Dancing Naturally : Nature, Neo-Classicism and Modernity in Early Twentieth-Century Dance

A renewed interest in nature, the ancient Greeks, and the freedom of the body was to transform dance and physical culture in the early twentieth century. The book discusses the creative individuals and developments in science and other art forms that shaped the evolution of modern dance in its international context. This edited collection illuminates what made dance modern in keeping with the spirit of developments in science and other artforms in the early twentieth century. A revitalised interest in nature, the ancient Greeks, and the freedom of the body to express powerful emotions was to transform dance and physical culture. Contemporaries of Isadora Duncan and LoIe Fuller, the distinctive contributions of dance teachers and artists, Madge Atkinson, Doris Humphrey and Ruby Ginner who generated schools and syncretic creative approaches are documented in this book. Educators and scientists were harnessing the natural in gymnastics and social theory, while inter-related cultural trends were inspiring arts practices, such as Art Nouveau, new music and fashion, to study 'nature'. These developments in the UK, US, Europe and Australia created the landscape for the serious pursuit of dance, in the flow of modernity, and continue to influence the major currents of dance activity today Cover 1 Contents 6 List of Illustrations 8 Acknowledgements 10 Notes on Contributors 11 1 Nature, Force and Variation 14 2 Constructing and Contesting the Natural in British Theatre Dance 29 3 Ideas of Nature, the Natural and the Modern in Early Twentieth-Century Dance Discourse 44 4 The Ancient Greeks and the 'Natural' 56 5 From the Artificial to the Natural Body: Social Dancing in Britain, 1900–1914 71 6 Dancing Based on Natural Movement 86 7 Undressing and Dressing Up: Natural Movement's Life in Costume 95 8 Nature Moving Naturally in Succession: An Exploration of Doris Humphrey's Water Study 111 9 Tensing and Relaxing Naturally: Systematic Approaches to Training the Body 123 10 'Female Nature', Body Culture and Plastique 137 11 Tethering the Flow: Dialogues between Dance, Physical Culture and Antiquity in Interwar Australia 152 12 Mining Anatomy: Moving Naturally 168 Index 183