Dance
Historically, modern dance scholarship has followed the contours of the field as defined by John Martin, the revered dance critic for The New York Times,…
Search Results 1 - 25 of 91
Selvon, Samuel (1923–1994)
Samuel Selvon was a Trinidadian writer whose vivid portraits of daily life in both the Caribbean and post-Second World War England garnered international acclaim. Selvon’s…
Welles, Orson (1915–1985)
Orson Welles was born on May 6, 1915 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to Richard Head Welles, a prosperous wagon manufacturer and inventor, and Beatrice Ives Welles,…
The Provincetown Players (1915–1922)
Founded in Provincetown, Massachusetts in 1915 and transplanted to Greenwich Village in 1916, the Provincetown Players was one of the most influential theatrical organizations in…
Comics
The early twentieth century saw the rise of the modern comic strip, the comic book and the artist’s book as distinctive forms of graphic narrative…
Rice, Elmer (1892–1967)
Born Elmer Reizenstein in New York City on September 28, 1892, Elmer Rice’s career spanned nearly fifty years. He wrote over fifty plays, including collaborations…
Modern Folk Dance
Modern folk dance is a turn of the twentieth-century revivalist practice based upon a participatory dance form originating within village-based ethnic communities of northern Europe.…
Ch’oe Sŭng-hŭi (1911–1969)
Known as the Dancing Princess of the Peninsula, based on the title of a Japanese-made film in which she appeared (Hanto no Maihimei), Ch’oe Sŭng-hŭi’s…
Acting
Acting on the modern stage ranges from the psychological realism of Konstantin Stanislavsky (1863–1938) to the sensory assault of Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) to the didactic…
One Step
In the years before the entry of the United States into World War I, the One Step replaced the Two Step as the common popular…
Fauvism
French Fauvism (c. 1904–1907) comprised a loosely formed group of painters whose mentor, Henri Matisse (1869–1954), argued for a new approach to painting, integrating the…
Portocarrero, René (1912–1985)
Part of the Cuban vanguardia (or vanguard movement), René Portocarrero broke with the academic style of art that prevailed in Cuba in order to create…
Music and Dance
The histories of modernist music and dance are vast and inextricably related, so much so that it is as daunting to consider them in tandem…
Reinhardt, Max (1873–1943)
Born Max Goldmann to Jewish parents in Baden, Austria and nicknamed “the Magician” by the press, Max Reinhardt was pivotal in establishing theater directing as…
The Pioneer Players (1911–25)
Led by director Edith Craig, with her mother Ellen Terry as president, the Pioneer Players theater society was founded on May 11, 1911 in London…
Kraus, Gertrud (1901–1977)
Gertrud Kraus, a Jewish dancer, choreographer, and teacher, was a prominent representative of Viennese Ausdruckstanz and later a key figure in establishing modern dance in…
Barnet, Boris (1902–1965)
Boris Barnet (b. June 18, 1902, Moscow, Russia; d. January 8, 1965, Riga, Latvia) was a Russian actor, director, and professional boxer. He made his…
Munch, Edvard (1863–1944)
Edvard Munch was a Norwegian painter, printmaker and sculptor, who experimented with photography and film. He is one of the main forerunners of Expressionism, and…
Ailey, Alvin (1931–1989)
Alvin Ailey counts among the most significant American choreographers of the second half of the twentieth century, and his company the Alvin Ailey American Dance…
Ausdruckstanz (1910–1950)
The term Ausdruckstanz became common usage after World War II to designate a widespread dance practice in the early and middle decades of the 20th…
Monte Verità (1900–)
During the first two decades of the 20th century, Monte Verità, a hill on the west side of Ascona in southern Switzerland, was the site…
Schwitters, Kurt (1887–1948)
Kurt Schwitters is most commonly associated with Dada, but his relationship to that movement’s aesthetic, political, and philosophical rebellion was ambivalent. Although he was friends…
Döblin, (Bruno) Alfred (1878-1957)
Alfred Döblin’s contributions to modern literature consist primarily of his montage style, epic narrative structures and critical eye toward contemporary culture. His masterpiece Berlin Alexanderplatz.…
Vigo, Abraham (1893–1957)
Abraham Regino Vigo was one of the most talent artists of the first avant-garde in Buenos Aires. He was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, but at…
Kokoschka, Oskar (1886–1980)
The Austrian painter, graphic artist, writer, and playwright Oskar Kokoschka received distinction as a protégé while still studying at the Viennese School of Applied Arts.…