Kennedy Byrd February 24, 2010 Modern Dance and Politics Because dance artists have had an interest

in the political movements of their day, their art has had a relationship with the political situations of their home country and other countries. Whether it was interest in politics by choice or rather an interest because it was a matter of survival, artists were involved. Modern dance developed differently in countries ruled by governments who had varying degrees of control over the arts and peoples rights. The democracy in America, Socialism in Germany, and Communism in China each influenced the development of modern dance in their countries in different ways. In addition, modern dance played an influential role in politics. Modern began during the era of expressionism in the 1920s where many artists felt the urge to be freer with self expression, show ample emotion, and communicate individual thoughts. It was described as reflections of inner landscapes (Partsch-Bergsohn 1). Isadora Duncan, an America who traveled to Europe to study modern dance, and Michael Fokine, from the ballet genre, both talked about and transitioned their dancing in the direction of natural

movement (Partsch-Bergsohn 2). The progression toward natural and expressive movement was mostly a western phenomenon and some of its earliest origins began with dancers in Germany. The Weimar Republic was the ruling body in Germany at the beginning of modern dance development and they supported the new expressionist art. Later, the rise of the National Socialist Party influenced modern dance in other ways. Rudolph Laban was a modern dance pioneer in Germany. He is famous for his ideas which eventually became codified as Laban Movement Analysis, a vocabulary for notating and describing movement (Partsch-Bergsohn 30). One of his major contributions with relation to the political movements during the 20th century was his development of the movement choirs. These

movement choirs were for dancers and for regular people to be able to move together for the enjoyment of moving and expressing themselves. His use of rhythm, singing, and dancing brought people together in a meaningful way (Partsch-Bergsohn 15). However, as with many good things if they are misused they can produce terrible effects. Laban actually foretold of the possible danger that could arise in society if movement choirs were misused (Partsch-Bergsohn 60). As The National Socialist Party in German was rising to power they made use of modern dance movement choirs for propaganda purposes, while at the same time labeling other modern art as degenerate. One of their grand spectacles was the movement choir performance in the 1936 Olympic opening ceremonies in Berlin (Dils and Albright 225). Another use of the movement choir by the Nazis was to celebrate the Aryan race (Partsch-Bergsohn 60). From these examples we see that modern dance influenced politics when parties saw how it could draw positive attention to their group and serve their goals. Mary Wigman was a modern dance pioneer in Germany who studied under Laban in 1913. However, after studying with Laban she took her own path (Partsch-Bergsohn 12). Kurt Jooss is another big name to know in Germany during this time period. Like Wigman, he trained with Laban, but then went in his own direction, which was the theatrical side of modern dance (Partsch-Bergsohn 36). The influence on modern dance of the political situations in Germany of, including WWI, WWII and the rise of Socialism, are evident in some of Wigman and Jooss choreographic works. One of Wigmans major politically controversial works was Totenmal, also known as Call of the Dead, performed in 1930. The dancers wore masks, and stories of dead soldiers from the First World War were spoken while they danced. Some saw this dance as a pacifist statement, or a statement opposing war, while others saw it affirming war and serving as a

memorial for the soldiers. Pacifist statements were unacceptable to the National Socialist Party. However, since Totenmal appeared to take both sides of the war issue, the middle class people liked it. The spectators that longed for a middle way between nationalism and socialism also longed for a theater above politics, and Totenmal seemed to provide both (Manning 159). In 1932 Jooss began creating a choreographic work called The Green Table, and although he argued that it wasnt a political piece, the socialists saw the antiwar themes in it and deemed it unacceptable. There were other possible reasons the National Socialist party opposed The Green Table including the facts that the music was written by a Jewish man, the dance showed international intellectualism, and it did not celebrate the citizens who died in defense of their country (Partsch-Bergsohn 81-82). In the 1930s when the National Socialist party came into power over Germany, modern dance began to decline because expressionist art was seen as degenerate art, and those who supported it were not supported whatsoever by the government. In fact, modern dance pioneers who were once regarded very highly in Germany either fled to other countries to continue their work or stayed and were ignored and oppressed. Mary Wigman chose to stay in the country trying to ignore the political issues, but it proved to be impossible to continue with her style of art and stay on good terms with the government. She finally chose to ignore Nazi ideology and to dance with the same kind of expression and same display of individual ideas as she always had. She was labeled as an expressionist and her art was seen as degenerate (Partsch-Bergsohn 94). Her school was closed and she could no longer perform in public (Partsch-Bergsohn 113). After the performance of The Green Table Kurt Jooss was warned to leave the country, so he took his company and fled to Holland (Partsch-Bergsohn 81). Between 1936 and 1946 modern dance was absent from the public eye in Germany. After WWII modern dance was not the same in

Germany. Dance students didnt appreciate or identify with Wigmans techniques like students in the past had, and American influences were more appealing. There was also an attitude of rebellion and cynicism among youth in the country because of what they had gone through (Partsch-Bergsohn 125). The politics of the National Socialist Party stifled what would have been a natural progression and development in Germany of the brilliant modern dance that grew out of expressionism. The United States followed Germany in the path of expressionism in dance, and the development of modern dance in America had a lot of influence from Germany. One example of the German influence is Hanya Holm who studied with Mary Wigman in Germany then immigrated to the United States. Although she had her own ideas too, she used many of Wigmans techniques of modern dance in her teaching. She directed a Wigman dance school in New York and carefully observed and attended to the needs of American students which were slightly different because of cultural differences (Partsch-Bergsohn 78-79). Although Wigman was oppressed and degraded in Germany, through Holm she indirectly advanced and enhanced the development of modern dance in America. The United States is and has been a democratic republic from the beginning of its establishment. The Constitution is all about freedom and rights for the people. In fact, many people came to America looking for a new start and freedom to choose how they wanted to live. The democracy in America allowed modern dancers to develop this new dance form with free expression of their own ideas and emotions. Some American artists used modern dance to advance political movements or respond to political situations in other countries. Also, many were active participators in the politics of America including the workers struggle, class struggle, racial issues, and the Communist Party in America. Many artists had political stances that were

considered radical and their dances represented their views. Organizations like the Workers Dance League and the New Dance Group were highly active in the political conversation through movement. The social change that artists wanted to bring about gave modern dance a passionate purpose in America (Foulkes 105-111). The Workers Dance League used the slogan Dance Is a Weapon in the Revolutionary Class Struggle (Graff 7). According to Ellen Graff, that meant two things: that the League was using dance to educate people about the class struggles and also that dance was of social importance because it brought the working people together to express (35). The Workers Dance League not only had this attitude of dance toward the politics of the class struggle, but they believed that all art was really propaganda but not all propaganda was art (Graff 51). The group eventually changed their name to New Dance League to get remove the conception that its association was with just workers (Graff 112). Not to be confused with the New Dance League there was another organization that was highly involved in political dancing in America. They were the New Dance Group. In 1934 they performed a work entitled Van der Lubbes Head in response to German Socialism. Van der Lubbe was a man in Germany who was ordered by Hitler to be beheaded. The dance was said to have project[ed] the horror and viciousness of the Hitler regime, not through literal movement, but through distortion (Graff 63). It was a success among the audience as well. Not only did this dance contribute a political statement and reflect political influences it brought up an important point in the development of modern dance in regards to interpreting the messages of choreography. Critics discussed the use of spoken words during this dance and others of the time period and whether or not spoken text should accompany dance performance (Graff 63). It is true that often modern dance audiences dont get it, and to convey a specific message words

are an easy option for artists. However, some think it should be up to the audience to derive a message. This is still an issue today and we can look back on the successes, failures, and generally commentary about using text and decide for ourselves whether we need it to help convey future political messages. In contrast to those intensely involved in making political statements through modern dance, not all American modern dancers viewed their purpose as political and rather they tried to keep politics out of art. During WWII it was hard for Hanya Holm to be a German emigrant living in America and in the public art scene. She finally had to make a strong statement about her position. She said, In my opinion there is no room for politics in art. However, radicals and leftists still seemed to find a place with her (Newhall 38). In America modern dance embodied the conflict and potential of creating a democratic whole out of distinct individuals (Foulkes 2-3). This is an important point to make about the link between modern dance and politics, because modern dance embodied American politics. American society prides itself on the freedoms we enjoy, but there is still the struggle to create a united country. Individuals have different ideas for what rights people should have, but somehow we have to come together and decide. In the modern dance world there are many varied individual techniques and styles. It is a blessing to have so many options because it reaches a broader range of dancers and audiences. It is also a challenge to bring them all together under the umbrella of modern dance and describe the style of modern dance compared to other dance forms. Modern dance was not developed in China like it was in the western world. It came as a western style through pioneers from China who explored modern dance in other countries and brought what they learned back to their home country. In the East, modernity was imported.

The system itself did not generate modernity, but assumed it steeply, without any evolution in which the forms could progress within channels considered as ecologically natural (Solomon and Solomon 2). Yu Rongling, the daughter of an official in the Qing Dynasty, was one of the first of the Chinese Modern Dance pioneers. She studied with Isadora Duncan in Paris and brought back western modern dance styles to china as early as 1902 (Minarti 1). Wu Xiao Bang was another pioneer who studied modern dance in Japan with teachers influenced by the concepts of Duncan and Laban. He created a series of political themed dance works including The Fire in Hunger (Minarti 1). Modern dance was banned for a while during the control of the communist party. In the later part of the 20th century when China became more open to the Western World and the Communist party became less strict. After the Cultural Revolution in the 80s, Chinese artists felt the need for expression and self introspection and a reform in the arts. However, modern dance wasnt included at first and its development appeared quite late in the reform. Soon western modern dance was more acceptable, explored more, and several companies were formed (Minarti 2). According to Jiamin Huang, a professor of modern dance at BYU who was originally from China, the government used to be very strict on dance artists regarding what kinds of ideas could be presented in their choreography. They had to go through an examination process where their works were analyzed to see whether or not the message fit with the Communist Partys ideology. Jiamin Huang said that artists had to stay in the mainstream of thought to be acceptable. She emphasized how tradition in China is highly valued and this is perfectly understandable because of their 5,000 year history. Huang likened China to a large, old tree with deep and strong roots that is not too easily influenced by western winds. However, she did

mention that China has the ability take the good things from other cultures and quickly assimilate it into their own culture. They seem to be able to recognize what from other countries will be good for their society based on their long history. One reason modern dance was more slowly assimilated was because China had just successfully pulled out of an imperialist rule and modern dance became associated with the fear of American imperialism (Solomon and Solomon 29). China is now developing the style of western modern dance and it is relatively new there. Chinese government is getting less strict on the dance artists and their choreographic ideas. According to Huang, the choreographers there are now allowed to comment on society more than they used to be able, but anything that goes against the roots of the Communist Partys political ideology is not allowed. I would venture to say that, in America, if someone were to choreograph and perform a dance that went against the deep roots of democracy our country would be very upset about it too. It is interesting to study across cultures and look at why things develop the way they do. It is natural to assume that all countries had relatively the same experiences, such as an expressionism period where artists wanted to express their deep emotional and psychological ideas. It seems that that kind of expressionistic drive would naturally develop from a fundamental human need and thus modern expressionist art would arise in each society accordingly. However, that doesnt seem to be the case as we have seen from the experience of China and how modern dance was not natively developed but brought by western influence. In interviewing Jiamin Huang, she commented on how there are pronounced differences between Eastern and Western thought and how that changes the political and social dynamics of society. Political thought links closely to the philosophical ideas of a countrys native people and through studying the development of art we see the effects of both politics and philosophy.

The socialist rule of Germany resulted in extreme tragedy with the holocaust and all of the effects of Hitlers Nazi regime. There were also great tragedies in China with the Communist Party and the Cultural Revolution. I tend to think that American democracy is the best because I have been raised here and taught to believe that, but there have also been great tragedies in the United States because of failures in our democracy. Doris Humphrey once said, in regards to working with her dancers, With one hand I try to encourage them to be individualsto move and think regardless of me or anyone else. And in rehearsals also it is necessary to contradict all that and make them acutely aware of each other, so that they may move in a common rhythm (Foulkes 2). It is interesting to notice how philosophies of modern dance are similar to the political ideologies of democracy, socialism, communism and others. Human beings all have a desire to be an individual; they have the drive to think for themselves and believe in their own ideas. There is also a drive to be part of a community and work with people for a greater societal good. Sometimes political bodies try to suppress or stress these human drives in extreme ways. In politics and dance we need a moderate amount of elements of each differing ideology. We experience tragedy when one ideology is taken to the extreme and because of human error in leadership. I agree with Helly Minarti who says, Modern dance is by history an art of crossingboundaries, a story woven by traveling ideas and geographic migrations (Minarti 1). It is a bridge between cultures. It unites people with the desire to express individual thoughts and emotions through dance which is an art form that is fundamental to human life and community. The influences across cultures are important because thats how we relate and respond to each other. Learning how modern dance has developed among different political cultures is a way to understand each other. Because modern dance allows for the communication of raw emotion and

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statements of individual ideas, there is the possibility for a global community through movement communication. Whether we are interested by choice or not politics will ever be around us. As dancers in America it may be wise to take advantage of the freedom we have to voice our opinions and take part in the political conversations through our favorite form of communicationdance.

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Works Cited Colome, Delfin. East DanceWest Dance. Asia Europe Journal 3 (2005): 247-257. Dils, Ann, and Ann Cooper Albright. Moving History/Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader. Durham: Wesleyan UP, 2001. Foulkes, Julia L. Modern Bodies: American Modern Dance from Martha Graham to Alvin Ailey. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 2002. Graff, Ellen. Stepping Left. Durham: Duke UP, 1997. Manning, Susan. Ecstasy and the Demon: The Dances of Mary Wigman. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006. Minarti, H. Transculturating bodies: Politics of Identity of Contemporary Dance in China. Asian Scholarship. 24 February 2010. <http://www.asianscholarship.org/asf/ejourn/ articles/helly_m.pdf>. Newhall, Mary Anne Santos. Uniform Bodies: Mass Movement and Modern Totalitarianism. Dance Research Journal. 34.1 (2002): 27-50. Partsch-Bergsohn, Isa. Modern Dance in Germany and the United States: Crosscurrents and Influences. Tuscon: Harwood Academic, 1994. Solomon, Ruth L., and John Solomon. East Meets West in Dance: Voices in the Cross-Cultural Dialogue. Switzerland: Harwood Academics, 1995.