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

by Carter, Alexandra; Fensham, Rachel

• ISBN13: 9780230278448
• ISBN10: 0230278442
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-01-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

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.

Author Biography

Alexander Carter is Emeritus Professor at Middlesex University, UK. She edited the Routledge Dance Studies Reader (1998, 2010), and Rethinking Dance History (2004) and sole authored Dance and Dancers in the Victorian and Edwardian Music Hall Ballet (2005). Rachel Fensham is Professor of Dance and Theatre Studies at the University of Surrey UK. Recent publications include To Watch Theatre (2009), book chapters and Journal articles, and she was Principal Investigator for the Digital Dance Archives (DDA) project.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors
Nature, Force and Variation; R.Fensham 
Constructing and Contesting the Natural in British Theatre Dance; A.Carter
Ideas of Nature, the Natural and the Modern Shaping Dance Discourse; M.Huxley & R.Burt
The Ancient Greeks and the 'Natural'; F.Macintosh
From the Artificial to the Natural Body: Social Dancing in Britain; T.Buckland
Dancing Based on Natural Movement; M.A.Johnstone& M.Atkinson
Undressing and Dressing Up: Natural Movement's Life in Costume; R.Fensham
Nature Moving in Succession: Doris Humphrey's 'Water Study'; L.Main
Tensing and Relaxing Naturally: Systematic Approaches to Training the Body; S.Foster
'Female Nature', Body Culture and Plastique; K.Vedel
Tethering the Flow: Dance, Physical Culture and Antiquity in Interwar Australia; A.Card
Mining Anatomy: Moving Naturally; L.Worth
Index