Past Dancers involved with AN

• Hanya Holm
• Martha Graham
• Doris Humphrey
• Charles Weidman

Major Pieces

• Masks, Props, and Mobiles (1953)
• Totem (1960)
• “Count Down” (1979)

Dance Technique 

He used his productions to show integrated motion, sound, shape, and color.

My Impression

He found costumes “depersonalizing ” which is interesting because some choreographers use costumes as their biggest prop. 

1. He began his creative endeavors on the piano and began his performing career as an organist accompanying silent films. 
2. In 1940 he trained with his first modern dance teacher; Truda Kaschmann.
3. He was in the army during World War II.
4. In 1948 he became director of the Henry Street Playhouse in New York City.
   
5. In 1951 he form his own dance company called the Nikolais Dance Theater.
6. National Endowment of the Arts in Washington D.C. awarded him with the American National Medal of the Arts in 1987.

Past Dancers involved with YR

• Steve Paxton
• David Gordon
• James Waring
• Merce Cunningham 

Major Pieces

• At My Body’s House (1963)
• Trio A (1966)
• Continuous Project-Altered Daily (1969)

Dance Technique

She has a giant list of ‘do-nots’, very interesting seeing no being moved or no eccentricity.

My Impression

She is seemingly a very cut-throat dancer seeing her list, a perfectionist probably. 

1. She trained as a modern dancer in 1957 and began to choreograph her own work in 1960.
2. She was one of the founders of Judson Dancer Theater in 1962.
3. Between 1962 and 1975 she was recognized internationally for her work, notably on Broadway.
4. Rainer is a central figure in the American postmodern dance movement . 
5. In 1972 Rainer wrote and directed her first medium length film, Lives of Performers. 
6. Since 1974 she has been a professor at the University of California. 

Past Dancers involved with JC

• Tony Holder
• Meredith Monk
• Aileen Passloff
• Steve Paxton
• Yvonne Rainer

Dance Technique 

There are countless techniques, but all was derived from Robert Dunn.

My Impression

I always have admired groups of people who ban together to reject a concept, I’ve always found rebellion interesting.

Society’s Impression

Even though they didn’t consider their own work Modern dance, other might classify it as different modern dance.

1. Before JDT Modern Dancers struggled to showcase their work.
2. Not only was the company comprised of cancer but also untrained visual artists, musicians, poets, and even filmmakers.
3. The company gave it’s first performance on July 6, 1962.
4. After that JDT dominated over modern dance for 20 years. 
5. The company was predominantly comprised of women. 
6.  They called their creation postmodern dance, rejecting classic modern.