The Historical Origin of Modern Dance

Modern dance is a dance school that rose in the west in the early 20th century, as opposed to classical ballet. Its main aesthetic point of view is to oppose the formalism tendency of classical ballet, which is conformist and divorced from the phenomenon-single life and pure pursuit of skills. It advocates getting rid of the rigid movement procedure of classical ballet, freely expressing people's true feelings with dance movements that conform to the laws of natural movement, and emphasizes that dance art should reflect modern social life.

1At the end of the 9th century and the beginning of the 20th century, a huge and profound dance revolution broke out in America and Germany, where classical ballet was relatively weak. A group of dancers tried to set up a dance school that was the opposite of traditional classical ballet. With the artistic aim of pursuing freedom and advocating innovation, it shook the conservative thought of sticking to the rules and broke the situation that classical ballet dominated the dance world. However, the dancers' opinions and practices are different, which objectively reflects the inevitable influence of various idealistic philosophies and artistic thoughts on dance development under the social situation in Europe at that time.

As we all know, in the West in the Middle Ages, people firmly believed that there was absolute truth, goodness and beauty in the world and pursued it devoutly. Their understanding of the world and life is one-sided and one-way; They stick to tradition and strive for perfection in form. Poetry, drama, art, music, dance, etc. Most of this period showed religious themes. With the strong impact of the Renaissance on medieval culture, the Enlightenment and western industrial production appeared one after another. Large-scale machine production replaces handicraft operation, people are replaced by things, and people become slaves of things. Powerful material civilization is impacting people's hearts, and the intellectual class has fallen into unprecedented depression and confusion. People try to seek spiritual liberation through art, and modern dance goes to the world under this background. With the efforts of a large number of dance artists, a wave of dance reform soon formed, which had a great influence in Germany, the United States and even the whole world.

Before the birth of modern dance, two important musicians must be mentioned in the history of modern dance. One is Francois of France? Del Saud, who found that there is a natural connection between external behavior and internal emotion. He believes that the intensity of a person's inner feelings determines the intensity of his arms and movements, while the tightening and relaxation of the human trunk, which is ignored by classical ballet, has extraordinary performance. Del Saud combed and analyzed his theoretical findings, and established his own theoretical framework, as well as the training methods and systems that were adapted and coordinated with it. He divided human body movements and postures into three basic areas: head (representing psychology and wisdom), upper limbs (representing emotion and spirit) and lower limbs (representing body). At the same time, nine basic rules of posture are stipulated, and three action modes are defined: contrast action, parallel action and connection action. In the history of modern dance, Del Saud's action system can be said to be the first set of human action system, which provides some practical, beneficial and effective inspiration and help for dance self-discipline. The other is the emir of Switzerland? Jacques? Dakhroz, who created a way to understand and express the rhythm of music with human movements, inspired dancers to do it? Music visualization? This paper attempts to improve their perception of rhythm and seek a broader dance expression. At that time, the activities of these two musicians revealed the possibility of finding more free and new action modes of dramatic art. There may be some accidental elements in their practice, but all accidental things actually have their inevitability. The exploration of the action world by the two musicians not only prepared for public opinion, but also made some technical and theoretical preparations for the birth of modernist dance.

It is generally believed that American dancer isadora? Duncan is the founder of modernist dance. In fact, there are two other people who are famous for dancing modern dance at the same time as Duncan. One is Roy? Fuller, the other one's name is St. Denis, so? Mother of modern dance? There should be three laurels. Although these three famous women are pioneers of American modern dance, their dance practices are slightly different in form. Roy, born in Fort Worth, Ohio, USA? Fuller is not only an excellent dancer, but also famous for his many inventions and creations in dance costumes and stage lighting projection lighting systems. What about isadora? Duncan, on the other hand, constructed her own distinctive personality in the form of music, action or unaccompanied, which reflected her different artistic ideas. She not only improvised free dance to express her true feelings, but also publicly criticized classical ballet and showed her own dance ideas. Although Duncan is an American, her main stage is not in America. Who is Ruth who is active on the American stage? St. Denis's important contribution to modern dance is mainly the application of oriental dance forms. Drawing on the styles and characteristics of Egyptian, Greek, Indian, Arabic and Thai dances, she tried to convey the spiritual information of human religion in the form of oriental dance, thus becoming a modern dance with oriental characteristics. Because her achievements are almost in sync with Duncan's, she is known as? First lady of American dance? ; She had something to do with being called? Father of American dance? Tide? In 15 years after Shawn's marriage, he also co-founded St. Denis Shawn Dance School and trained many modernist dancers. Tide? Sean's artistic achievement is firstly to open up a new world with his body, and secondly to open up an athlete's style? Men dance? In order to express his inner feelings and emotions, his dance ideas and performance methods are very different from those of classical ballet. So they are all recognized as the founders of American modernist dance.

In addition to the American modern dance pioneers mentioned above, Hungarian dancers Rudolf and Feng also had an important influence on modernist dance. He founded Laban? Human kinematics? , created a can be used to analyze the action? Force effect? Theory, but also established a dance recording method which is still widely used in the world? Labanotation, and left many theoretical works in the field of dance, known as? King of modern dance theory? .

After World War I, Central Europe, especially Germany, which suffered the worst defeat in the war, entered a turbulent and chaotic era. This gave great shock to the artists at that time. Under the influence of modernist philosophy and modern psychology, a modernist artistic trend of thought gradually emerged and formed. Modern dance artists believe that the traditional concept of truth, goodness and beauty cannot explain the modern experience of human beings, so they raise the banner of rebelling against tradition. Saint-denis's dance is as beautiful as a goddess, and it has the romantic style of combining Christian Puritanism with secular culture, which was obviously out of date in the United States where modernism was widely popular at that time. Humphrey and Graham's generation came into being under such circumstances. Although they are students trained by saint-denis, they are not successors of saint-denis Dance, but go their own way as rebels. Humphrey thinks that saint-denis's exotic dance can't reflect the American spirit. She thinks that since there is no basic national dance to play in America, we have to re-create a new dance form based on national dance. Therefore, according to the basic principle of human motion, she is established? Fall and weigh? 、? Balance and imbalance? The method of technical theory. Many of her works are explorations of human conflicts. If Humphrey opposes saint-denis from the outside, what about Martha? Graeme opposed Saint-Denis's artistic thought by revealing the dark side of human heart. Her dance emphasizes? Introspection? Psychological, right? Psychological dance school? Known as.

She stressed that dancers should? Express your self-belief objectively with body image? She studied the changes in the human body between breathing and inhalation. Through this research, she developed? Tighten and relax? The principle of action.

Anyway, in the meantime, Doris from America? Humphrey, Martha. Graeme and Charlie? Widman and Helen? Tommy Nice, Jose? Lemon and Mary in Germany? Weigmann, Asiana Airlines? Holm and Kurt. Eustace, Halid? With the active activities of a large number of dancers such as Curuz Berg, modernist dance reached its peak in Europe, especially in Germany and the United States.

After the end of World War II, great changes have taken place in the political, economic, cultural patterns and people's mentality in the international community. The same is true of modern dance art. In this era of ideological emancipation, artists feel that they have gained unprecedented liberation, but at the same time they have never been so full of contradictions and confusion. In this new era, there are not only successors who follow in the footsteps of Graeme, Humphrey and other masters, but also modernist dancers who break away from traditional dance concepts more resolutely and thoroughly and carry out various bold experiments? Avantgarde? Or? Avantgarde? .

? Avantgarde? What we want to create is an artistic road that no one has ever walked before, and its dance founder is Cunningham. What does Cunningham pursue in artistic methods? I have to move? . In his view, any action should not be arranged in advance, but discovered by accident; He also believes that as long as the dancers are dancing, that is everything, reducing the dance to only one? Action? This basic element. Their works have no content, no meaning, only the action itself. The establishment of this concept led to the rise of various dance experimental activities? Alvin? Nicholas advocated dehumanizing dance to express the human body in an abstract way? Free movement? Some works show the human body by showing the sculptural shape of the body twisting action blindly? Free movement? . Modernist dance, based on this new concept and constantly evolving, rose in the 1950s and prevailed in the 1960s. Today, after the 1970s, it is too late. Bosch from Germany took her? Dance theater? It sounded the alarm for literary theorists and formed the center of a postmodern dance vortex around the world. Modernist dance, from pioneers, founders, rebels, successors to reformers, has never been broadened again and again, becoming a strange group with factions, colorful colors and maintaining its own vitality.

Modern dance began to appear in China. Its pioneers are China's new dance art, such as Dai, Dai, and so on. They all accepted famous modern dance masters such as Ishii and Rudolf? Under the specific environment of China, Laban and others taught him to practice modern dance seriously, among which Wu Xiaobang's artistic experience is of great significance in the history of modern dance in China. What is his ambition? For the road of life? Today in history, it is still precious to share the idealism with the fate of the country and the nation, to create artistic ideas of eclectic dance styles, and to explore the theory and practice of modern dance with Chinese style. He tried to combine the performance techniques of foreign modern dance with the real life in China, and organically combined modern dance with the performance thinking of China traditional opera and some human movements in China traditional culture. His works "Desire for Fire" and "Song of Guerrillas" reflect the turmoil, passion and hope of that era.

In the 1960s, Guo Mingda, who returned from studying modern dance in the United States, was regarded as a heresy because of the international situation and over-emphasis on national characteristics. It was not until the early 1980s that he began to spread systematic modern dance theory. This has played a catalytic role in the rise of modern dance in China. Hua Chao's dance "Hope" in Dalian Dance Competition and the dance "Waves" by dancer Jia Zuoguang caused a shock in the cultural circles of China at that time and became the open-book works of China modern dance in the new period. Later, Wang Liancheng came back from the United States and spread the skills of modern dance more concretely. Hu Jialu of Shanghai, through tenacious creative practice, walked out of his own way of modern dance in China, and created modern dance works with distinct forms such as Rope Wave, Blood Sink and Chess. At the same time, the emergence of excellent modern dance, such as Fujian and Ruan's Destiny and Beijing's Han Dynasty, has made modern dance accepted by more people. From 65438 to 0987, Yang Meiqi, then president of Guangdong Dance School, founded the first modern dance experimental class in Guangzhou, introduced the modern dance training and choreography system for the first time, and invited foreign first-class modern dance experts to teach in China, marking the real beginning of modern dance in China. With the goal of creating China-style dance, they established the Guangdong Experimental Modern Dance Troupe, and Yang Meiqi became the head of the first modern dance troupe in China. The seeds sown by modern dance experiments in those years have now yielded fruitful results. Its graduates, Qin Liming and Qiao Yang, won the first prize of 1990 Paris International Modern Dance Competition for their creation of Tai Chi Impression and Sound Transmission. Wang Mei's Gone Time and Red Fan further integrated tradition and modernity, which had a far-reaching impact. Over the past few years, Guangdong Experimental Modern Dance Troupe has trained a group of young dancers who are keen on China modern dance and are willing to cultivate and dedicate themselves to it, aiming at cultivating the creative thinking of the actors and embodying the spirit of modern China. Beijing Modern Dance Company, founded in 1995, is good at describing emotional experiences in detail, with varied and colorful stage feelings, such as four joys, colorful feelings and half dreams. It is equally divided with Guangdong Experimental Dance Troupe, becoming a unique landscape of modern dance in China. All these indicate that modern dance in China has finally formed a certain scale and become an extremely important part of contemporary dance art in China. 1995 the first China modern dance competition was successfully held in dongguan, Guangdong province, which indicated that China modern dance gained the opportunity and position to develop in parallel with classical dance, folk dance and ballet, and that China modern dance reached a new milestone.