Revisiting History of Modern Dance
PHOTO: Andrea Seidel (R), Delma Iles and Momentum Dance Company dancers / CREDIT: José Llanes
The Miami Dance Festival 2009 drew an eager crowd last Thursday to the Coral Gables Public Library for a lecture demonstration on the history of modern dance presented by Momentum Dance Company with special guest Florida International University professor Andrea Seidel, an expert on the work of Isadora Duncan who has restaged pieces choreographed by the modern dance pioneer as director of the Isadora Duncan Ensemble.
The Miami Dance Festival program reviewed some of the historic pillars of modern dance, from the pioneers of the early 20th Century such as Duncan (1877-1927) and Doris Humphrey (1895-1958) to later innovators such as José Limon (1908-1972) and Anna Sokolow (1910-2000). As Miami Dance Festival founder and Momentum Dance Company director Delma Iles pointed out, this historical demonstration was not exhaustive, since it left out such titans of modern dance as Martha Graham and Paul Taylor. Yet the program gave a strong sense of the importance of preserving and restoring the legacy of the modern dance pioneers.
"e;Modern dance must be seen in context,” Iles observed. “As an art form, modern dance (and ballet too) was transmitted from masters to students and from choreographers to dancers, from generation to generation, until it was possible to film or videotape."e;
Better than any video tape, Siedel dressed a la Duncan to perform the flute solo of the “Dance of the Blessed Spirits” by Christoph Gluck, the baroque composer who, along with Schubert and Chopin, inspired so many of Duncan’s works.
It was a minimal but powerful presentation, with all the sublime charge typical of Duncan’s work, a reflection of her philosophy, as she once stated, that “the dancer of the future will be one whose body and soul have grown so harmoniously together that the natural language of that soul will have become the movement of the human body.”
That philosophy could apply equally well to Duncan’s contemporary, Doris Humphrey. MDC performed fragments of Humphrey’s “Water Study,” a piece that explores breath and the effect of breathing on movement, an experimental idea at the time.
That experiment continued in the work of Jose Limon, the extraordinary dancer and choreographer from Mexico who moved to New York in 1928. A one-time student of Humphrey’s, Limon invited her to serve as artistic director of his own company until her death in 1958. MDC presented Limon’s “The Exiles,” where Eve recalls her life with Adam in the Garden of Eden before they were expelled, in a beautiful song to love and beauty.
Perhaps the most poignant moment of the program came when MDC presented “Poems of Scriabin,” created especially for the company by Anna Sokolow – a modern dance pioneer who lived until 2000. As Iles related, Sokolow arrived in Miami in 1985 to direct a series of workshops for another local company and decided to create work for the then recently founded MDC.
“She didn’t charge us a cent,” Iles said. “She simply recognized that we were a young company and she wanted to help us,” adding that over the years she sent a check to Sokolow every opportunity she had, “even if it was only $50.”
In two short but lovely suites based on the music of Russian composer and pianist Alexander Scriabin, Sokolow explored on the one hand the emotions shared by three women and on the other, the perfect love.
“I often tell my dancers that it’s about that moment in the relationship in which you’re in love, everything is perfect, and you haven’t met your mother-in-law yet,” Iles said, getting a laugh from the audience.
Sokolow is also known for the social commentary in her work, having once said: “I don"e;t believe there is any final solution to the problems of today. All I can do is provoke the audience into an awareness of them."e;
The evening concluded with an animated exchange between the public and the dancers. One participant accompanied by her young daughter announced that she had attended the event to find answers to her daughter’s question about the difference between modern dance and ballet, adding: “I think we found the explanation we were looking for.”
The Miami Dance Festival 2009 drew an eager crowd last Thursday to the Coral Gables Public Library for a lecture demonstration on the history of modern dance presented by Momentum Dance Company with special guest Florida International University professor Andrea Seidel, an expert on the work of Isadora Duncan who has restaged pieces choreographed by the modern dance pioneer as director of the Isadora Duncan Ensemble.
The Miami Dance Festival program reviewed some of the historic pillars of modern dance, from the pioneers of the early 20th Century such as Duncan (1877-1927) and Doris Humphrey (1895-1958) to later innovators such as José Limon (1908-1972) and Anna Sokolow (1910-2000). As Miami Dance Festival founder and Momentum Dance Company director Delma Iles pointed out, this historical demonstration was not exhaustive, since it left out such titans of modern dance as Martha Graham and Paul Taylor. Yet the program gave a strong sense of the importance of preserving and restoring the legacy of the modern dance pioneers.
"e;Modern dance must be seen in context,” Iles observed. “As an art form, modern dance (and ballet too) was transmitted from masters to students and from choreographers to dancers, from generation to generation, until it was possible to film or videotape."e;
Better than any video tape, Siedel dressed a la Duncan to perform the flute solo of the “Dance of the Blessed Spirits” by Christoph Gluck, the baroque composer who, along with Schubert and Chopin, inspired so many of Duncan’s works.
It was a minimal but powerful presentation, with all the sublime charge typical of Duncan’s work, a reflection of her philosophy, as she once stated, that “the dancer of the future will be one whose body and soul have grown so harmoniously together that the natural language of that soul will have become the movement of the human body.”
That philosophy could apply equally well to Duncan’s contemporary, Doris Humphrey. MDC performed fragments of Humphrey’s “Water Study,” a piece that explores breath and the effect of breathing on movement, an experimental idea at the time.
That experiment continued in the work of Jose Limon, the extraordinary dancer and choreographer from Mexico who moved to New York in 1928. A one-time student of Humphrey’s, Limon invited her to serve as artistic director of his own company until her death in 1958. MDC presented Limon’s “The Exiles,” where Eve recalls her life with Adam in the Garden of Eden before they were expelled, in a beautiful song to love and beauty.
Perhaps the most poignant moment of the program came when MDC presented “Poems of Scriabin,” created especially for the company by Anna Sokolow – a modern dance pioneer who lived until 2000. As Iles related, Sokolow arrived in Miami in 1985 to direct a series of workshops for another local company and decided to create work for the then recently founded MDC.
“She didn’t charge us a cent,” Iles said. “She simply recognized that we were a young company and she wanted to help us,” adding that over the years she sent a check to Sokolow every opportunity she had, “even if it was only $50.”
In two short but lovely suites based on the music of Russian composer and pianist Alexander Scriabin, Sokolow explored on the one hand the emotions shared by three women and on the other, the perfect love.
“I often tell my dancers that it’s about that moment in the relationship in which you’re in love, everything is perfect, and you haven’t met your mother-in-law yet,” Iles said, getting a laugh from the audience.
Sokolow is also known for the social commentary in her work, having once said: “I don"e;t believe there is any final solution to the problems of today. All I can do is provoke the audience into an awareness of them."e;
The evening concluded with an animated exchange between the public and the dancers. One participant accompanied by her young daughter announced that she had attended the event to find answers to her daughter’s question about the difference between modern dance and ballet, adding: “I think we found the explanation we were looking for.”