Lyrical and Modern

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Lyrical and Modern

Lyrical is actually a form of Jazz that incorporates much ballet technique done in a more fluid style. Lyrical movement is incorporated into our contemporary ballet classes and is also part of our Company Repertory for both the Jr and Sr Ballet Companies.

Modern is a style of dance that was originated as a sort of rebellion from more traditional ballet styles. Much of the movement is focused on fall and recovery and can range from very abstract to very lyrical in nature dependent upon the individual instructor/choreographer. Our classes in modern tend to utilize great creativity and thought provoking movement but do not tend to be extreme in abstract movement, leaning more toward Duncan.

Attire: Leotards, tights, skirts, yoga pants or jazz pants, bare feet, lyrical sandals, bare paws. See www.curtaincallforclass.com for dancewear purchases.

Core Benefits: Lyrical-Fluidity, Grace, Emotion, Technique, Modern-Creativity, Artistic Expression

For more on the history of Modern Dance read the article below:

Modern Dance History

"Modern dance discloses nature, particularly human nature -- the inner nature of man."

"Modern dance is intellectually conceived and projected.
It is not an art of shallow minds."

The art today known as modern dance began with a few creative and daring spirited individuals. Isadora Duncan, Mary Wigman, Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn are considered the forerunners of modern dance. Although the physical technique of modern dance has gone through, and is still going through, drastic interpretation, a spiritual essence is the core that these forerunners established.

Isadora Duncan was raised in the United States but spent most of her adult life in Europe. There, her radical form of dance was appreciated, and, as a young woman, she was adored. She performed her first public concert in 1900 in London and continued performing and teaching until her death in 1927. As a dancer, she introduced a "highly magnetic personal style." Her movement was described as "round without softness." She utilized symmetry and melody, unlike many contemporaries of modern dance. Most importantly, she elevated the spiritual component of dance.

Ruth St. Denis

Early in the twentieth century, separately from Duncan, Mary Wigman began to experiment with movement in her home of Germany. Her first performance was presented in 1914. In 1930, she toured the United States to share her stories by way of modern movement. Throughout the turmoil of WWI and WWII, Wigman expressed an "ecstasy of gloom" in her dance. She moved close to the ground with head downcast -- kneeling, crawling, laying. She was "strong, stark, ugly, and powerful, but electrifying."

In addition to Duncan and Wigman, Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn started to experiment with dance. In 1915, the two started a school, Denishawn, aimed at experimenting with innovative movement. Shawn encouraged knowledge of all forms of dance and brought yoga, Hawaiian hula, ballet, and Japanese sword dancing to Denishawn. St. Denis was known more for her creative ingenuity. In her biography An Unfinished Life, she states, "What I gave Denishawn and what I shall give to pupils as long as I am able, is an artistic stimulus and an incentive to go and do someting -- anything -- that is a release and a joy to the young artist."

The creation of the Denishawn school was a springboard for aspiring young dancers. It gave some basic background and perhaps inspiration for the upcoming modern dance revolutionists: Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman.

Martha Graham

Martha Graham studied at Denishawn in 1916 and then toured with them in England in 1922. Feeling the need to express through her own dance, she left Denishawn and explored her own movement. Her first recital was presented in New York in 1926. In her first performance and throughout her career, Graham's movement told stories. Her dances were theatrical and centered around literary matter. Oedipus Rex, Greek myths, The Scarlet Letter, Emily Dickinson, and the Bronte sisters were all subjects of her pieces. Of her own movement, she says, "I did not want it to be beautiful or fluid. I wanted it to be fraught with inner meaning, with excitement and surge." One of her dances was said to "refer to the hopes, fears, dreams, desires, and memories that throng and press, torture or bless, as they come and go." She tended to focus on the psychological, particularly as it related to a specific character. She felt that "a portrait should not be a physical or a spiritual likeness, but rather a psychological likeness." In terms of physical technique, she introduced the concept of contraction and release to express her themes. Martha Graham's long and fruitful career introduced dancers and audiences alike to the world of modern dance and the artistic power it possesses. Merce Cunningham, Erick Hawkins, and many others began their modern dance efforts with Martha Graham. Many of her disciples are still teaching and choreographing for modern companies of their own.

Doris Humphrey

Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman also studied at Denishawn in the early 1920's. Like Graham, they too left the school to pursue more theatrical and poignant forms of dance. Humphrey made significant contributions to modern technique. She focused on the "polar extremes of balance and unbalance, fall and recovery" which are still backbones of modern dance today. Weidman explored more pantomimic movement rather than those based on motivational centers. The two complimented each other and formed their own company, which lasted until 1945. Jose Limon started with this company and went on to contribute his own legacy to modern dance. Like Graham, the Humphrey-Weidman choreography centered around the expression of social anxiety. The generation of modern choreographers that followed internalized, and the subject matter of modern dance shifted from that of social reform to personal emotions.

From this beginning, modern dance has risen to international appeal. The American Dance Festival, now located in Durham, NC, is a six-week intensive in modern dance training and performing. ADF had a modest start in Bennington, VT in the 1920's. It then moved to Connecticut College in 1948. In the mid-1970's, it made its final move to Duke University where it thrives today. ADF is intended to share and introduce modern dance to both dancers and the general public. It also proves a beneficial forum for beginning choreographers.

"Taking the natural motor impulses as a spring board, [modern dance] distorts, diminishes, augments, expands, and adds to the instinctive gesture or motion, gives it artistic shape,...so a communication is established."