GREAT PERFORMANCES: DANCE IN AMERICA: TRAILBLAZERS OF MODERN DANCE (TV)
Summary
One in this series of dance programs. This program traces the roots of modern dance by focusing on innovative choreographers like Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis. The following film clips and dance reconstructions illustrate the evolution of modern dance: footage of skirt, ballet, and exotic dancers; clips of Loie Fuller, American dancer with the Folies Bergere; Annabella, a skirt dancer and an imitator of Fuller, in an 1897 hand-tinted Edison film; the only extant footage of Isadora Duncan dancing at a garden party; clips and newsreel footage of Duncan's students performing; choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton discusses Duncan's influence on his work; Lynn Seymour performs Ashton's "Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan"; a discussion of the Ruth St. Denis Ballet "Rahda," including an excerpt; in a 1932 film, St. Denis recreates three of her oriental works: a Siamese dance, a Javanese court dance, and the Nautch; Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn perform duets; Clif De Raita performs a reconstruction for the Joyce Trisler Danscompany of Shawn's "Spear Dance Japonesque"; clips of Doris Humphrey dancing; Trisler Danscompany perform a reconstruction of the 1920 Humphrey-St. Denis "Soaring"; Annabelle Gamson dances a reconstruction of Duncon's "Etude"; Helen Tamiris dances to American spirituals; Doris Humphrey performs her 1928 "Air for the G-String"; a reconstruction of Ted Shawn's "Polonaise"; and in a 1941 film, Martha Graham performs her 1929 work "Lamentation." (Presented under the umbrella of "Great Performances.")
Details
- NETWORK: PBS
- DATE: June 22, 1977 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:58:53
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T80:0279
- GENRE: Dance
- SUBJECT HEADING: Ballet; Choreography; Dance; Dance, modern
- SERIES RUN: PBS - TV series, 1976-
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Jac Venza … Executive Producer
- Emile Ardolino … Series Coordinating Producer, Director
- Merrill Brockway … Producer
- Judy Kinberg … Producer
- Elizabeth Kendall … Writer
- Louis Horst … Music by
- Robert Schumann … Music by
- Edward MacDowell … Music by
- Alexander Scriabin … Music by
- Ted Shawn … Choreographer
- Frederick Ashton … Choreographer
- Ruth St. Denis … Choreographer
- Doris Humphrey … Choreographer
- Isadora Duncan … Choreographer
- Lynn Seymour … Dancer
- Clif de Raita … Dancer
- Nancy Colahan … Dancer
- Elaine Anderson … Dancer
- Jacqulyn Buglisi … Dancer
- Anne-Marie Hackett … Dancer
- Laurie Kaplan … Dancer
- Annabelle Gamson … Dancer
- Tim Wengard … Dancer
- Doulin Foreman … Dancer
- Daniel Ezralow … Dancer
- David Anderson … Dancer
- Michael Deane … Dancer
- Philip Gammon … Instrumentalist, Piano
- Michael Tolan … Narrator
- Rosemary Harris … Cast, Voice, Isadora Duncan