Post-Modern Dance

Although my interest in movement began a few years before I discovered Post-Modern Dance (see background) and is much broader then it alone, it is largely in this context that I have been studying and working with movement for the last 12 years. So here is a brief history of "Post-Modern Dance".

Over the last 30 years or so in the dance world, contemporary and modern dance have been joined by what has become known as "Post-Modern Dance" (aka New Dance). It has its direct roots in the work of some contemporary and modern dancers who, in the fifties and sixties, began to question the place of the body in those forms. Contemporary and modern dance were typically more concerned with how the body looked from the outside than on exploring the organic movement potential of the human body.

In seeking to broaden their body knowledge, these dancers looked to forms from the East such as Tai Chi, Yoga and Aikido, as well as Western, often therapeutic, bodies of work of those like FM Alexander, Moshe Feldenkrais, and Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, or the pioneering work of Mabel Todd and Elsa Gindler that preceded them back in the 1920s and 1930s, to mention but a few.

This influx of ideas led to the creation of New-Dance techniques and practices such as release technique, authentic movement and contact improvisation. Post-Modern Dance trainings have been developed which include developmental movement and experiential anatomy and there is interest in improvisation as a performance art form in its own right.

These New-Dance practices are all directed towards developing an intelligent body. In respecting the different potentials of different physiques rather than seeking to impose uniformity, these educations therefore tend to be more inclusive. They emphasise self-development, self-awareness, interaction skills, choice making skills, creative process, health and well-being of the dancer.

What all these practices share is a somatic approach. I believe that many of the practices that have arisen with Post-Modern Dance have much to offer beyond the confines of the world of dance.

• Move to Learn
• Interests
• Somatics
• Post-Modern Dance
• Background
• Movement forms that I teach and teachers who taught them to me
• Movement forms and teachers that influence my work