Stage dance origin and development brief overview

This brief overview of the origins and development of stage dance does not claim to be complete due to its high complexity. It focuses in particular on the influences that are significant in the teaching of our 3-years dance education program, the 5-months dance program and the 9-months pre-professional dance training.

The Classical dance – Ballet

The origins of the classical dance form can be found between the 15th and 17th centuries, where the dances served as entertainment alongside musical performances at the aristocratic French and Italian courts. Even King Louis XIV liked to present himself in a leading role in his performances at court. In 1661 the Sun King founded the “Academy Royal de la Dance”. Under his director Pierre Beauchamp, the 5 ballet positions and the legs turned outwards from the hips were introduced here, which have become part of classical training, but also the basis for many other dance styles to this day.
This explains why the language of ballet is still French today.Ballet techniques have been adapted over time in different countries, resulting in various schools of classical ballet.

Classical ballet is the only discipline in which training at the ballet barre is still an important basis. This is needed to give the body more support through the unusual outward rotation of the legs from the hips. Exercises are performed at the ballet barre that prepare the body to correctly perform the combinations performed in the center, such as classic turns or jumps. In addition to elegance, ballet is still characterized by high precision in the movements and requires a high degree of discipline, especially in the professional training sector. But even in ballet classes for amateurs of all ages, people can improve their posture and train their grace.

At the beginning of the last century, different dance styles such as modern dance and dance theater emerged from classical ballet.

Modern dance and some influential personalities

Modern dance came into being in the USA and Europe at the end of the 19th and beginning of the last century, basically as a counter-concept to classical ballet. Feelings and emotions were put in the foreground.

In the USA, Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) was one of the pioneers who opposed not only classical dance but also the political convictions of her generation. She became a symbol of women’s independence and freedom of artistic expression. To this day she is still referred to as the mother of modern dance.
According to her, the solar plexus was the seat of the soul. Originating from there, she let her movements run outwards in waves. She often used an open chest with upper spine hyperextension and natural spinal undulations.

Mary Wigman (1886-1973) is one of the leading personalities of modern expressive dance in Germany. During her lifetime she achieved world fame with her “new German dance”. Her famous Witch Dance is remembered to this day.

Martha Graham (1894-1991) further developed modern dance in the USA.
Her forms of dance were also not to be subordinated to any standardized sequence of movements. Feeling and emotion were the focus according to her famous credo: “Dance is the hidden language of the soul”.
However, she differed from her predecessors by combining both expression and technique.
She integrated traditional foot positions and basic movements from ballet and developed Isodora Duncan’s torso work further at the same time. This allowed modern dance to establish itself in the professional arena.

Characteristic of the Graham technique is the famous so-called contraction, in which a strong tension of the deep pelvic and abdominal muscles cause a curving of the spine, expressing human emotions such as pain. The subsequent release of the muscles promotes hyperextension of the spine, which can stand for strength or duty. She combined these movements with her spirals for dramatic tension and  to increase mobility.
The Graham technique is still an established subject at many professional dance schools around the world. With her work, she also influenced later techniques such as of of Merce Cunningham and Lester Horton.

Lester Horton (1906 – 1953), in turn, developed another modern dance technique starting in the 1920s, which was based more on an anatomical approach, in addition to the influence of native folk dances. Through it, he wanted to enable dancers to correct physical hurdles in a way that would prepare them for any kind of dance they wanted to follow.
The technique imparts great strength and length in the body to the dancers.

In 1969, his student Alvin Ailey introduced the Horton Technique as an essential training component at his Alvin Ailey School of Dance in New York. Horton elements are recognizable in many of the famous choreographies of the African-American Alvin Ailey Dance Theater.

Horton is also taught as a foundation in many jazz dance classes.
Through flat back exercises, lateral stretches, tilted lines and lunges, length is created in the spine and hamstrings, strength is built in the core muscles, and the range of motion of the torso and hips is expanded.

Jazz dance

Jazz dance was influenced by slaves who came to America from Africa. The original African dances mixed in the course of time with South American and many other influences.
From the 1950s, jazz dance was also combined with elements from ballet and modern dance, so that it too could develop into a recognized form of stage dance.
Jazz dance used to be danced to jazz music (hence the name to this day) and was heavily influenced by musicals in the 70s and 80s. However, jazz dance developed into a form that absorbed the most of different influences and is danced to many different types of music today. As a result, it has been able to evolve steadily and produce many different styles.
Jazz dance is characterized by its high dynamics, speed and is technically very demanding.

Today’s modern jazz is more influenced by modern dance techniques, but also already by contemporary influences. However, there is also the emotional lyrical jazz, burlesque, street dance, commercial dance as well as many other new styles.

Contemporary dance

Contemporary dance was able to develop from all the roots of modern dance and basically describes all the dance techniques that are appropriate for today. Thus, it does not describe a single technique, but is a large all-encompassing collective term for stage dance at the present time.

Contemporary dance can always draw from diversity and is not fixed from the outset.

Many different tendencies can flow into lessons and choreographies.
Elements from classical or modern dance can be included, but even elements from jazz dance and even hiphop can be integrated.

However, work can also be done on an improvisational level or on a purely experimental basis to explore other possibilities for creating new approaches to movement.

Contemporary classes are about better understanding one’s own body with its specific characteritics, learning the widest possible range of movement possibilities, and training flexibility and strength.
An essential part of contemporary training is floor work, which can also include acrobatic elements. Playing with gravity, students learn to actively use the floor.
Partnering is also part of contemporary dance training. Here it is important to build a trusting connection with the dance partner in order to carry out coordinated techniques together while dancing, on the floor, or during lifts and jumps.