The document summarizes the contributions of six major early modern dancers - Loie Fuller, Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn, Charles Weidman, and Martha Graham. It discusses how each dancer pioneered new techniques that pushed boundaries and helped establish modern dance as a serious art form in the early 20th century. Many of their famous works are still performed today.

1. By: Jenna Kroll, Sarah Schultz and Killian Moore

2.  Not considered a serious art until the early 20th
century
 Began to stray away from focusing on the
technical aspects to focusing more on the
artistry
 Primarily in the United States and Germany
 Rebellion against the rigid formalities of classic
ballet
 Sought to inspire audience and express their
views

3. WE‟LL BE DISCUSSING OTHER DANCERS
 Loie Fuller  Maud Allan
 Isadora Duncan  Mary Wigman
 Ruth St. Denis  Doris Humphrey
 Ted Shawn
 Charles Weidman and more…
 Martha Graham

5.  Marie Louis Fuller  Little/no dance
 Child of a Theatrical training
family  Traveled to
 First professional Germany and
appearance at the France to further her
age of two dance career
 Grew up touring in  Accepted to Folies-
minor dramatic roles Bergere
and variety
entertainment
“turns”

6.  Her three-quarter- hour
program of dances were
acclaimed for its
originally and
exceptional use of
lighting
 Isadora Duncan was a
member of her company
 Often called “A creature
of light”

7.  On stage techniques
- use of lighting
-light weight, rippling cloth
 Left no technique to learn
 Not a founder of a dance school
Diagram of lighting technique
 Set an example for future artists
 Her work influenced future artists in modern dance like Isadora
Duncan and Martha Graham, poets, painters, sculptors, and
intellectuals.

8.  Exceptionally modest with
her work
 Spins/turns
 Improvised
 Theatrical lighting
 Wanted to experiment with
phosphorescent salts
 Secretive about her lighting
techniques
 Her skill of light became
more enhanced throughout
her career
 Danced through emotions

9. Choregraphed by Fuller, Music by Gillet (“Loin du bal”). First
preformed at the Casino Theater, New York, NY., 1891, by
Fuller
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIrnFrDXjlk

10. Choreography by Loie Fuller, first preformed at the Folies-
Bergere, Paris, France, 185, by Loie Fuller

11.  Violet – 1892  Radium Dance – 1904
 Widow – 1893  Flight of the
 La Nuit – 1895 Butterflies – 1905
 The Bird – 1898  Bottom of the Sea –
 Les Sylphes – 1899 1906
 Danse Flouresent-  India Pantomime –
1901 1907
 La Danse Funebre-  Ballet of Light – 1908
1902  Marche Turque – 1909
 The Grottoes - 1903  Sweeping Fires - 1910

13.  Born in San Fransisco, California in 1878
 Mother was a music teacher
 Founded many dance schools all over the
world (United States, Germany, and France)
 Growing up the arts were considered more
important than formal education
 Considered by many to be the, ”Mother of
modern dance”

14.  Began as a show dancer
in Chicago and then
moved to New York
where she interpretive
danced for social salons
 Considered to be quite
eccentric

15.  Greek civilization and sculptures (tunic, no
shoes)
 She felt they had a great “dance energy”
 Music
 Her children‟s deaths
 Wanted to restore dance to an art form rather
than just entertainment
 Emotion

16.  Solos to classical composers like Beethoven and
Wagner
 Simple Steps (walks, skips, jumps, runs)
 Dynamic shading and rhythm
 Simple tunic
 Improvisational technique made her hard to
copy
 “Free Dance”
 Natural movements

17. http://www.duncandancers.com/video/marseill
aise1.mov
 Expressed her sympathy for the French
peasants trying to over throw order (WWI)
 Song later became official song in the French
National Anthem

18.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXrkEMe
mKc8
 Expressed her sympathy for Russian peasants
being opressed

20.  Raised on a small farm in New Jersey
 Trained by her mother
 Training in random areas (ie. Broadway)
 Danced in minor roles until seeing the poster of
the Goddess Isis advertising cigarettes
 Married her pupil Ted Shawn

21.  Middle Eastern
movement
 Ciggarette Add
 Expression of religious
and mystical themes

22.  Often simple but
entrancing
 Movement of fabric/
Shading
 Each dance told a story

23.  Centers around the idea
that she is a snake
charmer in a Middle
Eastern Bazaar
 Focused on movement
of the arms

24.  Minimal amount of
movement was a risk
 Captured the
meditative state of a
Holy man in India
 Not a crowd pleaser

25.  Founded by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn
 School and company located in Los Angeles,
California
 Wide variety of eclectic dance available
(Oriental, Spanish, American Indian, etc.)
 Martha Graham, Charles Weidman, Doris
Humphrey
 Very influential on future companies
 Many dances still performed today

27.  Date of Birth- October 21, 1891 in Kansas City,
Missouri
 Date of Death- January 9, 1972
 Known as “The Father of American Dance”
 Partially paralyzed- helped him get into
dancing
 Danced professionally in Los Angeles in the
early 20s
 Entered the army in World War Two

28.  Film- Dances of the Ages
 Started the Denishawn
Dance School in Los
Angeles
 While on tour- Broadway,
recitals, and vaudeville

29.  Creation of “Jacob‟s Pillow” Dance Festival
 Jacob‟s Pillow lead to “The School of Dance for
Men”
 Shawn's last performance on stage- Siddhas of
the Upper Air
 Shawn published 9 books:
-Ruth St. Denis: Pioneer and Prophet (1920)
-The American Ballet (1926)
 Choreographed nearly 200 Pieces of work

30.  Shawn and Denis established the principal of
music visualization in modern dance
 His style had a very vigorous, masculine style
 Wanted more men to join in to do ballet
 Insisted that each dance contained ethnic and
modern dancer, and ballet
 Dervish Turning (Whirling Dervish)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoWYBAx4
VLc&feature=related
-Sometimes used for religious purposes like
Muslim monks

31.  Choreographed by Ted Shawn. Music by Benjamin
Godard. First performed at academy of music in
Newburgh, New York- October 6, 1924
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPaw-
U3GPS8
(1:00-1:30)

32.  Choreographed by Ted Shawn. Music by Jess
Meeker. First performed at Clark School. Goshen,
New York, October 5, 1935.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqWjm7B
HEkI

34.  Date of Birth- July 22, 1901
 Date of Death- July 15, 1975
 Choreographer, modern dancer, and teacher
 Weidman got a scholarship to Denishawn at
age 19
 Began his dance career at Denishawn Dance
Company
 Weidman Started the Humphrey-Weidman
Dance Company
 He formed the Theatre Dance Company

35.  Choreographed for Broadway plays
 Weidman was inspired by Ruth St. Denis and
Ted Shawn
 Combined the creation of new dances with
revivals of his most popular works
 Encouraged males to be dancers
 Weidman Showed the relationship between
music and movement through his dancing

36.  Masculine
 Dramatic Skill
 A lot of floor work
 Used lots of rhythm
 Kinetic pantomime
 Artistic clarity

37.  Choreographed by Charles Weidman. Music by
Vivian Fine. First performed at Bennington.
Complex dance.
 It is called “Opus 51” because Humphrey
asked him how many dances he had done up
to that time and he said “51”.
 Not Concerned with social betterment or
elevated feeling
 A sheer joy dance movement

38. Choreographed by Charles Weidman.
The New York Times described “The twisted minds of bigots
symbolized by twisted bodies. Dancers doubled up with
rage and when the lynch mob finally dragged in its
victim, they gathered about his body as if they were
(1:10- 1:25)
vultures.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l89JFtzajTU
(1:10- 1:25)

40.  Born in Allegheny, PA  Heretic - 1929
 First dance instruction  Primitive Mysteries -
at the Cumnock 1931 (1st unanimously
school in LA acclaimed
 Attended summer masterpiece)
session at the  On staff at the
Denishawn school in Bennington School of
1916 the Dance (1934-1942)
 Formed 1st  Married to Erick
independent company Hawkins
in 1926

41.  Performed in Japan,  Most of her career, she
Indonesia, India, chose to work with
Pakistan, Iran , Israel Louis Horst
& more  Retired in 1969
 Completed a series of  Created over 150
dances on American dances
themes (Frontier, Letter
to the World,
Appalachian Spring)
 Created Clytemnesia &
Errand into the Maze
during the „50s

42.  “Everything I did was influenced by Denishawn.” –
Martha Graham
 Greek Mythology
 Brought dance into the 20th century
 often referred to as the “Picasso of Dance”
 Inspired choreographers and professional dancers
 Martha Graham Dance Company
 Transition from classical ballet to modernistic
movements
 Founded the movements Contraction, Release & Spiral

43.  “I wanted to begin not with characters or ideas, but
with movements . . .I wanted significant movement. I
did not want it to be beautiful or fluid. I wanted it to be
fraught with inner meaning, with excitement and
surge.” –Martha Graham
 Contraction, Release, Spiral
 Natural motion and to music
 “Percussive movements”
 Spastic movement, tremblings, and falls
 Strong emotions
 Used music to make works more dramatic

44.  Founded in 1926 by Martha Graham
 American style dance
 Works in contemporary social, political, psychological,
sexual contexts
 Today, the company continues to carry on Graham‟s
spirit of inginuity
 New program that show cases her master pieces, her
contemporaries, and new works inspired by her legacy
 Continues performing Appalachian Spring,
Lamentation, Cave of the Heart, Deaths and Entrances,
and Chronicle, and more.

45. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzN8-eDwbx8
Contraction technique

46. Choreographed by Martha Graham. Anonymous music (Breton
Tetus). Costumes and lighting by Martha Graham. First
performed at Booth Theatre, New York, NY, April 14, 1929,
by Martha Graham and new concert group
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6r-hN2ndIw

47. Choreographed by Martha Graham. Music by Louis Horst.
Costumes and lighting by Martha Graham. Scenery by
Isamu Noguchi. First performed at the Guild Theatre, New
York, NY, April 28, 1935, by Martha Graham
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2Q6UJN0ef0

48.  Spanish Dance – 1925  Transitions – 1934
 Novelette – 1926  Praeludium – 1935
 Peasant Sketches – 2927  Horizons – 1936
 Chinese Poem – 1928  Opening Dance – 1937
 Dance – 1929  American Document –
 Two Chants – 1930 1938
 Rhapsodics – 1931  Every Soul is a Circus –
 Ecstatic Dance – 1932 1939
 Tragic patterns - 1933  El Penitente – 1940
and more…

49.  Covered 6 major dancers who have greatly contributed
to the modern dance movement of the 20th century.
 Modern dance pushed the boundaries of dance, mainly
classic ballet, and in turn replaced it with new
techniques that raised controversy in the US.
 The artists influenced many choreographers and
dancers
 Some are founders of their own dance companies and
schools (EX: Martha Graham and Ted Shawn)
 Many of these artists have choreographed and
performed famous works that are still re-enacted today