A Literature of Flesh and Blood: Concert Dance of the 20th Century in America

Course Description

In the beginning of the 20th Century, some of the brightest and most creative artists in America developed a new medium for the stage.  They rejected the mannerisms and formalities of earlier dance traditions and generated a new corporeal language that would better tell the stories of people living in the modern world.  These contemporary dancers and choreographers – Isadora Duncan, Vlaslav Nijinsky, Ruth St. Denis and her students, Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey – stunned audiences with their unabashed celebration of the body in motion and willing exploration of psychological themes.  They invented new approaches for training dancers that embodied their artistic visions and personal values.  And they created a body of dance literature recognized and recreated in all parts of the world.  This course allows students to examine the most important dance repertoire of the 20th century, starting with the works of the modern dance pioneers and concluding in the present time when hip hop culture, AIDS, and sexual identity appear as important themes in dance performance.