Second Generation of Modern Dance: Social Consciousness and Identity

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering the key figures, companies, choreography, techniques, and socio-political context of the Second Generation of Modern Dance.

Workers Dance League (WDL)

An umbrella organization founded in 1932 in New York City amidst the Great Depression, inspired by Marxist ideals to raise working-class consciousness, sponsor concerts and debates, and take revolutionary dance directly to workers.

"Dance is a weapon in the revolutionary class struggle"

A central slogan of the New Dance Group and revolutionary dance movement asserting that dance should educate working-class audiences about class warfare and allow workers to participate in socially significant mass or lay dance forms.

New Dance Group (NDG)

A dance collective and school established in 1932 by students from Hanya Holm's studio that offered ten-cent classes combining technique, improvisation, and Marxist political discussion to create dances expressive of the working class.

Van der Lubbe's Head (1934)

A 1934 collective choreographic work performed by the New Dance Group reflecting their commitment to revolutionary political themes.

Panorama (1935)

A choreographic work by Martha Graham that marked the first occasion where she explicitly shifted away from the past and joined forces with artists using contemporary social comment as the basis of their work.

New Dance (1935)

Doris Humphrey's master work that summarized her movement theories and turned toward contemporary society to express the hope for a new and better social order.

Anna Sokolow

An American dancer and choreographer trained under Martha Graham and Louis Horst who created uncompromising, socially conscious, and abstract works confronting contemporary human conflict, while helping develop modern dance in Mexico and Israel.

The Exile (1939)

Anna Sokolow's first dance composition exploring Jewish themes, divided into 'I had a garden…' depicting Jewish life in pre-Nazi Europe and 'The beast is in the garden…' portraying the arrival of Nazism.

Kaddish (1945)

A solo choreographed by Anna Sokolow at the conclusion of the Holocaust, utilizing traditional Jewish elements to articulate deep personal and collective grief.

Rooms (1955)

Anna Sokolow's masterpiece set to a jazz score by Kenyon Hopkins, examining the psychological isolation, loneliness, and unfulfilled desires of individuals living in modern urban environments.

Jane Dudley

A dancer, choreographer, and co-founder of the New Dance Group who trained with Hanya Holm and danced with Martha Graham, later directing the Batsheva Dance Company and teaching at the London Contemporary Dance School.

Harmonica Breakdown (1938)

Jane Dudley's solo work set to the harmonica of Sonny Terry and washboard of Brownie McGhee, reflecting despair and endurance during the Dust Bowl and depicting the effort required for Black survival.

Sophie Maslow

A former Martha Graham company member, teacher, and choreographer renowned for creating works set to American folk music, notably directing the Dudley-Maslow-Bales Trio alongside Jane Dudley and William Bales.

Folksay (1942)

A celebrated dance work choreographed by Sophie Maslow incorporating Woody Guthrie's folk songs and text from Carl Sandburg's 'The People, Yes' to celebrate ordinary Americans.

Asadata Dafora

A Sierra Leone-born choreographer who arrived in the United States, formed Shogola Oloba in 1929, and became the first artist to present authentic West African dance forms outside a tribal setting on the modern concert stage.

Awassa Astrige/Ostrich (1932)

A groundbreaking solo by Asadata Dafora set to Carl Riley's drumming and flute, combining traditional African dance with Western stage conventions as a warrior transforms into a proud ostrich.

Katherine Dunham

A pioneering dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist who researched ritual dances in Haiti and Jamaica, developed the Dunham Technique, and established the first self-supporting Black modern dance company in the United States.

Dunham Technique

A movement vocabulary formulated by Katherine Dunham that synthesizes a classical ballet foundation with Afro-Caribbean dance styles, emphasizing pelvic and torso isolations, undulations, and polyrhythms.

L'Ag'Ya (1938)

Katherine Dunham's first full-length ballet, debuted at Chicago's Federal Theater and based on the Martinique martial art dance witnessed during her Caribbean field research, incorporating folk forms such as the habanera and majumba.

Barrelhouse Blues (1938)

A humorous and sensual duet choreographed by Katherine Dunham about an elderly woman attending a dance to recapture her lost youth, featuring a Florida swamp shimmy performed alongside Vanye Aikens.

Pearl Primus

A Trinidadian-born dancer, scholar, and choreographer holding a Ph.D. in anthropology and sociology who blended modern concert dance techniques with African and African-American traditions for social and political protest.

Strange Fruit (1943)

A solo choreographed and performed by Pearl Primus based on Lewis Allen's poem, portraying a white female member of a lynch mob recoiling in horror as she flees the lynching scene.

Hard Time Blues (1943)

A solo dance choreographed by Pearl Primus featuring athletic aerial leaps that commented on the destitution and resilience of African American sharecroppers in the American South.

Talley Beatty

An influential dancer and choreographer trained by Katherine Dunham known for technical jazz innovations, lyrical choreography, and empathetic portrayals of African American urban life during the civil rights era.

Mourner's Bench (1947)

Talley Beatty's emotional solo inspired by Howard Fast's novel 'Southern Landscape' and set to 'There Is A Balm in Gilead,' reflecting on the slaughter of a mixed-race rural community by the Ku Klux Klan.

Donald McKayle

A New York-born modern dancer and choreographer who began training at the New Dance Group after watching Pearl Primus, acclaimed for humanistic choreography portraying African American themes and urban street life.

Games (1951)

Donald McKayle's early choreographic work set to children's street songs, chants, and dialogue, illustrating inner-city youth play that is brutally interrupted by police violence.

Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder (1959)

Donald McKayle's celebrated piece set to chain-gang songs that explores the physical toll and psychological yearning for freedom among Southern convict laborers conjuring a female muse.

José Limón

A Mexican-born dancer and choreographer whose masculine, expressive stage presence elevated the role of male modern dancers, building on Doris Humphrey's concepts of fall and recovery, weight, and breath.

The Moor's Pavane (1949)

A 21-minute, single-movement choreographic work by José Limón compressing Shakespeare's 'Othello' into the formal structure of a Renaissance court dance set to music by Henry Purcell.

Lester Horton

A Los Angeles-based choreographer and pedagogue who established the Lester Horton Dance Theater in 1946, creating the nation's first permanent modern dance theater and first racially integrated modern dance company.

Horton Technique

An anatomically based modern dance training technique formulated by Lester Horton featuring flat backs, pelvic hinges, lateral Ts, and 17 specific fortifications to build versatile, powerful dancers.

The Beloved (1948)

A dramatic duet choreographed by Lester Horton based on a news report of a religious fanatic bludgeoning his wife to death with a Bible.

Horton Lineage

The prominent generation of dancers and choreographers trained by Lester Horton, including Bella Lewitzky, Carmen de Lavallade, Joyce Trisler, James Truitte, and Alvin Ailey.

Alvin Ailey

A Texas-born choreographer trained under Lester Horton who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1958, dedicated to presenting African American cultural experience and universal human truths to everyday audiences.

Revelations (1960)

Alvin Ailey's signature masterpiece structured around his southern 'blood memories,' set to traditional African American spirituals and gospel arrangements by Brother John Sellers to depict Black religious worship.

Cry (1971)

A three-part solo choreographed by Alvin Ailey as a birthday tribute to his mother and dedicated to Black women everywhere, performed in a white leotard and long ruffled skirt to evoke struggle, sorrow, and ecstatic joy.

Judith Jamison

The principal dancer of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater who achieved legendary status originating the solo role in Alvin Ailey's 'Cry' (1971).