2nd Generation Modern Dance Politics

by Becky Blomgren

Change is inevitable. Many times in the history of the United States great changes have occurred. Wars, elections, and even new inventions have disrupted our familiar way of life. During the post-World War II era our country was in a constant state of transformation. With this change also came new feelings of freedom and a desire to experiment with non-conformity. Modern dancers like Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Anna Sokolow and Erick Hawkins all used these feelings to create new techniques and new ways to express themselves on the dance floor. The world was changing, and so was dance.

Just like a little pebble dropped in a pond, everything has far reaching effects on our world. One singular event causes a ripple that will eventually affect everything. This same principle holds true for politics. In today’s society, politics, political choices, leaders, and laws all affect us in some way or another.

At the end of World War II there was a democratic president, Harry S. Truman. He became president only after Franklin D. Roosevelt died in April of 1945. World War II officially ended on September 2nd, 1945. With this, the American people were now freed from wartime rationing and the fear of being attacked. It gave them a renewed sense of independence. Even though the government had approved women and blacks to hold the jobs left vacant by the soldiers, they were eventually forced to give their jobs back to the men returning from war, which caused unrest in the females and minorities of the population.

No one can know the political parties’ standing on these changes in dance for sure, but one can make an educated guess. Comparing the two parties (Democratic and Republican), we know that out of the two, the Democrats are typically more liberal than the Republicans. The new innovations in modern dance were in no way towards the conservative end of the spectrum. So, while we can’t know for sure, we can most likely assume that the Democrats would be more supportive of this type of evolution in dance.

During the war, artists and intellectuals had fled Europe due to persecution. Some of them made their way to the United States and brought with them ideas of disillusionment and a need to use their long mistreated talents. This, combined with the American desire to experiment with non-conformist ways, fueled the coming challenges to traditional expectations of dance.

People began experiencing new sensations and feelings. When they began to try and express their feelings, they made new discoveries. It’s because of this that we have come to have such a variety and unending well to draw from when we are seeking to express ourselves in a free, uninhibited way, much like Paul Taylor, Merce Cunningham, Anna Sokolow andtheir contemporaries.

As the 1950’s began dancers would perform in more and more unconventional ways. They would wear street clothes or dance without any music. Some simply used recordings of talking or electronic music. Some would even take their dance out onto sidewalks, streets and other untraditional venues. Now that the dancers had even more ways to express and show their feelings they began to want to share this new style with the masses. Some dancers wished to choreograph pieces expressing their anger towards the Korean War, their relief at the end of World War II, and still others chose to have no emotion or theme behind their movements.

These second generation modern dancers and their companies, also somewhat reflected the government’s attempts to equalize people of different races and genders in society. Many dance companies already were interracial and most would include both men and women. Companies were this way before the enforcement of integration as well. In the 1950’s, the Supreme Court finally declared racial segregation to be illegal. There was tension running through the country as schools were first integrated. The armed forces were also integrated. The civil rights movement created great amounts of tension in the country. As the early 1960’s approached, there was an increasing atmosphere of freedom arising and traditional constraints were being left behind in place of “free flow” movement like that of Erick Hawkins. Though the effects of politics on dance are more indirect, it has still been a factor in the growth of dance. Everything that happens in this country helps to set a mood for Americans as a whole, produces feelings from anger to grief to elation, causes and eases tension.