Isadora Duncan (1878-1927), said to be the birth mother of Modern Dance, is profiled in the attached VANITY FAIR MAGAZINE article written by Arthur Hazlitt Perry:
"She is truly a remarkable woman. She never dances, acts, dresses, or thinks like anybody else. She is essentially the child of another age, a Twentieth Century exponent of a by-gone civilization. She missed her cue to come on, by twenty-three hundred years." Quoting the apostles of Modern Dance quite liberally, this article presents for the reader their impassioned defense as to why the era of a new dance form had arrived and why it was deserving of global attention and much needed in America's schools. The column centers on the goings-on at Teacher's College, N.Y.C., where a certain Mary P. O'Donnell once ran the roost at that institution's dance department; it was O'Donnell's plan to send her minions out in all directions like the 12 Apostles of Christ, spreading the good news to all God's creatures that Modern Dance had arrived.
Katherine Dunham (1909 - 2006) was an African-American dancer and choreographer, producer, anthropologist, author and Civil Rights activist - enjoying throughout the decades one of the most successful dance careers a dancer could ever hope for. Attached is a profusely illustrated review of her 1945 production, Tropical Revue. It implies that much of the audience came away recognizing her originality and genius - while others simply thought she was a burlesque artist. A review of Martha Graham's sell-out Broadway performance from January, 1944:
"Martha Graham's art has always been characterized by constatnt experimentation with new forms and new contents." "In New York last week, on the polished floor of the Rainbow Room, Rockefeller Center's skyscraping night club, Hawaiians, Chinese, Scandinavians and Africans stamped whirled, leaped, and gesticulated to a dozen different kinds of music...it was an exposition of no little cultural and social importance - 'Dance International,' a festival showing the progress of the dance in all nations since 1900."
In their quest to document the evolution of dance in the United States, the audiences were treated to Modern Dance performances by Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Paul Weidman and Paul Haakon. Attached is one of the first articles to be written about "balletomanes" Lincoln Kirstein (1907 - 1996) and his efforts with George Balanchine (1904 – 1983) and philanthropist Edward M.M. Warburg (1910 - 1992) to form the first American ballet company (the corps was later called the New York City Ballet). |
