-
Loie Fuller started experimenting with the effects of gas lighting on her silk outfits in 1891.
-
Modern Dance was born in America during
the turn of the 20th century -
St. Denis had discovered the essence of her particular dance technique with Ruth by 1906, which merged spiral shape with equal parts voluptuousness, mysticism, and sensuality.
-
Ruth made a name for herself as a soloist and, in 1914, met Ted Shawn, a professional and personal companion.
-
Denishawn was founded by the Ruth and Shawn and it nurtured the next generation of modern dancers, including Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman.
-
Martha Graham enrolled at Denishawn in 1916. Graham progressed from a student to a teacher to one of the company's most well-known performers during the next seven years.
-
Doris Humphrey attended the Denishawn School in Los Angeles, where she was rapidly renowned for her teaching and artistic ability. She left Denishawn in 1928 and delivered her first solo concert in New York with Charles Weidman, with whom she founded the HumphreyWeidman Studio and Company.
-
By 1930, Martha Graham had developed a new movement method she dubbed contraction and release, based on her own interpretation of the Delsartean idea of tension and relaxation.
-
In 1933, Shawn founded his all male dance group
-
In 1939 St. Denis published her autobiography, An Unfinished Life.
-
Pearl Primus got a New Dance Group scholarship and made her debut at the 92nd Street Y in 1943.
-
Pearl acquired a grant in 1948 to collect material and chronicle African dances that were, in some cases, slipping from memory.
-
Pearl became the director of the African Performing Arts Center in Monrovia, Liberia, the first organization of its kind in Africa.
-
Pearl opened the Pearl Primus School of Primal Dance