1915-1931

-First school to systematically train young dancers in "aesthetic dance" or "barefoot dance"

-Acted as a feeder school for the Denishawn company - a model used by many subsequent choreographers and dance organizations

-Trained the next generation of modern dancers including Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman

-LA, experimented with fabric, studied history/music/dance/theory, director of music was Louis Hurst 

1933-1939 led a company of all male dancers (first of it's kind) called Ted Shawn and his Men Dancers

-After Denishawn, Shawn established Jacob's Pillow in Western Massachusetts

1907-1982

-Saw Ruth St. Denis perform when she was 15, inspired and became dancer

-worked and trained at denishawn

-produced the "The First Negro Dance Recital in America" in 1931

-1901-1979

-Student of Rudolph Laban

-Spent first half of career in Germany but was pushed out by Nazis in 1933 and re-established himself in England 

-Choreographed the green table in 1932 - very controversial 

1920-1950

-Aimed for dances to reflect contemporary attitudes and interests, sterner, more serious art form that went beyond entertainment

-Graham, Humphrey, Weidman, and Holm - aka "The Big Four"

-Graham, Humphrey, Weidman, and Holm

-all four set up schools in NYC and taught next generation 

-Set up touring companies and students were very loyal

-Danced barefood, looked for new and innovative ways of using their bodies 

-Thought deeply about choreographic act, created new methods for making dances 

-Interested in freeing dance from music so that it could be a vehicle for inner expression and not simply a visualization of music 

-Graham, Humphrey, Weidman, and Holm were named the big four because of their involvement of the program 

-Later became American Dance Festival 

-created own dance vocabulary and style of movement that is still studied today

-Style is strong, quick, percussive, grounded, angular, powerful, unadorned

-feet are flexed to create right angles and hands are sometimes cupped

-emphasis on flexing, extending, and twisting torso

-Encouraged dancers to hide effort/exhaustion

-Technique based on contraction and release 

-Lots happens on floor and/or moves in and out of the floor 

-Believed in training and it took 10 years to make an mature artist

-Student of Laban

-Music made for dance

-**Express atrocities sin Germany at the time - traditional human emotion/experience 

-Use of masks to transcend 

-Dramatic, sharp, angular, twisted 

-Dances about war, death, aging, contrast/dark/heavy 

-Mary Wigmon, Rudolph Von Laban

-Movement analysis, living dance/movements, experimentation is the rule, muscular tension & spacial pull

-Dance is different level of human psyche, conveying a specific idea in a way that words cannot, search for authenticity, questioning of status quo

-Movement choirs 

-Looking for authentic means of expression

-Historical Influence: anxiety from WWI

-authenticity, primitivism, no codified technique, abstraction, group of people making dance about politics/issues/WWI, artist as a political watchdog

-Utilization fo space: movement choirs, maintain individuality/expression in group, decision making happens together

-Labanotation-documentation of dances 

-community, social dance - participation is key (concert dances)

-Laban Movement Analysis - body, shape, space, effort