Modern Dance in Europe and America 1

Subject is not scheduled Not scheduled

Code	Completion	Credits	Range	Language Instruction	Semester
107MDEA1	credit	3	1 lecture hours (45 min) of instruction per week, 66 to 81 hours of self-study	English	winter

Subject guarantor

Name of lecturer(s)

The course, which, together with the follow-up lecture Modern Dance Directions 2, extends the knowledge of dance history, is a detailed introduction to the development of dance in the modern period, focuses on the newly constituted dance style of the so-called expressive dance (Ausdruckstanz) in Europe and modern dance in America, its artistic, cultural and social contexts, origins, forms and main personalities, and places the events in the Czech lands in an international context. The aim of the study is to introduce students to the thought context and artistic manifestations of dance modernism in Western culture, important for understanding the current situation of dance art, its forms and artistic attitudes.

Thematic areas:

Periodization of the development of dance modernism, characteristics of individual phases (relation to general artistic developments, geographical spread, development of dance style and forms, main representatives);
Conditions for the emergence of dance modernism: the state of dance art at the end of the 19th century, sources of inspiration for dance modernism, relation to previous developments;
Dance and music in modernism (development of dance music, works of Igor Stravinsky and other composers);
Dance and theatre: changes in the conception of the theatre space and the actor in it, impulses of the directorial conception of theatre, influence of Eastern theatre cultures on the understanding of the place of dance in the theatre, examples of direct interactions between modern dance and drama theatre;
Specific features of dance modernism: style, development of movement material, changes in the concept of dance form, theatrical versus absolute dance, development of dance education, theoretical reflection on dance in modernism.
The main representatives of dance modernism
Members of the pioneering generation: Loie Fuller, Isadora Duncan, Grete Wiesenthal (search for new ways of dance expression, new movement styles independent of classical dance technique)

Learning outcomes

Understanding of the problems of one of the lines of modernism in dance art, understanding of the historical context, including the connection to contemporary events.

Prerequisites and other requirements

none

Literature

E-learning:

https://moodle.amu.cz//

Required reading:

BANES, Sally. Terpsichore in Sneakers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1980. ISBN 0395286891.

BRANDSTETTER, Gabriele; OCHAIM, Brygida Maria. Loie Fuller. Freiburg: Rombach, 1989. ISBN 9783793090526.

BURT, Ramsay. Alien Bodies. London, New York: Routledge, 1998. ISBN 0415145953.

GREMLICOVÁ, Dorota. Traditional dance as a phenomenon inside the Czech modernism. In: INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC. Study Group on Ethnochoreology, DUNIN, Elsie Ivancich, ed., STAVĚLOVÁ, Daniela, ed. a GREMLICOVÁ, Dorota, ed. Dance, gender and meanings; Contemporizing traditional dance: proceedings of the 26th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Ethnochoreology 2010: Třešť, Czech Republic. Prague: Academy of Performing Arts, 2012, s. 241–248. ISBN 978-80-87112-64-9.

HUMPHREY, Doris. The Art of Making Dances. New York: Grove Press, 1959.

BENJAMIN, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Lulu.com, 2021. ISBN 978-1667156071.

GOETHE, Johann Wolfgang. Sorrows of Young Werther. Dover Publications, 2002. ISBN 978-0486424552.

GOMBRICH, Ernst Hans. The Story of Art. Phaidon Press, 1995. ISBN 978-0714832470.

NIETZSCHE, Friedrich. The Birth of Tragedy. Penguin Classics, 1994. ISBN ‎ 978-0140433395.

SPARTI, Barbara et al. Imaging Dance: visual representations of dancers and dancing. Hildesheim; Zürich; New York: Georg Olms, 2011. ISBN 978-3-487-14549-5.

MARTIN, John. Modern Dance. New York: Dance Horizons, 1972.

MAZO, Joseph H. Prime Movers Makers of Modern Dance in America. London: A&C Black, 1977. ISBN 9780713617375.

MILLE, Agnes de. Martha. The Life and Work of Martha Graham. New York: Random House, 1991. ISBN 0394556437

PARTSCH-BERGSOHN, Isa. Modern dance in Germany and the United States : crosscurrents and influences. Chur: Harwood academic publishers, c1994. ISBN 3-7186-5558-6.

THOMAS, Helen. Dance, Modernity and Culture. London, New York: Routledge, 1995. ISBN 978-0415087940.

Evaluation methods and criteria

Credit awarded based on attendance (75%) and completion of an essay based on required readings of 3-5 standard pages.

Further information

No schedule has been prepared for this course

The subject is a part of the following study plans

Dance Pedagogy (BA) - Methods of Classical Ballet Technique - from 2023/24 (Required subjects with the possibility of repeat registration)
Dance Pedagogy (BA) - Methods of Modern and Contemporary Dance - from 2023/24 (Required subjects with the possibility of repeat registration)
Dance Pedagogy (BA) - Methods of Folk Dance - from 2023/24 (Required subjects with the possibility of repeat registration)