4.9: Conclusion- Modern and Postmodern Perspectives

“Circumstances don’t make the man - they only reveal him to himself” -- Epictetus

At its inception, modern dance had been visioned as a rejection of rigid traditional exclusivity of the codified ballet. Preeminently naturalistic, both St. Denis and Duncan animated an untethered spiritual expressivity. They broke the rules of society and high society, set up shop as self-proclaimed artists, and challenged the establishment. The circumstances of the early pioneers of modern dance revealed – to themselves, and the world – that questioning authority and challenging rigid mandates of tradition foments new artistic production, in what Duncan wished for, giving birth to new movement rooted in nature and eternal truth.

In the postmodern epoch, not only has authority been questioned, but truth has been challenged, as well. Truth has been deposed, dismantled, and replaced with a secular form of relativism where anyone and everyone has an atomized sense of self and individuated truth. While the early pioneers of modern dance leaned into nature, soul-informed movement, and differentiated cultural expressive forms for inspiration, there was a unifying principle. Laban’s pedestrian movement welcomed anyone to experience dance through everyday movement as art… and by extension, second generation modern dancers innovated contact improvisation – even then, there was a unifying aim for human connection and inclusion – making dance available to all.

In the process of postmodern secularization and digitization, that which modern dancers elevated – nature and human interaction – has been secularized, deaminated, and deposed from having a status imbued with mystical connection. By ridding nature, human interaction, and dance of magic in the postmodern era (No Manifesto, anyone?), secularization has eliminated a unifying principle. According to clinical psychologist, author, and educator Jordan B. Peterson (2023), without a higher order principle that unites people, we are confused, aimless, anxious, tending toward fear and conflict; and “[t]he absence of a unifying principle isn’t peace, it’s war” (JBP, 2023, 14:06).

The 2020 pandemic brought about anxiousness and fear, aimlessness, and lack of connection. The global population was confused and fell into conflict. And while the connectedness of humans across numerous digital platforms stitched the world together in some measure, technology also fragmented and alienated a generation. Many have been susceptible to the nefarious maladies of radicalization for terrorism cells, the hedonism of only fans and self-exploitation, the Blue Whale movement, or mass shootings. However, these same digital platforms served dancers in creative ways that may illuminate a glimmer of hope.

Zoom rooms were alight around the world with disparate choreographies of isolated dancers, even a 2020 reenactment of Sokolow’s 1965 Rooms illustrates how dance responded to the global pandemic, modeling a unifying principle of togetherness that provided some peace amidst the fear and conflict. Perhaps dance might serve as an rejoinder to the postmodern condition, and reconnect mystical purpose to the human experience through the experiential act of physical dance.

• Modern Dance
  • The Legacy of Denishawn
  • The Mother of Modern Dance
  • The Language of Modern Dance
  • Rudolf von Laban and Mary Wigman
  • Katherine Dunham
  • Martha Graham
  • Micho Ito
  • Lester Horton
  • Alvin Ailey
  • Anna Sokolow
• Postmodern Dance
  • Yvonne Rainer, Steve Paxton, Anna Halprin
  • Merce Cunningham
  • Trisha Brown
  • Of Fungi and Veal Calves
  • Poetic Contrasts of Postmodern Dance
  • Modern and Postmodern Perspectives