A lively portrait of modern dance training that gives today's dancers and students the tools to compare the great classical techniques in the studio.
This comparative approach will enable the student to try each technique with sample lessons and to contrast the different philosophies.The author pairs Martha Graham with Doris Humphrey, Katherine Dunham with Lester Horton, Jose Limon with Erick Hawkins, Alwin Nikolais/Murray Louis with Merce Cunningham. Paul Taylor has his own chapter, leading to the book's conclusion on how modern dance training is currently approached. Each unit contains core ideas, a series of journaling and discussion topics, improvisation experiments, biographical sketches of the choreographers, and a presentation of class material At the end of each chapter, questions and experiments offer basic ideas that you can use to further your understanding of the choreography presented.
The techniques are placed within historical and cultural contexts, so that we see the interconnectedness of each choreography with history.