THE LANGUAGE OF MOVEMENT 4

We first finished looking at the movements of the inner city African-Americans in Chicago, noting their greetings, their hand and arm language, and the deliberate movements of their eyes, shoulders, hips, and legs to communicate interest or lack of interest to another person. We finished with the symbolism of the "black power" , 5 step hand/arm movements.

We then moved on to look at the history of dance movements in ancient days, and in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Ballet was codified in France, by Louis XIV and ballet choreographers who developed rules for ballet positions and a written symbol system for preserving ballet movements. The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw the development of ballets with modern music, elaborate sets and costumes, and complete stories. Diaghilev was the master producer of elaborate ballets at this time, using the music of Stravinsky, the art of Picasso, and the dancing of such great stars as Fokine, Nijinsky, and Pavlova.

All through these centuries, people did their ethnic folk dances in their communities. Although some still do them, many of them have turned their folk dancers into professional performance companies.

We looked then at the beginning of modern dance in Germany by such innovators as Laban, Mary Wigman, Alwin Nikolais, Joos, Hanya Holm (who moved to America and choreographed stage shows like Kiss Me Kate, and was the first to use Labanotation, film and copyrights), and the American "liberator" of dance, Isadora Duncan. It was noted that the German dance choreographers were influenced by Cubism and Expressionism in Modern Art and were concerned with shaping space. Duncan saw space as limitless and each dance as spontaneous and unique to the dancer with no possibility of replication by another person, nor even by the originator at a later time.

We will continue on with the development of Modern Dance to see how movements of the torso entered the vocabulary of movement in dance.

Some of you have had dance classes, perhaps even performed , and if so we would like you to share some experiences with us.