included both of these too tell a story.
• Wayne McGregor (1970 – Present)
  • The dance’s didn’t have too flow from section too section.

Bibliography reference – [1]