Dancers and Choreographers that Shaped Modern Dance

SheriL | Jul 27, 2009 | 2

Merce Cunningham

As the dance world mourns the loss of Merce Cunningham, here is a look at him and other dancers/choreographers who have influenced the modern dance world.

Modern dance began as a rebellion against the conventional with Isadora Duncan's Greek inspired tunic, bare feet, and emotionally charged improvised movement. Since the time of Isadora this dance movement has continued to evolve, each generation of dancers paving the way for the next.

The 1920's brought us both Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey. These two women have become two of the most important figures in modern dance. At the time both women were dancing with a company called Denishawn, but had become tired of the artificial nature of what they were doing. They were anxious to to find their own ways to portray the triumphs and tragedies of human nature.

Martha Graham went for the theatrical, large scale themes such as Greek mythology and the American frontier. Her choreography was equally dramatic. Graham technique is famously centered around the contraction and expansion of the dancer's torso, the spiral of the spine, as well is very precise positioning of the body. It is a technique that is almost cruelly demanding and requires extreme attention to detail.

Compared to Graham, Doris Humphrey took a more organic approach to her dancing. Her work also portrayed themes of human emotion, but she didn't seem to have a need for elaborate costuming and staging. Humphrey's technique of fall and recovery was a bit more forgiving on the body, but no less difficult. The catalyst for her technique is gravity, and the fate of the dancer's body as it hangs between a feeling of being centered, and falling off that center.

Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey gave rise to a whole new crop of dancers - Jose Limon, Paul Taylor, and Merce Cunningham, just to name a few. All three of these men went on to form their own dance companies, but it was Merce Cunningham who had the most influence over the next trend in modern dance, Avant Gard.

Merce Cunningham was quite successful at shaking things up. He seemed to throw every preconceived notion held about how dance should be performed, and threw it out the window. His choreography while very precise, clean, and almost balletic, was very much about the dance steps themselves.

No longer was it necessary to have a theme, tell a story, or show emotion. Cunningham was one of the first choreographers to take dance off the proscenium stage ( where dance can only be viewed from the front) and create dances that could be viewed from all angles. He accomplished this by doing away with a central focus and having many dance sequences happening at the same time.

What was so interesting about this idea is that many times these sequences did not relate to each other.

Merce Cunningham was famous for his use of chance methods. He might use a roll of the dice to decide what dance sequence would go where. Not only that, but it was not unusual for the opening night performance to be the first time the dancer's wore their costumes, heard the music, and danced sequences all together in the performance space.

Cunningham was also revolutionary in his choice of musical score. He teamed up with composer John Cage, who was also using chance methods, and was well known for his use of electronic sounds, and spoken word in his musical compositions.

Of course time marches on, and it was not long before the avante garde period was replaced with the post modern period. While Merce Cunningham radically changed the way dancers and choreographers thought about dance, there soon was a whole new bunch of dancers with fresh and exciting ideas.

The center of the post modern trend was a Baptist church called Judson Church. One of the most notable choreographers to perform there was a woman named Twyla Thwarp. Twyla Thwarp burst onto the modern dance scene with a piece called Tank Dive. It caused quite a stir because it consisted of nothing more than Thwarp's entrance, some walking, and ended with her stepping into a pair of shoes placed at the front of the stage.

Tank Dive was shocking to audiences because it contained not a trace of conventional dance. Although later pieces would prove twyla to be a well trained dancer with a love of ballet, jazz and vigorous dance steps, she was very interested with the idea of including pedestrian movement ( walking, running, etc. ) into her work.

In a time when choreographers took themselves very seriously and tended to work with heavy themes, Thwarp was very comfortable with being humerus and edgy, and loved the idea of working with pop music. She was also influential in taking dance out of the theater and bringing it to unexpected places such as a staircase at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and New York's Central Park.

Twyla Thwarp was not the only choreographer to come of age in the post modern era of modern dance. Dancers such as Yvonne Rainer and Steve Paxton were also revolutionary in the creation of the modern dance we know today. They began to take mundane everyday movements such as the brushing of teeth and hair, dressing and undressing, and just plain walking and introducing them to the audience as dance.

This is important because I truly believe that it was this pedestrian everyday movement that has given rise to techniques such as authentic movement and contact improv, that are so popular today.

In fact, contact improv has come about through Steve Paxton's belief that anyone can dance, training or no training. Unlike the modern dance trends talked about previously, authentic movement and contact improv can be performed with no previous dance technique. These techniques are very therapeutic and help the dancer to get in tune with the "wisdom of their own body". All that is needed is a catalyst such as a childhood memory, or a gesture to get the body started and the dancer moves from there.

The modern dance movement is really a fascinating tapestry of revolutionary thinking. And today this movement is carried further with the use of multi media equipment, as well is the idea that anyone can dance. I wonder if Isadora Duncan could have imagined the ripples she was sending out into history, and that her tunic and bare feet would spawn a whole new dance movement. My guess is probably not, but I am forever grateful that she took a chance and followed her heart.

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