Lady Kay

Ruth St Dennis is considered to be one of the first three pioneers of American modern dance, alongside Loie Fuller and Isadora Duncan. What exactly was her contribution to the development of American modern dance? Her style was very different to that of the other two afore mentioned pioneers. Upon researching this question all I could find was that she helped create an audience for American modern dance. Surely she did more than just this? Another thing that puzzles me is why her oriental style is not reflected in American modern dance?

Simon G, Thank-you so much for all this information! I do believe our library contains most of the books you have suggested, some of which I have already taken out. Wow, what can I say other than thank-you? I'm really excited to start working on my essay now.

Thank-you so much for your most informative responses. To answer your first question, Simon G, I was introduced to the the term, 'Historic Modern Dance' in an essay question. I'm a student at the University of Cape Town studying Dance, and the following question was presented as a Dance History assignment: "Merce Cunningham made a strong personal statement in his work which differed markedly from the historic generation. Discuss Cunningham's ideas and work and suggest why he is referred to as a bridge between historic modern dance and post modernism." We have recently been studying American modern dance in Dance History, so I would imagine the lecturer is referring specifically to a group of people involved in this movement, what puzzles me is that she makes mention of an historic generation (singular), leading me to think that there is only one generation that is the historic generation, if that makes sense.

What exactly is meant by historic modern dance? Is it modern dance from Loie Fuller to pre- Cunningham, or does it deal more with Martha Graham? When, and with whom does historic modern dance begin and end?