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20th Century American Dance

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America at the emergence of the 20th Century had differing conventional values to what they are today; both in society and through the means of dance. Isadora Duncan challenged these conventional values to become one of the greatest pioneers of movement, and is still labelled today as the ‘Mother of Modern Dance’. Not only did her personal life show an alternative to what society considered to be normal, her style and philosophy of dance was completely different to what was assumed in the early 1900s.
As stated in Duncan’s autobiography, her mother believed that “This child that will be born will surely not be normal” (Duncan, 1928). From an early age, Duncan was pushing the boundaries when it came to movement and dance as well as in her personal …show more content…
Then she would sing or read or recite poetry. Dora couldn’t give her children fancy clothes or expensive toys, but she gave them the love of art” (O’Connor, 2001).
This style of upbringing from her mother meant that Duncan was encouraged to be autonomous in her thinking, and once she had left school her mother home-schooled her and thus taught her own wisdom regarding women’s rights and independent thinking.
At the beginning of the 20th century, women’s rights were only just being realised and fought for. Additionally, it was atypical for a woman to have her own career; they were perceived as property of men. Their perceived role was to exclusively be a wife. If women were unwed, only domestic jobs were socially acceptable, such as cooking or cleaning. Duncan did not have a typical upbringing with two parents being present in her life. Her mother, although a seamstress, was also a piano teacher, so she instilled an artistic influence on Duncan from an early …show more content…
For instance, she left school at the age of ten as she felt that “general education a child receives at school is absolutely useless” (Duncan, 1928). Instead she taught children in her neighbourhood to dance, and that was how her dancing and teaching career began. Her style was evident even from an early age, where she "followed [her] fantasy and improvised, teaching any pretty thing that came into [her] head". (Duncan, 1928). Her intention was to bring dance back to a sacred art form, and consequently, she was already achieving this as a child. Duncan began to develop movements inspired by nature and natural forces: “Fascinated by the motion in nature, she liked to imitate the swaying poppies or the soaring birds” (O’Connor, 2001). It is mentioned that she used the sea as one of her early inspirations for movement, as she lived near the coast and would create pieces to mimic the sound and movement of the

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