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Modern Dance: Works
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Modern dance in Chicago experienced a renewed period of growth, comparable to that of the late twenties, when Bruce and Judith Sagan created the Harper Theatre Dance Festival (1965–1975) in Hyde Park. Maggie Kast, Nana Shineflug, and Shirley Mordine introduced new approaches to dance making through their work as teachers and performers. Mordine founded the Dance Center of Columbia College in 1969, as well as a dance company, providing major institutional support for the modern dance community. In 1972, the Muntu Dance Theatre began its investigation of African dance, music, and folklore, illuminating the Africanist presence that had always been implicit in twentieth-century modernism. Postmodern dance emerged from all of these sources. Among its most prominent representatives were the artists of the dance collective MoMing (1974–1990), Jan Erkert, Bob Eisen, Jan Bartoszek at the Chicago Cultural Center, Fluid Measure Performance Company, and XSIGHT!
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The American Dance Festival presents Dancing in the Light, a one-hour modern dance television program showcasing six historic dance compositions by African American choreographers. All of the dances were originally recorded for the Emmy Award-winning series Free to Dance, a three-hour documentary that aired on PBS in 2001 as part of the Great Performances: Dance in America series. While Free to Dance uses select excerpts from the dances to inform its narrative within a historical context, Dancing in the Light features six dances in their entirety or in the case of one work, a complete section. The dances include: Ostrich (1932) by Asadata Dafora, Barrelhouse Blues (1943) by Katherine Dunham, Strange Fruit (1943) by Pearl Primus, Mourner's Bench (1947) by Talley Beatty, Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder (1959) by Donald McKayle, First Section of D-Man in the Waters (1989) by Bill T. Jones. 50 mins. (2007)DVD-All-Region.
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Modern dance fared better in the United States, where the tradition of classical ballet had scarcely taken root at the turn of the 20th century. The school started by Ruth St Denis and Ted Shawn, known as Denishawn, produced a generation of modern dance practitioners. It taught an eclectic mixture of dance styles and techniques in the service of the exotic choreography of its principals. The Denishawn Company performed works loosely based on the dances of Egypt, India, and Asia and presented these largely on the vaudeville circuit.
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Modern dance was well established in America long before America had its own ballet companies. Ruth St Denis and Ted Shawn, Doris Humphrey, Merce Cunningham and Alwin Nikolais all evolved highly individual styles which put America in the forefront of experimental and contemporary dance. The first generation of modern dance companies originally only performed their founder’s works.
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Jennifer Bolt's dance training has taken her across North America and England working and performing in the genres of ballet and modern dance in tandem. She earned a Hons. B.A. in Dance from the University of Waterloo and a Teacher Training Diploma from National Ballet School with two Associate levels from the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (AISTD) in the Cecchetti Method and National folk dance. She recently received Honours on her Advanced Cecchetti examination in June 2005. She has taught dance students of all ages at various schools across the GTA for the past ten years. After she earned her MA in Dance from York University she was invited to join the faculty to teach ballet, dance history and other dance related courses.
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Merce Cunningham was one of the major innovators in the field of modern dance and was a member of Martha Graham’s company. He redefined the concept of modern dance, turning away from the celebration of individual expression or even the exploration of an individual’s relationship to society. In this version of modernism the emphasis was on form rather than content: meaning was to be found by the spectator, not dictated by the artist. Cunningham’s works may be performed to music with a stage set, but the elements are created separately and united only in performance, often only on the day of the performance. The movement has its own rhythm. Many types of chance procedures are introduced into the compositional process.
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