Jarvis, Judy (1942–1986)
Judy Jarvis, a choreographer, dancer, and teacher, was a significant figure within the Canadian modern dance community. Following early dance studies in Toronto, she spent…
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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,…
Dance and Writing
The centrality of dance to aesthetic modernism led to dance becoming a major preoccupation of modernist literature and a model for the generation of the…
Raqs-e melli
Iranian-Armenians Madame Cornelli, Madame Yelena Avakian, and Sarkis Djanbazian, all of whom had learned ballet in Russia or Europe, came to Iran where they opened…
Halprin, Anna (Schuman) (1920--)
A dancer, choreographer, community leader, and educator, Anna Halprin helped to pioneer what she called “experimental dance” in the 1960s. After training with the modern…
Kazuo, Ohno (1906–2010)
When Ohno Kazuo died at age 103, he was an international legend memorialized in newspapers around the world as a Japanese modern dancer, a pioneer…
Barrett, Cynthia (1921–2006)
Choreographer, teacher, and dance artist Cynthia Barrett was a modern dance artist who established her own company in Toronto. For a short while she directed…
Butoh
The Japanese avant-garde dance, butoh, developed out of experiments and collaborations directed by Hijikata Tatsumi (1928–1986) and often involved Ohno Kazuo (1906–2010) in Tokyo beginning…
Robinson, Jacqueline (1922–2000)
A Franco-British dancer, teacher, choreographer and historian, Jacqueline Robinson is one of the key figures of modern dance in France. Born in London, educated in…
Palucca, Gret (1902–1993)
Gret Palucca took a distinctive improvisational and pedagogical approach to German modern dance in a career spanning four different political systems in Germany. After studying…
Delsarte, François (1811–1871)
A performer and teacher of voice and movement, François Delsarte developed a theory of expression that influenced modern dance, actor training, poetic recitation, silent film,…
Baxter, Ivy (1923–1993)
In the years pre-dating Jamaican independence, Ivy Baxter pioneered a new approach towards dance theatre as a community art form. Along with Beryl McBurnie and…
Precision Dancing
Precision dancing epitomizes industrial production lines in the modernist era. The genre previewed the precision and formalism that is more associated with graphics and decorative…
Sorel, Ruth Elly Abramovitsch (1907–1974)
Upon immigrating to Montreal in 1944, Ruth Abramovitsch (also known as Abramowitz) Sorel was one of the first dancers to regularly teach and perform modern…
Dance Directors
The term Dance Director was used in the first three decades of the twentieth century for stage and film work. At first, it simply meant…
Modern Dance and Education in the United States
The history of dance instruction in educational settings in the United States dates back to the early twentieth century. A number of female physical education…
Mambo
Mambo music, which emerged in Cuba in the 1940s but was popularized in Mexico City and New York, blended jazz harmonies and instrumentation with Afro-Cuban…
Modern Ballroom Dancing
Twentieth-century modern ballroom dancing differed from social dancing of the nineteenth century in its shift in focus from group cohesion to individual personal style. This…
Shinmuyong (ca. 1926)
Shinmuyong means literally “New Dance” in Korean, but today it is categorized as creative Korean dance. In the early 20th century, Ausdruckstanz (Expressionist Dance) from…
New Dance Group, New York City, 1932–2009
Established in 1932 by six young Jewish women in New York City, New Dance Group (NDG) trained leaders of the American modern dance. Founded with…
Dent, Nancy Lima (1919–2013)
Nancy Lima Dent helped to establish modern dance in Toronto. She initially studied with Rita Warne and Boris Volkoff, and later was a student of…
Leeder, Sigurd (1902–1981)
In a career that spanned over sixty years, Sigurd Leeder made important contributions to the dance worlds in Germany, Great Britain, Chile, and Switzerland. His…
Musical Modernism in Bali and Java
Musical modernism was not domesticated within Balinese or Javanese culture to the extent that it was in other parts of Asia. Although a handful of…
McBurnie, Beryl (1914–2000)
Known as the Caribbean’s mother of dance, Beryl McBurnie counts amongst the leading figures of Caribbean modern dance, a movement that furthered decolonization and postcolonial…
Jeyasingh, Shobana (1957–)
Shobana Jeyasingh is a British choreographer whose work deploys both modern and postmodern aesthetics. Drawing on the bharata natyam form in which she trained, Jeyasingh…