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Modernism is a way to understand everything around us now. It is a focus on processing things back to their essence and creating a new vision for dance in order to search for the “psychological truths” (Source of Postmodern dance, p.16). Postmodernism means after modern. It is the development and the rise of society and culture. In this paper, I will be talking about the difference between modernism and postmodernism by using in-class discussion, citations from the readings, and my own explanations. I will start by expanding both definitions separately and then I will connect them in the conclusion.
First, Modernism. Modernism began in the “1890s and lasted till 1945” (Class notes). Modernism was a way to create uproar in society. It mostly referred to “American and European choreographers who attempted to create new, individualistic modes of expression.” (Class notes). Modernism was based more on thinking and searching; they mostly relied on science and reason to gain knowledge because modernist thinking was about the search for an ideal truth about life as they attempt to create a perfect view of the world. Learning from past experience was also one of the strategies that they followed, and one can see past experience affect their dances. One of the dancers that I will mention from our reading to support my point is Loie Filler. “Filler was an American dancer working in Paris in the 1890s” (Source of Postmodern dance p.1). Freedom of movement and the solo form along with adding light effects and dancing with skirts was Filler’s signature modern dance. Isadora Duncan who was born fifteen years after Filler was another American dancer who performed in Europe. Before she saw Filler’s piece, Duncan was inspired by the motion of the things in nature like waves, trees, and the cycles of the seasons.
Second, Postmodernism. Postmodernism “starts after the second world war, specifically after 1968” (class notes). The first use of this term was by Yvonne Rainer in 1965 after she “decided to turn from performance to filmmaking full time” (Source of Postmodern dance). The main purpose of this was that she wanted to erase the traditional notions of performance. Unlike modernism, she denied the application of thinking, and her thinking was not based on the scientific as postmodernists believe that human pureness does not exist and going by the superficial appearance is the main focus of this movement. She believed that one could create dances just by observing people as they walked, ate, or talked. Yvonne believed in describing just the surface and showed little concern about the depth of her work. One of her works that explains this point is her poem that she wrote titled No Manifesto. No Manifesto starts by explaining the public lack of “the qualities that explain the current dance styles; spectacle, glamour, virtuosity” (“No Manifesto). No Manifesto describes the backbone of postmodernism. It explains everything one needs to know about this era, and it is such a masterpiece. All thirteen lines of the poem include at least one “No”. The “Nos” explains the point of view of Yvonne about dancing in Postmodernism. In the poem, she intended to explain her approach that dance is more than just movements. She treats the body as more of a source of an infinite variety of movements than as a tool that is used just for the sake of work. Her dances were mainly focused on human movements, repetitions, oral noises, and spoken languages within the body of her dance.
In conclusion, if one of these eras didn’t exist the other will have never been born because both of them were inspired by the other. Postmodernism was inspired by the concepts of freedom in modernism. Modernism was inspired by the past and people were serious about the arts and production. The arts and liberty were considered unique creations of the artists. Their work was believed to have a deep meaning. This work included novels and books that had the power to change society. Postmodernism was an era where lots of technology was born. It was a time when novels, books, and art began to be copied and pasted, lacking originality. The concept of creativity seemed to be high because of the technology but in reality, it was not the same as it was in modernism time, specifically in the field of dance. I will end with my favorite quote that I read in the novel. “People no longer believed in art and literary works bearing one unique meaning; they rather believed in deriving their own meaning from works of arts and literature.” (Reynold’s Miscellany of Romance, volume 5).
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