Ballet and Modern Dance: A Revolution between Traditional an

The twentieth-century was introduced to a nontraditional style of classical ballet known as modern dance. This style of dance, created by Isadora Duncan, Loie Fuller, Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn, and Mary Wigmam, was a revolution in dance history. They opened schools, and then their students, such as Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman, expanded the world of modern dance to all parts of the world. Their style eliminated the Pointe from a ballerina’s practice of dance.

Imagine this scene: bare feet sweeping across the ground with spines curved at angles meant to shock and appall

For a dancer to dance one style without the other can be done, but a dancer who can dance both has the advantage of using his or her body to feel and show how the dance should be performed. As I perform my plies and leaps in both classes, the traditional and nontraditional dance moves traverse one another’s style to enhance my understanding of the techniques in ballet and modern dance.

The next day, I had modern dance with no shoes. Barefoot was not an easy thing to get use to. I did not like the way it felt on the floor because I could not move as gracefully. Then came the floor warm-up exercises. We did not go to the bar like in ballet but stayed center stage. I was told to curve my back in a c-shape while staying in a ballet first position. My postural alignment was off center, and I soon began to loose balance. From that position, I had to bring a curved leg out, however, still keep a familiar ballet turned-out position. This is not an easy thing to do when your body is off-balance and you feel like you are going to fall over.

The pioneers of modern dance did not agree that ballet should be so strict and have so many rules of how the body had to be at all times. They created a dance form that let the body curve from the spine, to take up as little space as possible, and to throw off the body’s postural alignment. What was their reasoning to invent a new dance style?

I then heard the

Some topics in this essay:
Charles Weidman, , modern dance, Mary Wigmam, classical ballet, ballet modern, postural alignment, ballet modern dance, dance style, style classical ballet, dancer dance, style technique, “can dance, style classical, ballet strict,