C H A P T E R

9
Emerging American
Dance: 1930–1944

Chapter 9 Emerging American Dance: 1930–1944)

“Remember, Ginger Rogers did
everything that Fred Astaire did,
backwards and on high heels.”

~Source unknown
 Chapter 9 Concepts
• International and American ballet artists and
companies emerged to establish the foundation of
American ballet.
• American modern dancers and choreographers
established a new dance form through their works
and their teaching.
• From the Great Depression to World War II,
Americans viewed dance artists on the silver
screen and danced their woes away in the ballroom
or to radio music in their homes.
 Dancers at the End of Dance
Marathon
See page 176 of your textbook for a photo
capturing the exhaustion of dancers in a
marathon.
 Glance at the Past
• U.S. historical events from the 1930s through most
of World War II: The end of the Great Depression,
Dust Bowl years, western migration to find work, and
northern migration of African Americans, also
looking for work.
• The early 1930s were a period of transition from
Russian ballet to the emerging American style of
ballet in the 1940s. A new dance form became firmly
established; it was modern dance.
• New York City was the dance capital of the country,
and dance was everywhere.
 Popular Social Dances
• Americans embraced the Lindy hop in the 1920s.
• In the 1930s, Lindy hop moved into a new form, the
jitterbug.
• The jitterbug migrated to Europe during World War
II as drafted musicians and other soldiers took their
swing with them.
• During the 1930s and into the 1940s, Latin dances
were popularized by movie stars and band leaders.

(continued)
 Popular Social Dances (continued)
• In 1936 the rumba was introduced to U.S.
audiences. A sensual dance performed to 4/4
music, the American-style rumba has a rhythmic
pattern of slow-quick-quick.
• The samba (from Brazil) reached the United States
in 1939. It was a popular couple dance to music in
2/4 time at a medium tempo.
• Brazilian singer, dancer, and actress Carmen
Miranda performed the samba in 1940s movies and
stage shows.
(continued)
 Popular Social Dances (continued)
• Conga: Originally an Afro-Cuban dance from the
early 1900s, this easy, single-file line dance became
even more popular as nightclubs advertised conga
nights.
• Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz is credited with the
explosion of the conga as a popular dance around
1939.
 Emerging American Ballet
• New American ballet dancers and choreographers
sought to create their own brand of works.
• 1933 became a milestone for American ballet;
Lincoln Kirstein denounced the hold of
“Russianballet” on American dance.
• Ballet companies emerged in Philadelphia, San
Francisco, Chicago, and New York.
• U.S. isolation in early World War II allowed
American dancers and choreographers to gain
confidence in their talents and artistic worth.
 Dancers and Personalities
Major figures in American ballet:
• Russian immigrants
• Dancers who toured with the Ballets Russes
• American dancers
 Adolph Bolm (1884–1951)
• Russian dancer, choreographer, and
teacher who performed with the ballet of the
Maryinsky Theatre and Pavlova’s and
Diaghilev’s companies.
• Bolm remained in the United States. His
work had a formidable effect on the
development of American ballet. His
contributions to American ballet displayed
great scope and variety.
 Agnes de Mille (1909–1993)
• 1930s: She studied and performed in New York and
London; in 1940 she joined Ballet Theatre.
• 1943: Created Rodeo for The Ballet Russe de Monte
Carlo and choreographed the musical Oklahoma!
• Broadway success led to choreographing musicals.
• 1948: Another ballet hit, Fall River Legend.
• 1974: Established the Agnes de Mille Heritage
Dance Theatre at North Carolina School of the Arts.
(continued)
 Agnes de Mille (continued)
Some of de Mille’s contributions to American
dance:
• In musicals, dances functioned as an integral part of
the plot; Oklahoma! was the first musical with this
unified design.
• Both a choreographer and stage director.
• Dance movements would become synonymous with
Americana style.
• “Conversations About the Dance” lectures taught
American audiences about history of dance.
 Antony Tudor (1909–1987)
• Began his dance career with Ballet Rambert
(London); relationship with Ballet Theatre began in
1940.
• Restaged some works for Ballet Theatre; his
“psychological ballets” became the company’s
mainstay during the war years.
• Major works during this period include Jardin aux
Lilas (1936) and Pillar of Fire (1942).
• He chose works by late romantic and modern
composers for his ballets, and based his themes on
psychological and social ideas.
 George Balanchine (1904–1983)
• He graduated from the Imperial Ballet School (1921).
• He joined Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes (1924).
• He choreographed Apollo (Apollon Musagète; 1928,
beginning his focus on neoclassicism and the
beginning of the Stravinsky–Balanchine
collaborations) and Prodigal Son (1929; a parable,
showing he could make a story ballet).
• In 1933, Lincoln Kirstein and others invited him to
America. He eventually became the ballet master of
the Metropolitan Opera.
(continued)
 George Balanchine (continued)
• His first ballet in America was Serenade (1935).
• He choreographed ballets for the Ziegfeld Follies. In
On Your Toes, he created the ballet “Slaughter on
Tenth Avenue” (1936).
• In 1941 he choreographed Concerto Barocco,
which opened the modern ballet era.
• The Four Temperaments (1946); clean, sparing
lines and athleticism of a new American style.
• He became artistic director of the New York City
Ballet.
Concerto Barocco, Choreographed
by George Balanchine

See page 184 of your textbook for a photo of

this abstract ballet.
 American Ballet Pioneers
Outside of New York (the nation’s dance center), little
professional ballet could be found. The few pioneers
were important for their contributions.
• Catherine Littlefield: Formed The Littlefield Ballet in
Philadelphia (1935), the first company directed by
an American and composed of American dancers.
• Ruth Page and Bentley Stone: Codirected the Page-
Stone Ballet, which toured from 1938 through 1942.
In the 1950s, Page formed the Chicago Opera Ballet,
later known as Ruth Page’s Chicago Opera Ballet.
 Personalities Who Contributed
to the Development of Ballet
Lincoln Kirstein (1907–1996)
• Scholar, patron of ballet, director, impresario, writer,
and dance historian, he was on a quest to form an
American ballet––American Ballet Company and the
American School of Ballet were founded.

• In the 1930s, he was instrumental in organizing Ballet

Caravan.

• In the 1940s he became the director of Ballet Society,

the forerunner of the New York City Ballet.

(continued)
Personalities Who Contributed to the
Development of Ballet (continued)
Lucia Chase, Richard Pleasant, and Oliver Smith
• Lucia Chase (1907–1986) studied and performed with
Mikhail Mordkin’s company, which became the nucleus
for Ballet Theatre.

• Chase and Richard Pleasant founded and codirected

Ballet Theatre in 1940.

• In 1945 Chase and scenic designer Oliver Smith became

co-directors and remained so until 1980.
 Ballet Companies and Schools
• Ballet Russe:
– Opened in New York City in December 1933. Massine restaged
many of Diaghilev’s ballets.
– The various incarnations of the Ballet Russe during the 1930s
and 1940s were vital to the development of ballet in America.
• American Ballet Company and School:
– Opened in 1934; held its first performance in Hartford,
Connecticut, with many ballets that Balanchine had staged
previously.
– The company had a brief history and then quietly dissolved, but
the School of American Ballet continued.
(continued)
 Ballet Companies and Schools
(continued)
• Ballet Caravan:
– Organized by Kirstein in 1936; the caravan was a group of 12
dancers touring New England.

– Kirstein: American ballet repertory should be built on the twin

bases of native historic themes and contemporary and
traditional choreography.

– American choreographers who emerged from Ballet Caravan:

Lew Christensen (Filling Station and Pocahontas); Eugene
Loring (Billy the Kid and Yankee Clipper); and William Dollar
(Promenade and Air and Variations).
(continued)
 Ballet Companies and Schools
(continued)
• Ballet Theatre:
– Lucia Chase along with Richard Pleasant reorganized the
Mordkin company into Ballet Theatre; it was mostly
international dancers and some American talent.

– January 1940: Ballet Theatre gave its opening performance in

New York City. Although it was an American ballet company,
neither choreographers nor repertory were truly American.

– It was a company composed of three wings: classical,

contemporary, and ethnic.
 Significant Dance Works
and Literature
• Billy the Kid (1938): By Eugene Loring; Aaron
Copland, composer. The first American ballet about
Western pioneers.
• Rodeo (1942): By Agnes de Mille; Aaron Copland,
composer. A collage of ballet, modern, square, and
tap dance, de Mille’s piece was a precursor of
Oklahoma!
• Serenade (1935): By George Balanchine; set to
Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings in C major,
Opus 48.
(continued)
 Significant Dance Works
and Literature (continued)
• Lilac Garden, or Jardin aux Lilas (1936): By Tudor,
who shows the emotions and frustrations
underlying the perfect manners of people caught in
a love triangle.
• Concerto Barocco (1941): By Balanchine, an
abstract ballet in three movements in which the
costumes were practice clothes.
• Pillar of Fire (1942): By Tudor, who explores the
emotions of sisters and early-20th-century societal
views on Hagar’s indiscretion through stylized
movement motifs and gestures.
 Dance Literature
• Agrippina Vaganova wrote Fundamentals of the Classic
Dance (1934).

• Kirstein’s three pamphlets, Blast at Ballet (1937), Ballet

Alphabet (1939), and What Ballet Is All About (1959),
made the case for developing an American ballet.

• Kirstein’s Dance: A Short History of Classical Theatrical

Dancing (1935) traced dance from its origins to the
1930s.

• Curt Sachs’ (German musicologist) World History of the

Dance (1937) provided a foundation for further research
on dance as part of culture and history.
 Summary
• During this period, dancers and
choreographers struggled to establish ballet
as an American dance form, finding roots in
American themes and music from which the
next generation could branch out and
flourish.
• Tours by ballet companies helped to
publicize the new American ballet style that
was gradually taking a foothold in dance.
Emerging American Modern Dance
• In the early 1930s, Denishawn and Duncan dance
schools dotted the country.
• This first generation of dance artists ushered in a
new era that would emerge as modern dance.
• The Depression led to experimentation in dance.
• In an attempt to provide artists with work, the
Works Project Administration developed the
Federal Theatre Project, giving a voice and stage to
the new American modern dancers.
 Dancers and Personalities
• The Four Pioneers were
– Hanya Holm,
– Martha Graham,
– Doris Humphrey, and
– Charles Weidman.

• They were the first generation of modern dancers.

• Until World War II, they taught at Bennington
College summer dance festivals.
• Two goals: developing modern dance as an art
form and encouraging new audiences to experience
it.
 Martha Graham (ca. 1894–1991)
• Dancer, choreographer, teacher, artistic director,
technique developer, and theoretician.

• During the 1930s her dances were angular and stark,

expressing the conflicts within man (“dances that made
visible the inner landscape”).

• From 1934 to 1942 she taught at Bennington College

summer school; during those years she formulated her
technique.

• In the 1940s her choreographic interest changed to

characters, particularly female heroines, and she made
larger, more theatrical dances.
(continued)
 Martha Graham (continued)
• In the 1940s American choreographic themes shifted to
psychological and literary themes.

• In the following decade they changed to Greek myths,

and after that to cosmic themes.

• Graham’s movement theory was based on contraction

and release.

• Her movement vocabulary requires a centered body; it

uses breathing and the opposition of forces.
 Doris Humphrey (1895–1958)
• Dancer, choreographer, teacher, artistic director,
technique developer, theoretician, and author.
• In 1918, she auditioned for the Denishawn School
of Dancing and Related Arts and joined the
company.
• In 1927 she left Denishawn with Charles Weidman
to establish a company and school in New York.
• In the late 1930s Humphrey and Weidman were on
the Bennington College summer school faculty.
(continued)
 Doris Humphrey (continued)
• Humphrey’s choreography explored the conflict of
man with the environment.
• Many of her works have strong social content.
• She believed that choreographic themes should
arouse emotion and movement.
• She left the stage as a performer in 1945. She
became artistic director of José Limón’s company.
 Charles Weidman (1901–1975)
• Dancer, choreographer, artistic director.

• In 1927, he and Doris Humphrey left Denishawn; in 1928

they established their own company in New York.

• The Humphrey-Weidman studio and company dissolved

in 1945 (Humphrey retired from the stage).

• During the 1940s and 1950s, Weidman toured and

continued with the now Weidman School and Company.

• His choreography was a blend of dance with a subtle use

of mime, comedy, and wit.
 Hanya Holm (1893–1992)
• Dancer, choreographer, artistic director, teacher,
and dance technique developer.
• She attended the Institute of Emile Jacques-
Dalcroze; she joined the Wigman troupe and
toured Europe in the 1920s.
• In 1931, the Wigman Company came to New York.
Holm remained in New York and created a company
that toured the gymnasium circuit of colleges.
• She taught at Bennington College summer school
along with Graham, Humphrey, and Weidman.
(continued)
 Hanya Holm (continued)
• Beginning in the 1940s she directed and taught
modern dance; college classes were based on her
technique.
• Her work on Broadway was a testament to her
versatility and understanding of the musical theater
genre.
• Her technique avoided stylization: If the body was
developed in this pure fashion, then it could
assume any style that was required.
 Helen Tamiris (1905–1966)
• Dancer, choreographer, artistic director, and
organizer; she studied with Fokine.
• 1930 to 1931: She organized Dance Repertory
Theatre in New York, then established the School of
American Dance.
• 1930s: She participated in Dance Project–New York,
part of the Federal Works Project.
• Her dances were about oppressed people and the
need for social justice; Negro Spirituals was a
series of works from 1928 through 1941.
 Katherine Dunham (1909–2006)
• 1931: She founded Ballet Negre.
• 1936: She graduated with a degree in anthropology
and went to study in Haiti.
• During the 1940s: She performed on Broadway and
toured Europe, Mexico, and Latin America. She
went to Hollywood, performing in movies.
• 1945: She opened the Dunham School of Dance
and Theater; in the late 1960s she opened the
Performing Arts Training Center in East St. Louis,
Illinois.
(continued)
 Katherine Dunham (continued)
• She contributed to 20th-century American dance as a
dancer, choreographer, and social activist.
– Choreographed 90 dances and 5 revues, 4 of them on Broadway.

– Created a repertory of dances that explored diverse themes,

folklore, and ideas.

– Wrote Journey to Accompong (1946), The Dances of Haiti (1947,

her master’s thesis), and Island Possessed (1969).

– Influenced many artists, including Alvin Ailey, Talley Beatty, and

other dancers and choreographers.
Personalities Who Contributed to the
Development of American Dance
• Louis Horst (1884–1964):
– A composer, music historian, and mentor to the first generation of
modern dance artists.

– He worked with Graham for 20 years, and with Humphrey and

Weidman. Horst founded Dance Observer, the first journal to be
devoted exclusively to modern dance, in 1934.

• John Martin (1893–1985):

– Drama critic for the New York Times, he became that newspaper’s first
dance critic in 1927.

– A champion of the new modern dance, he wrote The Modern Dance in

1933 and other works that supported American dance.
 Modern Dance
Companies and Schools
• Humphrey-Weidman Company: Started in New York
in 1928; it continued into the early 1940s.
• Martha Graham Company: Created in 1926 and
populated by the leading modern dancers of the
1930s and 1940s.
• Bennington School (1934–1942): Fostered the
growth of modern dance and its artists and built
audiences for the first generation of modern
dancers.
 Federal Theatre Project
• Part of the Works Progress Administration
(developed during the Depression to provide theater
professionals with work).
• Supported many modern dance artists in projects in
New York, Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles.
• Each city had a leader or two––Tamiris and Kirstein
in New York, Ruth Page in Chicago, and Edith
James (who had studied at Denishawn) in Dallas.
• First time that dance received federal funding.
 Significant Dance Works
• Dancers, choreographers, and other artistic
personalities strived to solidify the new
American modern dance so that it would be
recognized as an art form.
• Dancer-choreographers created most of
their works as literal-based choreography—
dances that told a story or conveyed a
theme or mood.
 Martha Graham’s Works
• Lamentation (1930): A signature solo; a female
dancer uses sculpturesque shapes to express grief.
• Primitive Mysteries (1931): A three-part work to
music composed by Louis Horst; Graham interacts
with a group of 12 female dancers through
explorations of religious rites.
• Letter to the World (1940): Based on the life and
poetry of Emily Dickinson, who is portrayed by two
dancers: “One Who Dances” and “One Who Speaks.”

(continued)
 Martha Graham’s Works
(continued)
• Deaths and Entrances (1943): Uses flashback
techniques to tell the story of the three Brontë
sisters and expands to the larger concept of family
and conflicts.
• Appalachian Spring (1944): A young Pennsylvania
pioneer couple celebrates the building of their new
home with a revivalist and his followers. They
envision their future life together through scenes of
toil and happiness.
 Doris Humphrey’s Works
• Air for the G String (1928): A choral dance, elegant
and simple, using baroque figures to music by Bach.
• Water Study (1928): Depicts the tides and movement
of water. The piece has no musical accompaniment;
dancers’ body rhythms and breathing set the tempo
and rhythm.
• The Shakers (1931): A microcosm of Shaker society
and religious practices. The worshipers begin as a
quiet gathering and are moved to a whirlwind of
emotions that will purify them.
(continued)
 Doris Humphrey’s Works
(continued)
• The trilogy called New Dance, although they were
not danced together in one performance:
– New Dance (1935): Concerned with the individual and his
relationship to society.

– With My Red Fires (1936): Two younger members of society

heed an emotional call that makes them disregard the wishes of
the matriarch.

– Theatre Piece (1936): Reduces the actions of society to the

level of actions in a stage space—a series of bitter vignettes,
except for Humphrey’s solo, “Interlude.”

(continued)
 Doris Humphrey’s Works
(continued)
• Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor (1938): A
departure for Humphrey in that she choreographs
an abstract, classical work to Bach’s score.
• Lament for Ignacio Sánchez Mejías (1946):
Choreographed with her student José Limón, this
work is based on a poem by the same title by
Federico García Lorca.
 Charles Weidman’s Works
• Flickers (1941): A dance about the early movies,
divided into four reels.
• A House Divided (1945): Examines the Civil War,
including the conflict and the character of Abraham
Lincoln.
• Fables for Our Time (1947): Based on four James
Thurber stories, it includes a narrator who wanders
through the movement scenes.
• Brahms Waltzes, Opus 39 (1967): Choreographed as
an homage to his late dance partner, Doris
Humphrey.
 Hanya Holm’s Works
• Trend (1937): Her signature piece, a 55-minute
dance work that has 7 soloists and an ensemble of
30.
• Metropolitan Daily (1938): Characters in this funny,
satirical dance portray vignettes based on sections
of the daily newspaper, such as the sports, society,
and comic sections.
• On Broadway: she choreographed Kiss Me Kate
(1948), My Fair Lady (1956), and Camelot (1960).
 Helen Tamiris’ Works
• Negro Spirituals (1928–1941): A series of spirituals:
– “Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho” (1928),

– “Go Down, Moses” (1932), and

– “When the Saints Go Marchin’ In” (1941)

• How Long, Brethren? (1930): A dance response to

social injustice in the South.
• On Broadway she choreographed Showboat (1946),
Annie Get Your Gun (1946), Fanny (1954), Plain and
Fancy (1955), and Touch and Go (1949), for which
she won a Tony Award.
 Katherine Dunham’s Works
• L’Ag’Ya (1938): Her signature piece, a story-based
folk ballet set in Martinique.
• Le Jazz Hot: From Haiti to Harlem (1939): A revue
that brought her instant fame.
• Bal Nègre (1946): A revue.
• Shango (1945): Based on vodoun ritual, the finale in
Carib Song, a musical play.
• In Hollywood she performed in Star Spangled
Rhythm (1942) and Stormy Weather (1943), among
other motion pictures.
 Dance Literature
• Pre-Classic Dance Forms (1937): Written by
musician Louis Horst, this book provided a
structure for modern dance.
• The Modern Dance (1933): John Martin
presents his case for the developing
American modern dance as a philosophy
and an art form.
 Summary
• Emerging American modern dance endeavored to
establish itself as a uniquely American dance form.
• Dancers and choreographers overcame
tremendous barriers to develop foundations on
which the next generation could build a legacy.
• They sought contemporary American subjects with
which to explore movement ideas as a new way to
communicate to audiences.
• Their tireless experiments and tours helped to
establish American audiences and students during
a time of great social and economic change.