<text><span class="style10">odern Dance (2 of 2)</span><span class="style7"></span><span class="style10">Laban and his followers</span><span class="style7">The Hungarian-born movement analyst and choreographer </span><span class="style24">Rudolph Laban</span><span class="style7"> (1879-1958) was the theorist behind an important European modern dance movement. He founded a Dance Institute in Munich and later devised his 'Labanotation', a system of symbols to record all the body's movements, which is now the most widely used way of writing down dance. He paid much attention to the relationship between the individual and the surrounding space, also a feature of the choreography of his pupil </span><span class="style24">Mary Wigman</span><span class="style7"> (1866-1973). Another pupil was </span><span class="style24">Kurt Jooss</span><span class="style7"> (1901-79), whose expressionist anti-war ballet </span><span class="style23">The Green Table</span><span class="style7"> (1932) became the most famous of modern works between the two world wars.</span><span class="style10">Contemporary dance</span><span class="style7">Recent years have seen the creation of many modern dance companies drawing on existing styles and experimenting with new ideas. Not only have choreographers invented new figures within the classical discipline, but techniques from various styles have been combined.Classical purists have criticized choreographers such as the Frenchman </span><span class="style24">Maurice Béjart</span><span class="style7"> (1927- ) for breaking all the rules of formal classicism in his spectacular theatrical ballets, but these have found particular favor with young audiences. </span><span class="style24">Michael Clark</span><span class="style7"> (1962- ), the iconoclastic ex-Royal Ballet dancer, is gaining a new young audience by attempting to shock his elders. One of the best-known of the many innovative American choreographers is </span><span class="style24">Twyla Tharp</span><span class="style7"> (1942- ), who has created works both for Baryshnikov and for the skater John Curry. She has choreographed work for the wide spaces of New York's Central Park, and experimented with texts and songs that parallel the dance.All over the world there are many other talented choreographers extending the parameters of modern dance. Performers with a background in rock music, painting and sculpture, without formal dance training, have turned to using their bodies to create original movement works. With the increasing integration of styles, virtuoso disco and break dancers may also be called upon to display their skills within dance works.</span><span class="style10">New directions</span><span class="style7">Linked both to the idea of living sculpture and to Zen concentration on detail is a recent Japanese dance style known as </span><span class="style23">butoh</span><span class="style7"> - in full </span><span class="style23">ankoku butoh</span><span class="style7"> ('dance of utter darkness') - first developed by </span><span class="style24">Kazuo Ohno</span><span class="style7"> (1906- ), his son </span><span class="style24">Yoshito</span><span class="style7">, and </span><span class="style24">Tatsumi Hijikata</span><span class="style7"> (d. 1986). It features a slowly evolving transition from one shape to another - shapes that may be animals or even inanimate objects as well as human. But it can also encompass improvisation, as when a single dancer performs with a live peacock, mirroring and complementing the free movement of the bird.Another recent movement is the German </span><span class="style23">Tanztheatre</span><span class="style7">, best known abroad through the Wuppertal company of </span><span class="style24">Pina Bausch</span><span class="style7"> (1940- ), which demands a similar concentration of its audience to observe action that is frequently slow moving and repetitive. But Bausch's work, drawing its actions from ordinary daily life, is definitely about people, and her performers often speak. Sometimes beautiful images emerge, but Bausch seems more concerned with human bitterness, brutality and failure to communicate. For those with patience to develop empathy with the performers, Bausch's work can achieve a hypnotic power.HL</span></text>
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<text><span class="style24">oldat</span><span class="style7"> , a recent dance work by the choreographer Ashley Page, here performed by the Rambert Dance Company.</span></text>
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<text>ΓÇó FOLK AND SOCIAL DANCINGΓÇó CLASSICAL BALLETΓÇó EXPERIMENTAL THEATER</text>
