scholarly journals Modern Dance as an American Alternative to Classical Ballet

Author(s):  
Tatiana Portnova

The choreographic art of the United States developed in a new direction and was looking for new forms corresponding to the trends of the modern era in many ways. By the beginning of the 20th century, the classical ballet of the USA rooted in Russian choreographic culture had experienced the lack of the means of expression that could reflect a new range of themes, images, philosophical and artistic concepts that had developed by that time and required a new dance style, genres, aesthetics. Modern dance emerged along with the development of the national political and artistic and creative self-consciousness of Americans in general, during the development of national musical, choreographic, and poetic traditions by cultural figures, who searched for their path in art. The study analyses the features of American modern dance. The artistic and aesthetic principles of modern dance are identified and the historical and cultural prerequisites for the development of the national choreographic school of the United States are revealed. The study uses theoretical methods such as visual and textual analysis of choreographic performances and music for performances, comparison of means of plastic expression, movements and figures of classical ballet and modern dance, principles of stage development of artistic images of performances. The empirical study is based on the generalisation of the practical experience of staging performances by leading American dancers of the 20th century. As a result, it is noted that the features of modern dance are completely different to those of the United States classical ballet, testifying to the desire of Americans to reflect the problems of modernity and convey the unique national character of the United States culture by using elements of African or Indian dances, as well as movements that are not characteristic of classical ballet but reflect the spirit of modernity. The materials of the study are of theoretical and practical value for specialists who work with the problems of culture and art of the 20th century, including modern choreography.

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 45-51
Author(s):  
G.L. Taranda ◽  

the article analyzes the features of the American modern dance, which formed in the first half of the 20th century as an alternative to the classical ballet of the United States, which had Russian roots. In the article there were formulated both the artistic and aesthetic principles of modern dance and the historical and cultural prerequisites for the formation of the US national choreographic school. The work uses theoretical methods: visual and text analysis of choreographic works and music for performances, comparison of the means of plastic expressiveness, movements and figures of classical ballet and modern dance, the principles of stage development of artistic images of performances. The basis of the empirical study was a generalization of the practical experience of staging performances by leading American dancers of the 20th century. According to the results of the study, it is noted that the features of modern dance are opposite to the classical ballet of the United States, testify to the desire of Americans to illuminate the problems of modern time and convey the unique national features of US culture, using elements of African or Indian dances, as well as movements that are not characteristic of classical ballet, but reflect the spirit of our time. The materials of the article have theoretical and practical value for specialists dealing with the problems of culture and art of the 20th century, including modern choreography


2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sérgio de Oliveira Birchal ◽  
Âmara Fuccio de Fraga e Silva

European direct investment in Brazil dates back to the discovery of the country and has been since then either hegemonic or more important than a superficial observation can grasp, as this work aims at showing. During the 20th century, the United States has replaced Britain as the worlds economic superpower and the largest direct investor. US dominance in the world economy and geographical proximity to Brazil would suggest that US investments were by far the largest in the country during that century. Furthermore, as Japan had become the second largest economy in the world in the 1980s, we would expect that this would be reflected in the data of the largest multinationals in Brazil. However, as our investigation suggests, Western European direct investment has been as large (and in many occasions even larger) as that of the USA and Japanese firms have never had a prominent presence among the largest firms in Brazil, at least until the late 1990s.


2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 88-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrich Koch

This article investigates the changing justifications of one of the hallmarks of orthodox psychoanalytic practice, the neutral and abstinent stance of the psychoanalyst, during the middle decades of the 20th century. To call attention to the shifting rationales behind a supposedly cold, detached style of treatment still today associated with psychoanalysis, explanations of the clinical utility of neutrality and abstinence by ‘classical’ psychoanalysts in the United States are contrasted with how intellectuals and cultural critics understood the significance of psychoanalytic abstinence. As early as the 1930s, members of the Frankfurt School discussed the cultural and social implications of psychoanalytic practices. Only in the 1960s and 1970s, however, did psychoanalytic abstinence become a topic within broader intellectual debates about American social character and the burgeoning ‘therapy culture’ in the USA. The shift from professional and epistemological concerns to cultural and political ones is indicative of the changing appreciation of psychoanalysis as a clinical discipline: for psychoanalysts as well as cultural critics, I argue, changing social mores and the professional decline of psychoanalysis infused the image of the abstinent psychoanalyst with nostalgic longing, making it a symbol of resistance against a culture seen to be in decline.


Author(s):  
Victoria Phillips

“I am not a propagandist,” declared the matriarch of American modern dance, Martha Graham, while on her State Department–funded tour in 1955. Graham’s claim inspires questions: the United States government exported Graham and her company internationally to more than thirty nations in Asia, Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East, representing every seated president from Dwight D. Eisenhower through Ronald Reagan, and planned under George H. W. Bush. Although in the diplomatic field she was titled the “Picasso of modern dance,” and in later years “Forever Modern,” Graham was known to proclaim, “I am not a modernist.” In addition, she declared, “I am not a liberationist,” yet she intersected with politically powerful women such as Eleanor Roosevelt; Eleanor Dulles, sister of Eisenhower’s Dulles brothers in the State Department and CIA; Jackie Kennedy Onassis; Betty Ford; and political matriarch Barbara Bush. While bringing religious characters inspired by the Bible and the American frontier to the stage in a battle against the atheist communists, Graham insisted, “I am not a missionary.” To her abstract, mythic and biblical works, she added the trope of the American frontier. While her work promoted the United States as modern and culturally sophisticated, her casting promoted a vision of America as racially and culturally integrated. During the Cold War, the reconfigured history of modernism as apolitical in its expression of “the heart and soul of mankind” met political needs abroad with Graham’s tours. With her modernism, Graham demonstrated the power of the individual, republicanism, immigrants, and ultimately freedom from walls and metaphorical fences with the unfettered language of movement and dance as cultural diplomacy.


Author(s):  
Marharyta Lymar

The article deals with the European aspects of the US foreign policy in the 2nd half of the 20th century. It also includes studies of the transatlantic relations of the described period and the exploration of an American influence on European integration processes. It is determined that the United States has demonstrated itself as a partner of the Western governments in the post-war reconstruction and further creation of an area of US security and prosperity. At the same time, it is noted that the American presidents have differently shaped their administrations’ policies towards Europe. The greatest supporter of the European integration processes was President Eisenhower. Among other things, the US President believed that Europe would become a key ally of the United States, thus, he considered the union of Sweden, Greece, Spain and Yugoslavia as a solid foundation for building a “United States of Europe”. After Eisenhower administration, European affairs, to a lesser extent, were taken up by such Presidents as Johnson, Carter, Reagan and Clinton. Showing no personal interest, Kennedy, Nixon and Bush-Sr. were forced to support the transatlantic dialogue, understanding the inevitability of European integration and the need for the United States to cooperate with the new consolidated actor. The United States aimed to strengthen its position in the European space, moving to that purpose by using NATO mechanisms and applying the policies of American protectionism against the communist threat. The main competitor of the United States for strengthening national positions in Europe was France led by General de Gaulle, who believed that the affairs of Europe should be resolved by European governments without the American intervention. However, NATO continued to serve as a springboard for the U.S. involvement in European affairs. At the end of the 20th century, through the close links between the EU and NATO, the USA received new allies from Central and Eastern European countries. It is concluded that after the end of World War II, Europe needed an assistance that the United States willingly provided in exchange for the ability to participate in European issues, solving and partly controlling the integration processes. The study found that, despite the varying degree of the American interest in transatlantic affairs, Europe has consistently been remaining a zone of national interest for the United States.


Author(s):  
Andrew Sanders

The first chapter examines the historical relationship between the United States and Northern Ireland, offering an overview of Irish-American relations throughout the 20th century with a particular focus on the period after the partition of Ireland. It looks at early US investment in Northern Ireland, an issue which would come to have great significance in later years. It also considers the role that US Presidents had in Ireland and Northern Ireland prior to the outbreak of the Northern Ireland conflict, and establishes the broader context to JFK’s famous 1963 visit to Ireland.


Knygotyra ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 188-208
Author(s):  
Jolanta Budriūnienė

The article examines the publication of the cultural press in English by the Lithuanian community in the United States (1950-1990), focusing on the analysis of the need for such a press and its intended addressee. The article is based on the analysis of the content of the mentioned publishing production, works dedicated to the history of the Lithuanian diaspora of this period. By reviewing the research of the Lithuanian press in the USA in the 2nd half of the 20th century, it has to be noticed that this field of research has not yet sufficiently exhausted, although the general research of the Lithuanian diaspora is really abundant. However, they mainly focus on the historical, sociological, literary, linguistic description of the problems of the diaspora and migration. Research on publishing of the Lithuanian diaspora in the Lithuanian language in the early period (end of the 19th century – first half of the 20th century) has been carried out and published in the scientific works of Ass. Prof. Dr. Bronius Raguotis, Prof. Dr. Remigijus Misiūnas. At the end of World War II, the tendencies of the press of other languages of Lithuanians, who chose a forced exile, in the conditions of DP (DP – displaced people) were also presented by Prof. Dr. R. Misiūnas. A detailed analysis of the Lithuanian cultural press published in the German DP camps was presented in the monograph by Prof. Dr. Dalia Kuizinienė. Meanwhile, the press of other languages of Lithuanian communities in both the United States and other foreign countries had not yet reached the attention of researchers. In the presented study, Pierre Bourdieu, a theorist of literary sociology, uses the insights of literature as an important social factor covering all elements of cultural practice and allows for a systematic interpretation of their interrelationships; the approaches of the communication strategy of the Lithuanian American cultural press in English are analyzed. The article presents the main content of the cultural press and the social and cultural environment that formed the background of its creation, as well as the efforts of the creators of the cultural press and the ideological attitudes of the intellectuals and ideological leaders of the community that determined them. The article concludes that the main addressee of this press – members of the US communities, while the main focus of the content is the representation of symbols of the Lithuanian national identity.


1994 ◽  
Vol 47 (5) ◽  
pp. 555 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse L Greenstein

By the early 1950s astronomy in the United States was under pressure to embrace radio astronomy, which was being developed largely outside the USA. Much of the motivation derived from the need for accurate radio source positions, so that optical telescopes like the California Institute of Technology's giant Palomar Telescope and the nearby Mt Wilson Telescope could identify these sources with astronomical objects. To lead Caltech's move into radio astronomy its president, Lee DuB ridge, realised that he needed a leader from a country with more practical experience than the USA. He turned to his wartime friend E. G. 'Taffy' Bowen, chief of the CSIRO's Radiophysics Laboratory in Sydney, who 'loaned' him John Bolton. John stayed at Caltech for a bare five years, but it was a time of inspired guidance that helped to secure a place in radio astronomy, not only for Caltech, but for the USA.


2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 30-35
Author(s):  
Olga Iu. Orlova ◽  

. It is generally considered that the genre of the literary fairy tale in Europe expressed itself amply in the age of romanticism and used folklore imagery and motifs, as many other literary genres. But the folklore of Native Americans is also known to be ignored by authors in the USA. At the beginning the European folk tales served as the basis for the literary fairytale in the United States. Nonetheless, by the 20th century the authors had decided to create their own national fairy tale tradition. The article deals with the problem of folklore motifs reshaping in the collection entitled “American Fairy Tales” by L.F. Baum. There are some recurrent folklore motifs in the fairy tales: the motif of the forbidden door, the magical object, etc. At the same time, imagery of natural objects typical of North America (corn fields, huge cities with apartment houses) add some new traits to the national variant of the fairytale.


2004 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E. Goggin

Interest in the fate of the German psychoanalysts who had to flee Hitler's Germany and find refuge in a new nation, such as the United States, has increased. The ‘émigré research’ shows that several themes recur: (1) the theme of ‘loss’ of one's culture, homeland, language, and family; and (2) the ambiva-lent welcome these émigrés received in their new country. We describe the political-social-cultural context that existed in the United States during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Documentary evidence found in the FBI files of three émigré psychoanalysts, Clara Happel, Martin Grotjahn, and Otto Fenichel, are then presented in combination with other source material. This provides a provisional impression of how each of these three individuals experienced their emigration. As such, it gives us elements of a history. The FBI documents suggest that the American atmosphere of political insecurity and fear-based ethnocentric nationalism may have reinforced their old fears of National Socialism, and contributed to their inclination to inhibit or seal off parts of them-selves and their personal histories in order to adapt to their new home and become Americanized. They abandoned the rich social, cultural, political tradition that was part of European psychoanalysis. Finally, we look at these elements of a history in order to ask a larger question about the appropriate balance between a liberal democratic government's right to protect itself from internal and external threats on the one hand, or crossover into the blatant invasion of civil rights and due process on the other.


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