Preview

Personal Narrative: The New Modern Dance

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1158 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Personal Narrative: The New Modern Dance
Contemporary The New Modern

It was a grey day in Little Rock Arkansas and I had to meet with the brilliant Stephanie Thibeault. I walked in her office and notice the mood of the room. It felt happy but a sense of seriousness drowned over the recurring energy of happiness. I looked over to the right and saw this chair next to her desk, she greeted me in with a smile and told me to sit down. She had a soft sacked chair next to her desk. “How’s your day” she had said to me while looking at her laptop. “It has been a good day, I just can’t wait to leave next week.” I responded to her. I have been in her office before but coming in with a clear objective made me notice a lot. All of her dance
…show more content…
I was out of my territory and didn’t what to do with my body. But once I found that release in my body and allowed myself to feel the breath in the movement everything became easier to me. But of course it was hard at first, I was a hardcore ballet dancer. Since I’ve studied the style of modern dance I can say that we had modern style dances coming up out of the gate that had yet became so popular today. You’ve studied graham as I have but, when I studied graham some of her dancer like Paul Taylor, Merce Cunningham or Alvin Ailey was just breaking into the scene. You guys have it lucky. I learned a lot of Isadora Duncan and Martha. But even then just in today modern dance as taken on a new approach.” She kept talking and everything she said was just …show more content…
Most her of her dancer broke out and now have their own dance techniques. Leaster Horton, His technique is about flat backs, lateral stretches, tilt lines and lunges. Merce Cunningham, having a strong sense of one’s in an integral in Cunningham. Alvin Ailey, who owns one of the biggest black dance theatre companies in the world. Paul Taylor, who wasn’t the best dancer in the Martha Graham Company, his technique was basically two dimensional in appearances but having an emphasis on action rather on shape or line. It’s like dance scribbling. I can go on and on but these are some of the people that help revolutionize dance.

“I can say that now day in today’s youth, modern dance became more of this new contemporary style dance. All in all, they are about the same thing. Contemporary has newer approach on modern dance. Contemporary dance in my opinion requires more flexibility and allows you to do more tricks. Compared to modern when the smallest of things could affect the audience in a big way still, not saying that contemporary dance isn’t good or important. It’s different and I love

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Two years ago, on a cold Saturday morning, I prepared for my first ever track tryout. I took a shower, put on my clothes, and got into the car. On my way to practice, I felt strong physically, but I also had an undefined, jittery feeling about how the day was going to go.…

    • 533 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Center Stage and Save the Last Dance are both films that use dance as a major component of the plot. Center Stage use dance as not only a career, but as a way of life, while Save the Last Dance uses dance as more of a form of self-expression. Center Stage uses mostly a ballet based form of dance with some infusion of jazz in the mix, whereas the dance in Save the Last Dance is based more on hip-hop and contemporary dance with some ballet thrown in here and there. The reasons that those styles were used are because they serve very different purposes. Ballet tells stories, such as Swan Lake etc., it is used for that purpose. There are instances…

    • 350 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The dancer I have chosen is Katherine Dunham. Mrs. Dunham born June 22, 1909, to an African American father and French Canadian mother. She was born in Chicago Illinois. She performed many styles of dance. One style she's famous for is going back to her roots and taking black culture and making it acceptable to all. Other styles she contributed too were folk and ethnic. Choreography. One big contribution Mrs. Dunham contributed was making African American and Caribbean culture beautiful to all. At a time when very, few African American's had a chance at "commercial success" she gave them hope. At this time, dance in America was very vague for the African American women, especially not when accepting your own heritage and culture. She changed…

    • 207 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mr Bru

    • 751 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Jazz and African American dance forms were a huge influence on Alvin Ailey. Talley Beatty, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly and the Nicholas Brothers were four different choreographers in this genre. Name two others.…

    • 751 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Anna Halrin Biography

    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages

    As inspirational dancer and teacher, she believes you can see the real ART of dance beyond the structure. Through natural movement and feeling making it a Holistic Body experience for the person. She not only trained others but challenged them to go out and train up others. She broke through a barrier that dancer looks a certain way based on criteria connected to movement and a pattern.…

    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During Martha Graham’s life, she has made some amazing accomplishments. When she was studying dance is bent the rules of ballet and created modern dance. Martha Graham went to her dream dance school Denishawn School of Dancing and Relative Arts after her father died she enrolled into the school was was doing great. When she was done teaching and being a student after several years Martha opened a dance studio of her own called Martha…

    • 385 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    She opened the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance. Her pieces were evolved from “the decade from anti-Fascism—becoming veiled as patriotism during WWII” (Kowal 145). Later on, she was introduced to Joseph Campbell who showed her Greek mythology. After studying it, she used it as a base of her work after World War II ended. Her dances often were “sensed rather than literally seen” (Kowal 146). Her movements and pieces were tense, harsh, and parallel instead of the usual turned out positions like in ballet. Because of this, “Graham’s approach influenced several generations of dance and theater artists, we are familiar with it by now” (Cass 261). In her day her movements were completely original, however, it is now the basis of our common modern…

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ever since I was a little girl I dreamt about being on the Indianettes dance team. Dancing has been a part of my life from the age of four up until now. When I was younger I was not the best dancer but I loved it, and my mom already paid for my classes so i was kind of stuck doing it anyways. My eighth grade year I was preparing to tryout for the Indianettes, I was stretching, working on my technique, and working on my jumps and turns. It turns out that the old coach Sheri Bradley quit and the Indianettes had a new fairly inexperienced coach named MariAnn Barfus. I wasn't very confident about making the team. Long story short, I ended up making it along with Jaidyn Harris, Hannah Hyde, Daphnie Colpron, Carson Davis, Becca Osterhout, Mechelle…

    • 1386 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dancing is an art. It is a creative way for people to express their feelings through movements and rhythm. From the 19th century to the 21st, dancing has evolved from the traditional modern dancing featuring the waltz, to urban dancing including all pop, hip-hop, and freestyle dancing. During the twentieth century in America, dance became the main type of entertainment. Dance has been used to help keep many Americans gleeful during the country’s crises, economically and technologically. To express their reactions to these changes, Americans danced. As the society changed during the decades, so did the type of dance, creating new forms of entertainment that are now a part of our American history.…

    • 1271 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I dance classical ballet since I was 3 years old and ever since then I have been doing it. My favorite dancer is Sylvie Guillem as Manon, especially her Final Pas de Deux with Jonathan Cope.…

    • 159 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Dance Choreography

    • 1487 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Although most scholars simply define it as the art of designing and arranging dance, American ballet icon George Balanchine distinguished dance choreography as “an expression of time and space, using the control of movement and gesture to communicate,” (Anderson 5). This definition puts emphasis on the rigid structure and body control required to successfully produce a piece of choreography, an idea not uncommon in the ballet community (Conoley-Paladino). Like Balanchine, modern dance icon Merce Cunningham defined dance choreography as “an art in space and time.” However, in contrast, he stated that “the object of the dancer is to obliterate” that art, drawing on the importance of…

    • 1487 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Modern Dance started in the 20th century in Germany and the United states as a way to rebel against rigid formalism, artifice, and superficiality from ballet. Modern dance resembled modern art and music being experimental. Pioneers of Modern dance like “Isadora Duncan, Loie Fuller, and Ruth St. Denis in the United States, Rudolf von Landon and Mary Wigman in Germany” they all wanted to create an awareness to their audiences of inner and outer realities. Isadora Duncan started “free dance” where she would perform in a simple tunic like the Greek vase figures that inspired a lot of her work. Her work would use natural flowing movements she said “ from the solar plexus.…

    • 518 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    She has left a huge imprint in the dance world. Despite her parents dismay, she continued to chase her dreams which led her to become one of the most important dancers of the 20th century and the mother of modern dance. Her name, Martha Graham.…

    • 1225 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Her eyes glistened with a repulsive gleam of a smile on her face. I walked slowly hearing the whispering of my socks against the floor. It was that time again, piano lesson. Mrs. Zhang looked at me and smirked eerily. I sighed and took my place on the on the bench, close enough to smell my teacher. I put my shaking hands on the keys and began.…

    • 1213 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Because I was always one of those kids that never felt comfortable doing any sport, when I discovered that I had a talent for dancing, I was overjoyed. I started dancing during my fifth grade year of school. Immediately I became infatuated with the art. Working very hard my sixth grade year enabled me to join my academy’s dance company. One day during my musical theatre class while doing a combo something wasn’t right. My right leg had a twinging pain and when I did the big kick at the end of the combo, I knew I had pushed myself too far. What should have been the beginning of a long dance career turned into a very long year and a half search of trying to find a way to heal whatever was wrong. It was an experience that I’ll never forget.…

    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics