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 Front Matter....Pages i-xi Nature, Force and Variation....Pages 1-15 Constructing and Contesting the Natural in British Theatre Dance....Pages 16-30 Ideas of Nature, the Natural and the Modern in Early Twentieth-Century Dance Discourse....Pages 31-42 The Ancient Greeks and the ‘Natural’....Pages 43-57 From the Artificial to the Natural Body: Social Dancing in Britain, 1900–1914....Pages 58-72 Dancing Based on Natural Movement....Pages 73-81 Undressing and Dressing Up: Natural Movement’s Life in Costume....Pages 82-97 Nature Moving Naturally in Succession: An Exploration of Doris Humphrey’s Water Study....Pages 98-109 Tensing and Relaxing Naturally: Systematic Approaches to Training the Body....Pages 110-123 ‘Female Nature’, Body Culture and Plastique....Pages 124-138 Tethering the Flow: Dialogues between Dance, Physical Culture and Antiquity in Interwar Australia....Pages 139-154 Mining Anatomy: Moving Naturally....Pages 155-169 Back Matter....Pages 170-179 'Foregrounding the work of the British 'natural movement' pioneers, whilst enlivening concepts of 'the natural' and 'natural movement' as they exist within a range of contexts, this exciting collection makes an important contribution to the field of dance studies. Intersecting detailed studies of a range of movement practices with historical and contemporary discourse the book is interdisciplinary in approach and will be of interest to a broad range of readers. Thoroughly enjoyable.'- Vida L Midgelow, University of Northampton, UK