Category: ‘Modern’

• Alvin Ailey, “Revelations” (1960) performed April 28, 2012 [Review]

   Guide: Modern Dance in America DANCE IN PROFILE: Alvin Ailey, Revelations (1960) A complete performance of Revelations from 1986 is viewable on YouTube here (28 minutes into the video). With Revelations, dancer-choreographer Alvin Ailey (1931-1989) revolutionized the role of African-Americans in Modern dance and created an enormously successful fusion of widely accessible style and themes and artistic quality. Revelations draws on black [...]

  posted in Dance, Modern, Reviews tagged Alvin Ailey, Modern dance

• Merce Cunningham (1919-2009): dancer, choreographer, and interdisciplinary collaborator

   Guide: Modern Dance in America While many dancer-choreographers of the second generation (such as Jose Limón) continued to develop the traditions and techniques pioneered by the “Big Four” (Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, and Hanya Holm), there were some who chose to break away from these ideals and establish new and unorthodox approaches to dance. Several of [...]

  posted in Dance, Modern tagged Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Modern dance

• ODC/Dance Downtown, March 22, 2012 [Review]

   Guide: Modern Dance in America The second program on ODC’s Dance Downtown at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco featured three works choreographed by the three Artistic Directors of the ODC. The San Francisco-based ODC Dance Company was founded in 1971 by Brenda Way, and is now among the leading professional Modern dance companies [...]

  posted in Dance, Modern, Reviews tagged Modern dance, ODC Dance Company

• Jose Limón, “The Moor’s Pavane” (1949)

   Guide: Modern Dance in America DANCE IN PROFILE: Jose Limón, The Moor’s Pavane (1949) Watch the full video of this piece, with the original dancers performing. [YouTube] With The Moor’s Pavane, Jose Limón compressed Shakespeare’s Othello into a 21-minute, single-movement work featuring Limón himself as Othello along with his close collaborators Betty Jones (Desdemona), Lucas Hoving (Iago), and Pauline Koner (Emilia), with music by Baroque composer Henry [...]

  posted in Dance, Modern tagged Jose Limón, Merce Cunningham, Modern dance

• Dance After the Heroic Age: The Second Generation

   Guide: Modern Dance in America Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, and Hanya Holm, know as the “big four” choreographers of the ‘30s and ‘40s—as well as composer/critic Louis Horst—established training programs for dancers (often the dancers in their own companies, who would perform their work) in or before the mid-‘30s. They distilled and passed on [...]

  posted in Dance, Modern tagged Modern dance

• Nell Shaw Cohen, “The Course of Empire” (2008) Inspired by the paintings of Thomas Cole

   Guide: Thomas Cole’s “The Course of Empire”  Guide: Music Inspired by Art The Course of Empire (2008) is a string quartet by Nell Shaw Cohen inspired by a cycle of five paintings by Thomas Cole (1801-1848) of the same name. Explore these topics to learn more: Inspired by Art - The process of composing music inspired by paintings and [...]

  posted in Art, Modern, Music tagged music inspired by art, Nell Shaw Cohen, new music, The Course of Empire, Thomas Cole

• Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, February 17, 2012 [Review]

   Guide: Modern Dance in America I had the pleasure of seeing Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, the national ballet company of Monaco, perform a program of two long works, Altro Canto and Opus 40, at the Joyce Theater in New York City. Both works were created by the company’s director since the early 1990s, Jean-Christophe Maillot. Maillot’s vocabulary is far [...]

  posted in Dance, Modern, Reviews tagged ballet, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, Modern dance

• The Heroic Age of Modern Dance

   Guide: Modern Dance in America The period from about 1926-1942 is considered to be the golden era of dance in America. It was at this time the foundations of Modern dance were formulated and established and a vibrant canon of dance styles evolved. Influenced by the new approaches to dance popularized by Denishawn, and ideas filtering [...]

  posted in Dance, Modern tagged Doris Humphrey, Martha Graham, Modern dance

• Doris Humphrey (1895-1958): dancer, choreographer, and dance theorist

   Guide: Modern Dance in America Doris Humphrey was notable for her carefully conceived and wholly original method and theory of dance, and her works were founded on both artistic philosophies and practical principles. The Art of Making Dances, a book Humphrey penned in the last years of her life, elucidates her theories of choreography. Humphrey was primarily interested [...]

  posted in Dance, Modern tagged Doris Humphrey, Modern dance

• Modern Dance in America [GUIDE]

   Modern Dance in America is an evolving overview of some of the most important and influential choreographers/dancers, works, and movements in the history of Modern dance in America from the turn of the 20th century up to the present. Context A Very Brief History of Ballet An Introduction to Modern Dance Pioneers: Americans in Europe Loie [...]

  posted in Dance, Guides, Modern tagged Modern dance