Question

Choose one of the following artists from the 1st decade of the 20th century and explain their contribution to dance during that period of time! Also how did they influence future generations of dance in the 20th century? Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn, Serge Diagaliev, Michel Fokine, Vaslav Nijinsky, Igor Stravinsky, John Philip Sousa, Scott Joplin.

Thank you!

Answer 1

Ruth St. Denis

Born as Ruth Denis in the rural New Jersey on January 20, 1879, Ruth St. Denis is called as the "Divine Dancer" and is considered as one of the pioneers modern dance. Influenced by Isis an Egyptian diety and the dance forms and mythology of India, Ruth gave a spiritual meaning to the contemporary dance form. She brought in the grace of movements and bodily expression from the mythologies of India and Egypt and blended it into the western form of dance. This gave her dance form the grace, elegance and divinity,and thus, she became one of the pioneers of modern dance forms. She was the first to introduce Eastern and Oriental dance form to her audience in America and Europe in the most elegant manner. Though she recieved some hostility from the people in America, she didn't not step back from performing her mystical and divine dance. She propagated her dance form, taught her dance form to her pupils and thus contributed to the dance of not only in that period of time but also, of the coming future generations,and became the "divine dancer" of all time.