The oversimplification of modern dance's history often leads to the erroneous explanation that the art form emerged merely as a rejection of, or rebellion against classical ballet. An in-depth analysis of the context of the emergence of modern dance reveals that as early as the 1880s, a range of socioeconomic changes in both the United States and Europe was initiating to tremendous shifts in the dance world.
In America, increasing industrialization, the rise of a middle class, and the decline of Victorian social strictures led to, among other changes, a new interest in …show more content…
The First and Second World Wars, the rise of fascism, the Great Depression, and the evolution of other artforms each informed modern dance along the way. Moving into the 1960s, new ideas about dance began to emerge, again in large part as a response to both earlier dance forms as much as to social changes. Eventually, postmodern dance artists would reject the formalism of modern dance, and include elements such as performance art, contact improvisation, release-technique, and …show more content…
She was inspired by classical Greek arts, folk dances, social dances, nature, natural forces, and new American athleticism such as skipping, running, jumping, leaping, and abrupt movements. She thought that ballet was ugly and meaningless gymnastics. Although she returned to the United States at various points in her life, her work was not very well received there. She returned to Europe and died in Paris in 1927.
1891: Loie Fuller began experimenting with the effect that gas lighting had on her silk costumes. Fuller developed a form of natural movement and improvisation techniques that were used in conjunction with her revolutionary lighting equipment and translucent silk costumes. She patented her apparatus and methods of stage lighting that included the use of coloured gels and burning chemicals for luminescence, and also patented her voluminous silk stage