Modern Dance Essay

The Changes of Modern Dance

Modern dance was introduced in the 20th century as a form of dancing to express inner feelings or emotions through movement rather than structured or planned steps. These structured steps as portrayed in classical ballet and vaudeville were rebelled against by European dancers, in which they developed a more “freestyle” form of dancing. They wanted to be taken more seriously rather than to be considered strictly entertainers. “Freestyle” dancing was mostly founded by Isadora Duncan. She is also known as the founding mother of modern dance. She introduced dance as art in the United States, of self expression through movement. It was important to her the “freedom” of movement because it stood for a political statement…for women could not move freely in Duncans day and only have little rights for anything. A benefit of modern dance is that it encourages dancers to utilize their own personal emotions to construct their performances. Thinking on your feet and releasing those feelings through movements. Over time, modern dance has evolved all over the world. Generation after generation, this form of dance had evolved in waves where new modern dancers emerged. With each passing year up until today, modern dance has become more sophisticated than when the dance was founded in the pioneering days, both in technology and technique. With each emerging dancer, new additions of movements and portrayal have been added from different cultures or forms of dance. As previously mentioned it is more sophisticated and no longer holds the meaning that was portrayed by the original pioneers. In some ways, originality does appear in performances. For example, I believe that all dancers who participate in this freestyle form of dancing would put their emotions in a bubble and express them through the movements in which they promptly make up as they go