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Exploring Modern Dance

This is an excerpt from Discovering Dance-2nd Edition by Gayle Kassing.

Modern dance includes many possibilities for expression. The combination of dance elements the dancer or choreographer chooses and how they express the movement makes this genre challenging for those creating it and intriguing for those watching it. The movement expressions may be the movement itself or deeply felt emotions, ideas, concepts, or personal statements the choreographer wants to share with others—both dancers and audiences. Other inspirational modalities for movement come from music, a story, a painting, another work of art, or life experiences.

When creating modern dance choreography, you must have a choreographic concept for the work that you can communicate to the dancers so that they can understand and interpret the movement. Some choreographers provide large amounts of movements and expect dancers to figure out how to make the movements into an integrated whole. Other choreographers provide a framework and have dancers create the detailed movements in the infrastructure.

Before you begin to create or perform modern dance choreography, you need to know what type of choreographic structure you are working with. Modern dance works can be categorized into these types:

  • Story-based or dramatic work: Modern dances can retell myths or stories, such as those from literature or dramatic works. This type of dance may present events in sequence, or the choreographer can use literary devices to change, compress, or extend some of the story events within a dramatic structure. Early modern dance choreographers created works of this type.
  • Abstract forms: Abstract modern dances use ideas, themes, and emotions, and personal or social statements as the basis for a choreographic work. Many postmodern and contemporary modern dances are abstract works.
  • Eclectic themes: Some abstract dances focus on movement in relation to the music or movement as the message in the dance, and audience members interpret their own meaning of the dance work.
  • Improvisational forms: In its simplest form, improvisation is spontaneous movement. Some improvisational works begin with a framework, a concept, or a problem to which the dancers respond. They create movement and relationships to explore the concept or solve the problem. The semistructured improvisation begins with dancers doing improvisational movement explorations. Then the choreographer chooses certain movement sequences or compositional poses to include in the work.
  • Chance: A series of random movements selected by chance contribute to a type of modern dance called chance dance. Movements are selected from an extensive modern dance vocabulary or from a choreographer’s style. The choreographer or the dancers determine the movements chosen by various methods and put them in a sequence. Then, dancers perform their movements beginning at various times and end their movement sequences at different times to create an event focused on pure movement.

These choreographic structures have evolved as modern dance has developed through history. The following section guides you through that history.

Activity 10.3 Explore Study in Abstract Modern Dance Abstract modern paintings and sculptures can inspire movement. Modern dance choreography often expresses a choreographer’s abstract theme or idea. (See the description of abstract dance forms at the beginning of the chapter.) Your teacher will decide if you work alone or in groups for this activity. Begin by trying several ordinary or everyday movements and gestures as you normally do them. Then repeat these movements and gestures, but do them bigger, smaller, then at a different speed or energy, to find how they change until they become what you consider an abstract version. Now, select an emotion or an idea. Using dance elements, make two or more movement statements to express the emotion or idea. Play with the movements you have selected to transfer them into an abstracted style. Your teacher will give you a list of music to choose from. Choose a piece to accompany your movement study or serve as a background to your movement. Then, title your abstract modern dance study. Rehearse and refine your movement study to present to another group or to the class. If a work of art inspired your movement study, share a copy of it after you have performed the study.

More Excerpts From Discovering Dance 2nd Edition