Hi all, new here but your forum seems like an ideal place to find help. Hope you don't mind! Here's a little about me and my problem:

I'm studying fashion design in London and am in my final year, we have to write a 7500 word dissertation on a topic of my choice. I've done some semi-professional breakdancing before and that's where my passion lies but i'm really interested in modern dance and have decided to write about it.

In my research so far I've looked at Martha Graham, herhistory and thought a lot about her piece 'Lamentation'. Also Merce Cunningham and read a lot about him and his life too. I've also looked at some of the art and some political events that may have also influenced the development of modern dance.

Amongst all this research however, I'm totally lost on the real direction of my dissertation.
Am I just looking at what is groundbreaking about Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham by looking at two of their performances? (Lamentation and Septet)

Maybe I could look at the potential lasting influence of Graham and Cunningham upon the society of today? Or on breakdance today?

'An analytical evaluation of two groundbreaking ideas that helped form and stemmed from modern dance.'

These being the idea of dance expressing emotion, and of movement being separate to sound.

Is it interesting or worth adding:
and the possible effects of those felt in breakdance today.


Any thoughts at all would be really helpful. My deadline is early January!! ><

Thanks in advance!

and the possible effects of those felt in breakdance today.

Don't do this. Breakdance has NOTHING to do with modern dance.

If you like Graham, you might also check out Ruth St Denis and Isadora Duncan.

thanks for that.. advice..?
i think you misunderstand me. i am clear that the relationship between modern dance and breakdance is not direct. but you cannot deny (and may not know) the influence that modern dance has had upon urban dance styles of today including breakdance. so i felt this could have been something interesting to explore.

and yes i have done plenty of research on ruth st denis and isadora duncan as well as loie fuller and doris humphrey.

You're funny. And your dissertation sounds funny too. I mean interesting. Please post it so we can all read it and educate ourselves on the history of modern dance. I'm sure my knowledge of dance history could never compare to that of a semi-professional breakdancer majoring in fashion design.

if that was sarcasm then it was not appreciated.
i'm very sorry that you doubt me so much.

you seem to feel that what i am doesn't qualify me the possibility of having as much knowledge as yourself? perhaps you're one of those that believes the superiority of modern dance over urban dance styles.
i pity your ignorance and closed mindedness.

I would strongly suggest limiting your subject. You seem to have a genuine interest in Martha. Many of her pieces were groundbreaking in her time and represent "classics" now.

I wrote a paper a few years ago about the direction of the Martha Graham company since her death. In my paper I used Clytemnestra as I starting point and worked with the complex universal themes (jealousy, betrayal, forgiveness...)of the piece as well as the novel movement unique to Graham (such as bouree on knees...ouch!) The ultimate question I posed was should the Martha Graham company serve as a museum to her huge body of work, or given the reality that both dance and dancers have evolved since her time, should her company continue to evolve (something she herself always preached)? There is a ton of support for both points of view, and I'm sure you've found the same with your research...this may be why you are having trouble determining your direction.

If you used Lamentation as a basic theme to make your point (whatever that may be) you might be able to rein in your paper and keep it focused and moving forward.

I have to agree with Panic on this one. "Graham, Limon and Breakdance" is kind of like doing a history paper on "Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and Jamaica". Tracing the modern dance movement through Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Dennis and Ted Shawn (look at Jacob's Pillow from the founding to the present),Martha and her husband Eric Hawkins,Cunningham and Alley, the evolution might be a more substantial discussion. If you are stuck on the idea of working in Breakdance, focus on Jacob's Pillow and work backwards. www.jacobspillow.org

A final word...believe it or not, there is great wisdom in Panic's advice. If you evaluate it through a "Modern Dance" lens you might find the same level of extreme discomfort and raw truth unique to this dance genre. Yet another dance metaphor!

Good luck with your paper.

Keep On Dancing*

perhaps you're one of those that believes the superiority of modern dance over urban dance styles.

I don't know anyone who believes modern is superior to urban dance. You're probably thinking of ballet dancers. They're all a bunch of snobs.

i pity your ignorance and closed mindedness.

I pity your lack of caps. Oh and FYI, it's more properly written "closed-mindedness". You're welcome.

But whatever - anyone who thinks that modern dance influenced breakdance is ON CRACK. The people who invented breakdance had ABSOLUTELY ZERO EXPOSURE to modern dance. None.

Panic, I'm sorry that it bothers you so much. I will make sure that whenever I write on here, I will use the shift key for your benefit.

I was never claiming that any of the original pioneers of breakdance were ever directly influenced by Martha Graham or her work. But as breakdance has evolved and is still evolving, there have been many attempts at bringing the two very different styles together, whether successfully or not. And there are definitely elements of Martha Graham's teachings that have been applied to breakdance. It was an idea for me to explore those and see the effects.

I'm sorry if this sounds ridiculous to you, but I thought it was worth a thought and would have potentially made some interesting reading, regardless of the conclusion I reached.



Christine, thanks for your advice. I wish I had spoken to someone like you earlier on! Your paper seems very interesting and I'd love to read your views on the company's direction too!

Since having posted, I have actually narrowed my subject. I am currently focusing on Lamentation, looking at all aspects of the choreography, and what was so special about that particular piece, the way that she de-personifies the movements of the body. I'm also trying to understand the choices she made in creating that piece. Martha said 'You do not realize how the headlines that make daily history affect the muscles of the human body.' I love this and I'm trying to find out more about her influences besides those techniques and theories learnt from the Denishawn school. (Potentially, events that may have caused her to choose or feel lamentation above other emotions)

(Please consider that I have never studied dance so I've most likely missed something major? Please point it out!)

I'm actually having trouble in finding my own 'ultimate question'. My tutor has said that it should appear during my research which unfortunately it hasn't.

It is currently very roughly how Lamentation was ground breaking in the development of modern dance.
But I don't feel satisfied with it and it doesn't tie in any of my research done on Merce Cunningham and his piece Septet (which although wasn't specifically ground breaking, is a piece that I feel is a great representation of his earlier work and an insight to the direction of his work, that I really like).
I was told not to do a comparison, which I agree with as I feel they were both very different in their approaches, especially as Merce was essentially of the next generation.
Do you think I can create a discussion about the evolution by looking at these? It feels as though that is the direction I'm taking even without having a question (yet).

What are your thoughts? (Bearing in mind that I've still yet to discover my ultimate question!)

I actually agree with the general points that panic is trying to make! If only I could use your metaphor in my paper!

{q}. And there are definitely elements of Martha Graham's teachings that have been applied to breakdance.ORLY? Well, since you're writing a paper on this subject, I'm sure you can provide us like 15 examples, right? Right? Right?

Right?

Since you like both hip-hop and modern dance, you might have more luck comparing and contrasting them regarding some common influences from African Dance. In pioneers of modern dance, look at the works of Katherine Dunham and for later works look at Alvin Ailey. You might even include Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn who included the movements of Native Americans and other ethnic groups. Also, look at some early dancers and choreographers who had been trained in modern, started to incorporate African movements, and helped to define jazz as a dance style. Then jazz, in turn, helped to create hip-hop. And around and around it goes.

In addition there is the fact that both African dances and modern styles incorporate fluid movement, make use of gravity, involve the entire body, encourage improvisation, and so on. This is true even of the modern dance innovators who were entirely European. In my opinion this is not surprising since everyone is, after all, using the same, human body. The Europeans may have been re-discovering movements which their ancestors, far enough back, had already used quite well.

Although African-Caribbean dance was probably the biggest influence, hip hop was also greatly influenced by martial arts styles. Of course the martial arts are also based on the most effective use of the human body taking into account the use of gravity and the laws of physics.

So you could do a paper comparing African dance, modern, martial arts styles, and hip-hop comparing movements from the standpoint of kinesiology. But that sounds like it would have to be the length of a book, not just a paper.