Maslow, Sophie (1911–2006)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Rossen
Keyword(s):  
Social Activism ◽  
Modern Dance ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Martha Graham ◽  
Significant Contributor ◽  
Folk Traditions ◽  
Dance Company ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Group A ◽  
American Modern Dance

Sophie Maslow, a prolific choreographer and significant contributor to American modern dance, was often characterized as a populist or people’s choreographer because she was inspired by the struggles and experiences of ordinary people. Combining modernism with humanism, Maslow’s work depicted emotional and universal experiences (a hallmark of mid-century modern dance) while also envisioning a more just and equitable society. Throughout her more than 50-year career she drew from a variety of sources, including folk traditions, rural and urban American life, and literature. During the 1930s, while a soloist with the Martha Graham dance company, she began choreographing her own work and joined the New Dance League, the precursor to the New Dance Group, a collective of choreographers who viewed dance as a form of social activism.

Dent, Nancy Lima (1919–2013)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyne Clare
Keyword(s):  
Modern Dance ◽  
The Political ◽  
Martha Graham ◽  
Dance Teacher ◽  
Dance Company ◽  
Katherine Dunham ◽  
Jose Limon ◽  
Critical Reviews

Nancy Lima Dent helped to establish modern dance in Toronto. She initially studied with Rita Warne and Boris Volkoff, and later was a student of modern dance luminaries Doris Humphrey, José Limon, Martha Graham, Charles Weidman, Pearl Primus, and Katherine Dunham. Starting in 1946, Dent worked as a performer and choreographer with the Toronto-based Neo Dance Theatre (renamed the New Dance Theatre in 1949). In 1960, Dent established her own dance company, the Nancy Lima Dent Dance Theatre. The company received positive critical reviews for their performances in prominent Toronto theaters including Hart House Theatre and the Centre Stage Theatre. Dent participated in three Canadian Ballet Festivals and she helped to found the Festival Evening of Modern Dance Festival in 1960. The festivals were well attended and critics noted that Dent’s choreography was especially engaging. In general, her choreographies highlighted personal expression, drew upon several modern dance techniques, and grappled with the political and ethical questions of her day. Dent was also a highly appreciated dance teacher who taught in various Ontarian cities for diverse types of students. She presented dance on television, and while recovering from an injury, she served as an effective administrator in various industries.

Ted Shawn

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul A. Scolieri
Keyword(s):  
Modern Dance ◽  
The Self ◽  
Artistic Value ◽  
Dance Company ◽  
Ted Shawn ◽  
History Of ◽  
Circle Of Friends ◽  
American Modern Dance ◽  
Extensive Body ◽  
Radical Movement

This book is the first critical biography of Ted Shawn (1891–1972), the self-proclaimed “Father of American Dance.” Based on extensive archival research, it offers an in-depth examination of Shawn’s pioneering role in the formation of Denishawn (the first American modern dance company and school), Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers (the first all-male dance company), and Jacob’s Pillow (the internationally renowned dance festival and school located in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts). For many years and with great frustration, Shawn attempted to tell the story of his life’s work in terms of its social and artistic value, but struggled, owing to the fact that he was homosexual, something known only within his inner circle of friends. Though Shawn remained closeted, he scrupulously archived his journals, correspondence, programs, photographs, and motion pictures of his dances, anticipating that the full significance of his life, writing, and dances would reveal itself in time. By exploring these materials alongside Shawn’s relationship with contemporary thinkers who were leading a radical movement to depathologize homosexuality, such as the British eugenicist Havelock Ellis, writer Lucien Price, and sexologist Alfred C. Kinsey, this book tells the untold story of how Shawn’s homosexuality informed his extensive body of writings and choreography and, by extension, the history of dance in America.

Shawn, Ted (1891–1972)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul A. Scolieri
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Modern Dance ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Self ◽  
Martha Graham ◽  
Dance Company ◽  
Ted Shawn ◽  
Modern Dancers ◽  
Professional Dancer

The self-proclaimed "Father of American Dance," Ted Shawn attained international prominence as a professional dancer and choreographer. Along with his wife Ruth St. Denis, Shawn founded Denishawn, the first U.S. modern dance company and school. Shawn thus helped to establish dance as a theatrical art in the United States by emphasizing that dancing is a sacred, nationalist, and artistic form of human expression, thereby challenging prevailing attitudes that associated dancing with prostitution, social degeneracy, and commerce. He also led an artistic crusade to legitimize dance as a profession for men. Although he rejected the term "modern" to describe his brand of theatrical dancing, he was essential to the development of modern dance in the United States in that he trained its pioneers Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman, as well as generations of modern dancers both at the Denishawn schools in the 1910s and 1920s and later at his University of the Dance at Jacob’s Pillow, a school and festival that continues today.

Prologue

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Victoria Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Modern Dance ◽  
National Interest ◽  
Martha Graham ◽  
The Public ◽  
Female Protagonists ◽  
American Modern Dance ◽  
High Level ◽  
Hearts And Minds

In 1955, Martha Graham and her company of diverse dancers landed in Japan to begin their first official State Department–sponsored tour of Asia and the Middle East to countries that President Dwight D. Eisenhower designated as the “domino nations,” or those most likely to fall to communist influence. On the tarmac, Graham was greeted by mass crowds and children bearing bouquets. American modern dance challenged the Soviet ballet, as a tour by Galina Ulanova preceding Graham. Newspapers announced, “U.S. and Soviet Competition in Dancing: Graham and Ulanova.” Graham triumphed with her abstract works alongside tales from the Western canon, fractured narratives, and female protagonists, all to describe the “soul of mankind.” Graham became useful as she attached herself to Eisenhower’s American battle for “hearts and minds,” particularly since she added the frontier and its pioneers to the cast of archetypes presented onstage in “the language that needs no words,” and embodied what she called the “universal.” Graham was heralded as an ambassadress during high-level diplomatic exchanges and embassy parties on the “cocktail circuit of diplomacy.” Graham and her company also functioned as diplomats when they engaged with the public during lecture-demonstrations and shopping for artifacts. While Graham proclaimed that her work was “universal,” and thus not political, one critic remarked that “the patriotic placing of American national interest at the end with Appalachian Spring” served “to underscore the diplomatic nature of this cultural mission.” Graham’s dances were modernist and seemingly apolitical art as creatures of Cold War politics.

scholarly journals Dance, The Divine, and The Devious Other: Orientalism and the Presentation of Race and Gender in the Work of Ruth St. Denis

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Krista Kee ◽  
Class of 2016
Keyword(s):  
Modern Dance ◽  
Western Culture ◽  
Martha Graham ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Eastern Hemisphere ◽  
Isadora Duncan ◽  
American Modern Dance ◽  
And Gender

Ruth St. Denis is considered to be one of the pioneers of American modern dance. She was a performer and choreographer often mentioned alongside the historical giants of modern dance like Isadora Duncan and St. Denis’s own protégé, Martha Graham. Ruth St. Denis’s Eastern-inspired and ornate dance spectacles earned her significant notoriety and enthralled audiences. St. Denis certainly contributed to the evolution of the American modern dance tradition; however, her success also highlights the presence of Orientalist thought in Western culture. St. Denis focused much of her work on what she referred to as Oriental Dancing. Orientalism refers to the idea that the East is spiritual, sensual, and intriguing. Orientalism overlooks the wide variety of cultures and nations in the Eastern Hemisphere and conveniently names them all as exotic other, thus degrading and oversimplifying them. An analysis of two of St. Denis’s most prominent works, Incense and Radha, reveals how Orientalism insidiously affects the perception of both race and gender in dance spectacle while reinforcing imperialist attitudes of Western superiority.

Tamiris, Helen (1902–1966)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Graff
Keyword(s):  
Modern Dance ◽  
Social Protest ◽  
Martha Graham ◽  
Negro Spirituals ◽  
Art Form ◽  
Political Activist ◽  
Collaborative Ventures ◽  
American Modern Dance ◽  
Modern Dancers ◽  
Popular Audience

Helen Tamiris was a key figure in the development of American modern dance; along with Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Hanya Holm, she helped to forge the art form. Born Helen Becker to an immigrant Russian Jewish family on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, she was introduced to dance at the Henry Street Settlement House. After a brief stint in the ballet world and on the commercial stage, she gained recognition as a concert dancer with a suite of dances set to Negro Spirituals. These signature works established her reputation as a choreographic voice for the oppressed; themes of social protest inspired her throughout her career. As a political activist she promoted collective bargaining for dancers, organized collaborative ventures with other early modern dancers, and led the campaign to create a Federal Dance Project for unemployed dancers during the Depression years. She was unusual among early moderns in her desire to reach a broad popular audience, and in the 1940s and 1950s choreographed a succession of Broadway musicals, receiving critical acclaim for choreography in shows such as Annie Get Your Gun and Plain and Fancy. Her political engagement and her success in bridging the divide between high art and popular culture distinguish her among American modern dancers.

Dancing in Europe

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Halifu Osumare
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Black Woman ◽  
Modern Dance ◽  
Social Position ◽  
Martha Graham ◽  
Nordic Region ◽  
Dance Company ◽  
Katherine Dunham ◽  
Dance Companies ◽  
The Times

This chapter explores the unique positionality of being a black woman in Europe in the late 60s. This social position is further complicated with being a contemporary dancer trying to survive in Spain, France, and the Netherlands and finally Copenhagen, Denmark, and Stockholm, Sweden. The author forms a Danish modern dance company with another American dancer in Copenhagen and, together, they help create a dance “revolution” for the times. She ends up teaching jazz dance in a major ballet academy in Stockholm, where she is also able to continue her own training with former members of the Katherine Dunham and Martha Graham dance companies. The author also investigates the influence of Dunham’s Technique on the Nordic region of Europe.

scholarly journals Dalman, Elizabeth Cameron (1934--)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Fensham
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Modern Dance ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Contemporary Dance ◽  
Dance Company ◽  
International Collaborations ◽  
American Modern Dance ◽  
International Profile

In a career that has spanned over sixty years, Elizabeth Cameron Dalman has been shaped by a politically progressive view of the role of dance and choreography in Australia and has created works inspired by contemporary paintings, music, political and artistic figures as well as the cosmologies of the natural world. Inspired by her involvement with European and American modern dance, she established Australian Dance Theatre, the first professional modern dance company in Australia in 1965, and developed dances that were engaged with social issues, such as Aboriginal and women’s rights. From her early works to the present, she has had a passion for the Australian landscape and used dance to celebrate its beauty and environmental fragility. As a modern dance ambassador, Dalman initiated the first tour of an Australian dance company to Southeast Asia in the 1970s and established an international profile for Australian dance. Always an educator, she continues her choreographic practice with Mirramu Dance Company, as well as her participation in international collaborations with artists from Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Senegal, and Austria. She was awarded an Order of Australia for her contribution to contemporary dance in Australia, and in 2015 was appointed Patron of the fiftieth anniversary celebrations.

Appalachian Spring: A Collaboration and a Transition

Prospects ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 209-225
Author(s):  
Peter M. Rutkoff ◽  
William B. Scott
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Modern Dance ◽  
American Art ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Aaron Copland ◽  
Martha Graham ◽  
Dance Company ◽  
Abstract Expressionist ◽  
Early Expression ◽  
Second World

In late October, 1944, the Martha Graham Dance Company performed Appalachian Spring at the Library of Congress, establishing Graham as the master of modern dance. The significance of Appalachian Spring, however, went well beyond Graham's artistic development. Notwithstanding its traditional theme, Appalachian Spring heralded an important shift in American art. Following the Second World War a large segment of New York City artists abandoned the effort, so dominant in the interwar years, to create an explicitly “American” art in favor of a “modernist” aesthetic, best exemplified in abstract expressionist painting. Choreographed by Graham, composed by Aaron Copland, and designed by Isamu Noguchi, the “Ballet for Martha” marked an early expression of the shift from American realism to modernism. But unlike much of the radically nonrepresentational work of the late 1940s and early 1950s Appalachian Spring continued to embody the concerns of American realism, even unabashedly displaying its creators' continued embrace of the folk vernacular, while moving toward its modern aesthetic.

Mutual Inspiration: Choreographers and Composers at the Bennington School of the Dance

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 108-117
Author(s):  
Elizabeth McPherson
Keyword(s):  
Modern Dance ◽  
College Campus ◽  
Visual Artists ◽  
Martha Graham ◽  
American Life ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Integral Component ◽  
American Modern Dance ◽  
One Year ◽  
Do So

Visual artists, designers, composers, photographers, poets, and choreographers were vital participants in the Bennington School of the Dance, which ran on the Bennington College campus in Bennington, Vermont, from 1934–1942 with one year, 1939, spent at Mills College in California. Collaborations were an integral component of the school, occurring between faculty and staff members as well as between students and faculty/staff. Of particular importance were the collaborations between musicians (including Louis Horst, Gregory Tucker, Norman Lloyd, and Alex North) and choreographers (including Martha Graham, Hanya Holm, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman). These collaborations influenced the direction of American modern dance, which was establishing itself with new breath as a form that could express American life and traditions without necessarily drawing upon European composers to do so.

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