Helen Tamiris Biography Essay

Influenced primarily by cultural roots and incredibly opportunity, Dunham had the luxury of studying in the West Indies as well as anthropological study of other cultural style dances. The West Indian experience changed forever the focus of Dunham’s life and caused a profound shift in her career. This initial fieldwork began a lifelong involvement with the people and dance of Haiti. And, importantly for the development of modern dance, her fieldwork began her investigations into a vocabulary of movement that would form the core of the Katherine Dunham Technique. Though many of Dunham’s primary influences lies within her multicultural experiences, Mark Turbyfill also seemed to play a large role in her future dance career, giving her private lessons despite his doubt in the opening of her student company (Kaiso! 187). Katherine Dunham has been list as an influence to “everyone from George Balanchine to Jerome Robbins, Alvin Ailey, Bob Fosse and Twyla Tharp. American dance, including ballet, modern dance, Hollywood and Broadway, would not be the same without her” (Aschenbrenner 226).

Twyla Tharp was born on July 1, 1941 in Portland, Indiana. She began taking dance in 1950 when she was nine years old. Her family moved to Rialto, California where she began taking lessons at the Vera Lynn School of Dance as a high school student. For college, Tharp attended Pamona College in California. She then transferred to Barnard College in New York City. She graduated from there in 1963 with a degree in art history. While in New York she studied under Richard Thomas, Martha Graham, and Merce Cunningham. In 1966, she formed her own company, Twyla Tharp Dance. In that company, she traveled around the world performing original works.

The world of contemporary dance is one that is constantly developing and pushing the boundaries of what makes dance more than just movement. However, it is questionable that it would be in this diverse state if it was not for a few revolutionary choreographers. Along with Martha Grahame is could be argued that Merce Cunningham was a pioneering, revolutionary choreographer who questioned given standards and procedures creating the diverse contemporary style that we know today. Revolutionary can be defined as something radically new or innovative; outside or beyond established procedure and principles (Dictionary.com, 2017). In order for something to be revolutionary it has to be in relation to something else, this is certainly true for Cunningham’s

At the end of the 19th century, ballet was the most prominent form of dance. However, to Isadora Duncan, "ballet was the old order that needed to be overthrown, an embodied symbol of all that was wrong with oversymbolized 19th century living" (Daly 26). Duncan believed that the over-technical, over-standardization of ballet was not what dance should be about. Her vision of dance was one of emotions, ideas, social betterment, and the complete involvement of the body, mind, and soul (26). With these ideas in mind, she began to create a new form of dance; what she referred to as the "new dance" (23), and what is now known as modern dance. In creating this new dance, she was inspired by composers such as

The light shine down and the music surrounds her as she dance into the air and across the stage. The audience yells and clap for her as the curtain close. It’s the end of another work week for Jane Onwuegbuchu. Jane comes from a very huge family of 8, where it’s very hard for her to be at the center of attention, especially being the 5th child. Jane was born in Houston, Texas on June 22, 1987 to Rosaline and James Onwuegbuchu. She started dancing at the young age of 3 with Elite dancers and fell in love with dancing since then. “Growing up as a child, Jane was a very good child, she loved dancing and just seeing her dance melt my heart. She was a part of a lot of dance organization, church, youth dance team etc… You name it and she was there,”

As ballets were about telling stories or formulating movements, modern dance broke the rules and started to focus more on individual expressions. Loie Fuller (1862 – 1928), Doris Humphrey (1895-1958), and Ruth St. Denis (1877-1968) were pioneering women who took a stand and used their dance performance to speak up for women’s rights. Using dance, they significantly contributed to the Feminist movement in which they embraced self-expression and creativity so that women could be acknowledged in the dance field and in the society as a whole. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, they found for women’s rights by “taking dance to a new form, and creating dances to speak directly and intimately to the viewer” (Au 89). Loie Fuller, Doris Humphrey, and Ruth St. Denis demonstrated the transformation of dance with their innovation of costumes and stage lighting, incorporation of foreign cultures into performance, and creation of natural movements and individual expression that rejected the formal structures of ballet to deform a woman’s body, allowing women to be free from stereotype of a traditional woman.

Amalia Hernandez was born in 1917, and was the famous creator of Ballet Folklorico. Classical Ballet was Hernandez’s first passion, in which she started taking lessons as a young girl. Later in her life, she decided to specialize in Native American dance. Ballet Folklorico was first founded in 1952. The company was a huge success, and soon became the largest and most popular dance company in the entire world. More than 60 regions of Mexico were incorporated into her performances. Amalia Hernandez’s work and style incorporated many different cultures and themes. Many dances were fiesta themed and incorporated beautiful different colors and costumes. Fiesta theme performances were fun and different to watch. The vibrant colors and creativity made them unique and festive. A great deal of Mexican history was also incorporated in Hernandez’s work as well.

People can now be a talented dancer just like her by going to her dance studio and learning how to dance. People will give her credibility for teaching them how to dance.This gave her a historical credibility because when she died her dance studio will still be there and people will still going then as well. Also a dancer names Clarence Bradley went to her dance studio to start dancing and had a stage debut.People are going to her dance studio and are becoming icon and getter dancer like herself and Clarence Bradley. So no matter if she is still alive or not she will still be known as a dancing and having a dance studio that everyone goes

Martha Graham was one of the most influential figures in American modern dance, and her techniques and styles are still practiced today. She became widely known throughout all ages and decades. Her first debut was in the 1920's. As time went on, she became more experienced and wiser in the modern dance field. Martha Graham, whose style was considered controversial, became one of the finest choreographers and dancers in the dance world.

She studied different types of dance and incorporated them into her own technique. “Called the matriarch of black dance her groundbreaking repertoire combine innovative interpretation of caribbean dances,traditional ballet, African rituals and African American rhythms to create the Dunham technique” (“Katherine Dunham Biography” 2). Dunham technique is continued to be taught at schools and companies all over the world. Her travels to other countries always inspired her choreography. “She is credited for bringing caribbean and African influences to a European-dominated world” (“Katherine Dunham Biography” 2). Dunham’s use of different world influences innovated dance and created more significant choreography. Dunham not only changed how she danced; she created an entirely new

1908, in Culiacan Mexico… He moved to new york in 1928 brought Limon into contact with the modern dance world. He experienced as a dancer and become a major performer and dance, in other words, he found his own dance company in 1947.

Dance is an ever evolving form of art; in much the same way that one can categorize and differentiate between eras and styles of architecture one can also do so with dance. These eras at times have sharp delineations separating them from their antecedents, other times the distinction is far more subtle. Traditional forms of dance were challenged by choreographers attempting to expand the breadth and increase the depth of performance; preeminent among such visionaries was Seattle born dancer and choreographer Mark Morris. Mark Morris' began as one of the millions of hopeful individuals attempting to simply make a career in dance; he not only succeeded but managed to have a lasting effect on the entire landscape of dance.

The Orchesis Dance Company was first instituted in 1948 by Catherine Jones Williams, under the Physical Education Department, where she was a physical education teacher in the Men’s Gymnasium. In the year 1957, there was an increase in the demand for performances at the University and other institutions in the surrounding areas and as a result, performances were given, at a halftime during athletic events. Consequently, the usage of more intense study techniques amplified, and performances became a precedence for the company. By this time the modern dance group was working to prove the capabilities of the body as an expressive instrument by displaying stunning feats of virtuosity. (Orchesis History, 2017).

Dance therapy began as a profession in the 1940s with the work of Marian Chace. A

Mary Wigman had influence over Germany for modern dance as she began working with Rudolph Laban and she created a dance school in Dresden for students to learn something new which was in fact a creative experience that is an expression of emotional impulses. She wanted her dancers to be conscious of the impulses that lay within themselves and how to express them. Her movements wanted to create a cathartic function to dance in ancient societies and will be remembered for their tragic, dark character and introspective dances that reveal vibrant, vital and passionate inner states of being. It was in fact the rise of the Nazi political party in Germany in the 1920s ended the German modern dance movement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Wigman Wikipedia 14th December 2017