"What is Modern Dance?", you ask..........

Since my last post I have had many people ask me, "So, what exactly is Modern dance?" Ok, so maybe it hasn't been "many" people, more like 5 or 6. Considering I didn't realize that that many people read my blog, it seems like a lot.

Yes, what is Modern dance? A very good question. Basically, at the end of the 19th Century dancers in Europe and the U.S. started to rebel against Classical Ballet. It was deemed too constraining, too rigid, etc. These rogue dancers shed their pointe shoes and tutus and began a whole new movement of dance, with its own set of rules and techniques. Modern dance, at the time, was described as more of a free-style, expressionist type of dance and was greatly inspired by the ancient classical dances of India.

A few names you may (or may not) recognize are Martha Graham, Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn, Merce Cunningham, Charles Weidman....... - Oh my goodness, I am getting way to giddy typing this list of pioneers of Modern and Post-Modern Dance - must...stop...now.

This is just a brief history of the very beginnings of Modern Dance. Today there are many different techniques that have inadvertently become just as rigid and as constraining as Classical Ballet.

Most community Modern Dance classes today are a hodgepodge of the different techniques and styles. Here is a short clip of the kind of stuff that we do in the class that I am taking: