Modern Dance

Tum, pam, pam, tum, pam, pam, tum, pam, pam, tum, pam, pam... What comes to your mind? A natural beat of drums and an African dance. Why? It's in your blood. Dance has existed since early stage of human development. As long as humans were able to feel rhythm, they were able to move with the rhythm, an action, which is called dance. In Africa, in America, in Asia, and in Australia majority of old tribes maintained some form of traditional dance. Dances were performed by men, women or shamans. Dance invigorates and awakens one's spirit and improves one's mood. Motion with the rhythm brings sense of life into ourselves, meaning we need it just as much as we need to talk and socialize, for we are social animals after all. Modern dance as any dance does not really need to have a purpose; it only needs to bring joy to the performers and to the audience. Modern dance is a form of exercise, which relaxes one's mind and body. Modern dance is a form of exercise developed in the 20^th century. Similar to ballet, it explores possible body movements, but unlike ballet, it frees your spirit and mind allowing an endless variation of movements.

Probably, in 21^st century there are dances performed by shamans, however, they are located mainly in far Africa. In the modern world the creators of modern dance the way it is now were American pioneers of radically changing the conformed rules of the ballet. Martha Graham was the revolutionist in the Art of Modern Dance. She has created a new era of dance, the Modern Dance. The new dance was created by her careful observations of what animals behavior is, how they walk, how they run; particularly, she was observing lions. Of course, the animals were moving naturally without giving a second thought that they could be observed, and so is the Modern Dance now, the movement of body exploring its natural capabilities and tendencies.� Modern dance is a collection of animal-like movements, which allows freedom of body.

Choreography � with theatrical performance forms that are classified into different genres with such terms as ballet, modern dance, postmodern dance, and dance theatre � brings into view the problematic of what is currently being debated in the discourse of the crisis of representation. The question: 'Are we conscious of the ways in which we represent things with our bodies?' serves as the start in point again and again for the work of the Frankfurt-based choreographer William Forsythe (Forsythe 37).

Our body has its own limitations, of which we are aware. However, we are not aware of all the capabilities of our bodies. We live in our lives, without ever exploring what are bodies were born to do. The soft walk of a cat, the graceful leaps, and the comfortable positions of the bodies by bending body curves - are all things that animals do and we don't. We have forgotten about the nature of our bodies.

In addition, to a wider range of dance forms, there is also now a broader scope of dance-related activities, including professional dance ballet, modem, jazz, musical comedy, ethnic, and tap; dance taught in studios, public and private schools, community based programs, and colleges and universities; dance choreography; dance therapy; dance medicine; dance writing books, articles, journals, and tests, in addition to the writings of archivists, historians, researchers, and critics; dance notation and reconstruction; and arts management (Weeks).

�Does anyone know that it brings pleasure to bend, to stretch, to jump, to turn, to leap? A few people do. Our bodies need the exercise; we do so by pumping up our muscles in a gym, forgetting that there are many more things than just being strong and agile. Try watching a bird, a cat, a squirrel, any animal and repeat its movements, just like Martha Graham did, may be you will feel the nature's call, may be you will be a creator of yet another dance.

The spirit of the dance is awakened after hearing a rhythmic and pleasant to the ear music. Part of dancing is feeling you do the dance, feeling the music, feeling the rhythm. As an exercise before the dance you stretch and bend, and the pleasure that your body can feel while stretching is the pleasure of body that feels its natural tendencies, fulfills its purpose, and does what it was intended to do.

There is far greater purpose to the dance, than just feeling your body, there is sense of feeling all the past of human beings and human kind. Once you feel how your body can move, you can understand what you cannot do, and then you can start working on what no one has ever done before. The secret in the dance is to discover yourself and to understand how you are connected with the nature.

The modern dance is a simple combination of movements that makes you aware of yourself, it allows to understand your abilities, and gives you a chance to feel your spirit as one with nature. The modern dance got its final shape due to studies of Martha Graham and due to her new school of dance. Her work at the beginning of the 20^th century had made new dance that has lasted a century and entered into the new millennium. The exercises in modern dance involve exploring of the natural animal movements. The exercises of modern dance relax and energize. Since they are natural animal like movements, they remind us of natural positions of the body, the ones our bodies used to. They remind us of what we were and what we are.

WORKS CITED

Adams, Carolyn, and Julie Adams Stranberg. Access, education, and preservation

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Forsythe, William, and David Levine. Program notes for The Loss of Small Detail.

(1987):37. Frankfurt a.M.: Stadtische Buhnen Frankfurt.

Freedman, Russell. Martha Graham: A Dancer's Life. (1998). New York: Clarion Books.

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