0:00:06 > 0:00:09This is the story of a dance revolution
0:00:09 > 0:00:14and the mavericks, whose radical ideas changed dance forever...
0:00:14 > 0:00:18It terrifies me, because he's created a sense of chaos.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24There isn't a part of it that didn't break every rule.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26The thrill of destruction,
0:00:26 > 0:00:29the jubilation of saying,
0:00:29 > 0:00:32"Old generation, it's our turn to create a revolution."
0:00:34 > 0:00:36..told through some of the key works
0:00:36 > 0:00:39that overturned centuries of tradition...
0:00:41 > 0:00:45They were saying it was ugly, it was disharmonious.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48And the dance critics were given ear plugs.
0:00:49 > 0:00:51..by challenging the establishment,
0:00:51 > 0:00:53confounding audiences
0:00:53 > 0:00:56and even causing riots.
0:00:56 > 0:00:58It's not about swans or royalty,
0:00:58 > 0:01:01those strange notions that ballet had come up with.
0:01:01 > 0:01:03I wouldn't shave my armpits
0:01:03 > 0:01:06or I had a papier-mache bun on my shaved head.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10These are the ideas that made modern dance.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13Ideas that reflect the spirit of the time
0:01:13 > 0:01:17and express the very essence of what it is to be human.
0:01:17 > 0:01:19Take it into the sagittal plane.
0:01:19 > 0:01:23Put your feet on the ground, feel the freedom of the body in space.
0:01:23 > 0:01:26And in order to do that, you know, get rid of your clothes.
0:01:27 > 0:01:29With the students of one of the leading
0:01:29 > 0:01:31contemporary dance schools in Europe...
0:01:31 > 0:01:32Contraction.
0:01:32 > 0:01:34Step. Back.
0:01:34 > 0:01:38..we tell the story of the rebels who made modern dance.
0:01:38 > 0:01:40Have a vision.
0:01:40 > 0:01:43Other than that, it's not dance. It's what? Exercise!
0:01:44 > 0:01:46It was definitely very rock and roll.
0:01:46 > 0:01:50We always said, "Either live or die. Come on...!"
0:02:05 > 0:02:07These few seconds of film
0:02:07 > 0:02:09are the only surviving moving images
0:02:09 > 0:02:12of the woman whose ideas ignited modern dance.
0:02:14 > 0:02:16She was somebody I was fascinated by
0:02:16 > 0:02:18because she did something that no-one else had done.
0:02:18 > 0:02:21The dance that I had been trained in was holding a chair
0:02:21 > 0:02:24and doing repetitive things at the age of four
0:02:24 > 0:02:27that seemed so not related to dance at all.
0:02:27 > 0:02:29And she was actually a free spirit.
0:02:31 > 0:02:33Isadora Duncan was an American,
0:02:33 > 0:02:37whose style broke free from the rigid conventions of classical ballet.
0:02:46 > 0:02:51Ballet began life in the courts of the great European kings and queens.
0:02:51 > 0:02:54So it was always on the side of the ruling class.
0:02:54 > 0:02:56It was always in a grand opera house,
0:02:56 > 0:03:00would be very set to certain conventions,
0:03:00 > 0:03:02a sort of three- or four-act ballet,
0:03:02 > 0:03:04very opulently styled.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07And by the end of the 19th century,
0:03:07 > 0:03:10there was a sense that ballet
0:03:10 > 0:03:13had become encrusted in its own conventions.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20And the spirit of dance, the physicality, the freedom of it,
0:03:20 > 0:03:23the expressiveness of it, that was not happening on stage.
0:03:24 > 0:03:26At the turn of the century,
0:03:26 > 0:03:28there were a number of American female dancers,
0:03:28 > 0:03:32who performed in loose clothes and bare feet
0:03:32 > 0:03:35and danced in a new, naturalistic style.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39Isadora Duncan became the icon of this movement.
0:03:40 > 0:03:45She did, I think, open up the stages of Europe and America
0:03:45 > 0:03:49to the possibility that you didn't just have to see virtuoso dancers
0:03:49 > 0:03:51in pointe shoes and tutus.
0:03:51 > 0:03:55It became about the driving spirit of contemporary dance,
0:03:55 > 0:03:59which has always been to reinvent itself as a language
0:03:59 > 0:04:01for the expression of new ideas.
0:04:01 > 0:04:02I think what you're talking about
0:04:02 > 0:04:04when you're talking about Isadora Duncan
0:04:04 > 0:04:06is this kind of freedom from convention.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09What is your voice, what is your kind of expression?
0:04:09 > 0:04:11And so, I guess, when I think about her,
0:04:11 > 0:04:13that's what I think is really kind of paramount,
0:04:13 > 0:04:14that she just did what she wanted.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17We'll take it into the sagittal plane.
0:04:17 > 0:04:19So I want to see the back space here...
0:04:19 > 0:04:20Isadora was a feminist.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23She put her ideas into her manifesto...
0:04:23 > 0:04:25The Dancer Of The Future.
0:04:25 > 0:04:27Go wide and... Voila!
0:04:27 > 0:04:31- ACTOR AS DUNCAN:- She is coming, the dancer of the future.
0:04:31 > 0:04:33Head goes right off-centre.
0:04:33 > 0:04:37The free spirit, who will inhabit the body of all women.
0:04:37 > 0:04:39Show me the suspension.
0:04:39 > 0:04:44She will dance, not in the form of a nymph nor fairy nor coquette,
0:04:44 > 0:04:49but in the form of women in its greatest and purest expression.
0:04:49 > 0:04:54From all parts of her body shall shine radiant intelligence...
0:04:54 > 0:04:56Feet! Find your vertical axis!
0:04:56 > 0:04:59..bringing to the world the thoughts and aspirations
0:04:59 > 0:05:01of thousands of women.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05This is the mission of the dancer of the future.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13She is a pioneer of modern dance
0:05:13 > 0:05:16and the fact that her writing was part of her art.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19Of course she was a dancer, but I could read some.
0:05:21 > 0:05:23As a very, very, young dancer, I was very inspired.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29It's a natural expressive style of the body.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33So it's not about form in the way that ballet was.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36It's a political notion because she's a woman saying,
0:05:36 > 0:05:38"I can move freely through space.
0:05:38 > 0:05:43"I don't have to restrict myself and appear in a very polite manner."
0:05:43 > 0:05:48It's hard to underestimate the importance of Isadora Duncan then,
0:05:48 > 0:05:51partly because she was such a personality cult.
0:05:51 > 0:05:53I mean, people thronged to see her.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56We have no idea if she was such a great dancer,
0:05:56 > 0:05:59but she had immense charisma,
0:05:59 > 0:06:02immense personal power on stage.
0:06:06 > 0:06:10Isadora Duncan toured in Russia in 1905
0:06:10 > 0:06:13and was seen by Serge Diaghilev,
0:06:13 > 0:06:16the legendary theatrical impresario,
0:06:16 > 0:06:18who would found the Ballets Russes.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22He brought together a virtuosic dancer, Vaslav Nijinsky,
0:06:22 > 0:06:24and the composer, Igor Stravinsky.
0:06:26 > 0:06:30Together, they began work on the ground-breaking ballet
0:06:30 > 0:06:32The Rite Of Spring.
0:06:41 > 0:06:43I love the music.
0:06:43 > 0:06:46Stravinsky did his best work. It's an amazing piece.
0:06:46 > 0:06:48It's the drive. It has that rhythmic drive.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01I think what's really powerful still, when you hear the music,
0:07:01 > 0:07:05it has a direct kind of almost umbilical cord into your body.
0:07:05 > 0:07:08There's a sense in which it kind of worms its way
0:07:08 > 0:07:10straight away into your ribcage
0:07:10 > 0:07:12and lives there in a really interesting way
0:07:12 > 0:07:13and it wants to burst out.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16So I think there must have been something really thrilling
0:07:16 > 0:07:19about hearing that music at the back of your neck
0:07:19 > 0:07:22and at the ends of your fingers for the very first time.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29Nijinsky was a star of the Russian ballet,
0:07:29 > 0:07:32but Stravinsky's visceral music inspired him to create movements
0:07:32 > 0:07:35that upturned classical ideas of beauty.
0:07:40 > 0:07:41As a choreographer,
0:07:41 > 0:07:46he made movements that was really, really shocking to the audience.
0:07:50 > 0:07:54He had the dancers just vibrating, trembling on the spot,
0:07:54 > 0:07:58strange little jumps that, rather than soaring free of gravity,
0:07:58 > 0:08:01seemed to just sort of collapse back in on themselves.
0:08:01 > 0:08:06I mean, it was a violent, violent inversion of ballet.
0:08:12 > 0:08:16What's special about The Rite Of Spring
0:08:16 > 0:08:19is it deconstructs ballet in all sorts of ways.
0:08:19 > 0:08:21It didn't tell a story.
0:08:21 > 0:08:25The dancers stood with their toes turned in,
0:08:25 > 0:08:28whereas, in ballet, the feet are turned out.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31It used movement that was very forceful,
0:08:31 > 0:08:34angular, jerky, fragmented.
0:08:36 > 0:08:40In 1913, on its opening night in Paris...
0:08:41 > 0:08:43..The Rite Of Spring caused a riot.
0:08:59 > 0:09:03Nijinsky's Rite Of Spring made its mark through its notoriety.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09But it was his younger sister, Bronislava Nijinska,
0:09:09 > 0:09:11who was to create a lasting masterpiece
0:09:11 > 0:09:14with another Stravinsky score, Les Noces.
0:09:31 > 0:09:34Les Noces was the most amazing thing I've ever seen.
0:09:34 > 0:09:37It is a much better-structured piece of work.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40Rite Of Spring doesn't affect me in the same way.
0:09:40 > 0:09:46I think that Nijinska's mastery in Les Noces is superlative.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50It's shocking that she is not better-known as an artist.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53And I think she's not taken as much notice of as her brother,
0:09:53 > 0:09:57because there's no sensationalist stories about her
0:09:57 > 0:09:58and she was a woman.
0:10:03 > 0:10:07Nijinska had witnessed the Russian Revolution of 1917.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15And when Les Noces premiered in Paris in 1923,
0:10:15 > 0:10:19its tale of a traditional Russian peasant wedding
0:10:19 > 0:10:21became a channel for her socialist views.
0:10:22 > 0:10:25Les Noces is radical.
0:10:27 > 0:10:29If you think of the earlier ballets,
0:10:29 > 0:10:33who has the virtuosic movement?
0:10:33 > 0:10:37Of course, the soloists. They do it and the audience clap.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40And the corps de ballet stand around in pretty poses.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44Now, in Les Noces, it's completely the other way round.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48It's a reflection of her political views -
0:10:48 > 0:10:51the Russian Revolution - and she was right there.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57When you look at the choreography,
0:10:57 > 0:11:02there are moments where you find the women dancing to one rhythm
0:11:02 > 0:11:05and the men beside them, in another block, dancing to another rhythm
0:11:07 > 0:11:09and when one's jumping in the air,
0:11:09 > 0:11:11the other's doing something completely different.
0:11:11 > 0:11:13There's this kind of clash.
0:11:17 > 0:11:18Just the use of technique.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22Structurally, the musicality is mindboggling.
0:11:22 > 0:11:27There isn't a part of it that didn't break every rule, so to speak.
0:11:27 > 0:11:28And yet, it was ballet.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38She had been really close to some Russian Futurist painters.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41She's aware of the kind of cubist vocabulary
0:11:41 > 0:11:46and she's using that to make very modern, angular shapes.
0:11:48 > 0:11:52Not graceful, pretty shapes, like the swans in Swan Lake.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55But at the same time, she's using ballet choreography.
0:11:55 > 0:12:00She's using pointe, not to be delicate, but almost to be stabbing.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06So it is ballet, but it's ballet like you've not seen it before.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13Les Noces is one of the most inspiring things
0:12:13 > 0:12:17and the fact that Nijinska is not put on
0:12:17 > 0:12:19a higher and more elaborate pedestal
0:12:19 > 0:12:23is really confusing for me, because I think this is
0:12:23 > 0:12:26one of the most radical pieces of work ever done.
0:12:30 > 0:12:32Les Noces continues to be performed
0:12:32 > 0:12:34in the repertoire of the Royal Ballet,
0:12:34 > 0:12:38after Sir Frederick Ashton invited Nijinska to recreate her masterpiece
0:12:38 > 0:12:41for the company in 1966.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47One of the first things I did when I became director
0:12:47 > 0:12:50was to ask if she would come back and mount Les Noces.
0:12:50 > 0:12:55And she consented to come, which was, to me, a tremendous coup.
0:12:56 > 0:12:58I think it's frightfully important to preserve the link
0:12:58 > 0:13:00from one choreographer to another.
0:13:00 > 0:13:02I think it is absolutely essential for the public
0:13:02 > 0:13:05to be able to judge and to see the progression of choreographic intent,
0:13:05 > 0:13:09so to speak, through all the different choreographers.
0:13:11 > 0:13:17I think a heritage is something that is invaluable in a great company.
0:13:21 > 0:13:25The Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance
0:13:25 > 0:13:29preserves the ideas of its creator, Rudolf Laban, very carefully.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32Then, from there, go into impulse upwards.
0:13:32 > 0:13:34Bhaaaah! Yeah.
0:13:34 > 0:13:36Now, going to really find the handle.
0:13:36 > 0:13:37Yeah, but I want you to reach...
0:13:37 > 0:13:41Valerie Preston-Dunlop was a protege of Rudolf Laban.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47She's overseeing rehearsals of a recreation she's made
0:13:47 > 0:13:49with colleague Alison Curtis-Jones,
0:13:49 > 0:13:54of a dance from Laban's early career in Germany in the 1920s.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58Good. So flat table top back.
0:13:58 > 0:13:59Yeah, good.
0:13:59 > 0:14:03Now, remember, you have to keep your face forwards
0:14:03 > 0:14:05because, when we wear the masks,
0:14:05 > 0:14:07you'll see that that is giving us a very powerful image.
0:14:12 > 0:14:16Laban was an intellectual and a teacher.
0:14:16 > 0:14:20He experimented with movement choirs, theories of movement
0:14:20 > 0:14:23and invented a form of modern dance notation.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28And he was the founder of Ausdruckstanz,
0:14:28 > 0:14:30the dance of feeling or expression.
0:14:42 > 0:14:47Laban is a fascinating, complex, mysterious character.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50He's a von. So Laban has a privileged upbringing.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54But he is an early-20th century dropout.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57He lives the Bohemian life in Munich,
0:14:57 > 0:14:59he doesn't really know what he wants to do
0:14:59 > 0:15:03and, somehow, he ends up doing movement and dance.
0:15:03 > 0:15:05His father was a general.
0:15:05 > 0:15:07He's expected to go into the army.
0:15:07 > 0:15:09He knows how to organise people
0:15:09 > 0:15:12and that's what he kind of does for the dance world.
0:15:17 > 0:15:19Laban didn't come in and teach.
0:15:20 > 0:15:21He would come in...
0:15:23 > 0:15:29..and whatever was the topic that he was struggling with of the moment,
0:15:29 > 0:15:32he would use us as, as it were,
0:15:32 > 0:15:35pawns in his study.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38So, I mean, sometimes he was interested in
0:15:38 > 0:15:42how the history of dance had changed from time immemorial.
0:15:42 > 0:15:48So he'd come in and we would be doing ancient Egyptian stuff
0:15:48 > 0:15:50in pyramidal forms.
0:15:52 > 0:15:55So it wasn't like a college or a school.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58It was just a group of, it seemed, almost random people,
0:15:58 > 0:16:00who were passionate about this.
0:16:01 > 0:16:05Laban established his first schools in Munich in 1913
0:16:05 > 0:16:07and, in the summers,
0:16:07 > 0:16:09he ran a dance school at Monte Verita in Switzerland.
0:16:09 > 0:16:13It was the home of a community of artists and intellectuals,
0:16:13 > 0:16:16who were experimenting with a new way of living.
0:16:17 > 0:16:19It links, in a way, to a particular moment in the 20th century
0:16:19 > 0:16:22when people are looking to mysticism as a way of escaping
0:16:22 > 0:16:24the horrors of what's happening.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27You know, there were nudist vegetarian dancers
0:16:27 > 0:16:29and they would devise these mystical ways
0:16:29 > 0:16:30in which their movements
0:16:30 > 0:16:32would represent the movements of the planets
0:16:32 > 0:16:36and they would somehow also represent the golden section,
0:16:36 > 0:16:41these kind of ideas around golden rules that determine all of us.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47But it was one of Laban's first proteges, Mary Wigman,
0:16:47 > 0:16:52who was to distil his key ideas into her iconic work - Witch Dance.
0:16:58 > 0:17:02The first Witch Dance is in January 1914.
0:17:02 > 0:17:04She wants to find what movement can do
0:17:04 > 0:17:06without the scaffolding of music
0:17:06 > 0:17:09and she dances this in silence.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12And the Munich intellectuals are staggered.
0:17:12 > 0:17:16This is the most modern thing they've seen -
0:17:16 > 0:17:17that's what they write.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20This is the absolute dance.
0:17:20 > 0:17:22Absolute. It's pure.
0:17:22 > 0:17:24It's abstract.
0:17:24 > 0:17:25There is no story.
0:17:25 > 0:17:27This is pure dance.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39Then she makes a second Witch Dance,
0:17:39 > 0:17:42which is the one we have film of.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45She creates the movements herself
0:17:45 > 0:17:51and then a musical accompaniment of gongs and drums is set to it.
0:17:51 > 0:17:54So it's not danced in silence, like the first one.
0:17:54 > 0:17:58And the movements in it have an incredible force.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01She's also wearing a mask.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04GONGS AND DRUMS PLAY
0:18:10 > 0:18:11It's incredible.
0:18:11 > 0:18:13Whaaaa! I mean, it's so powerful
0:18:13 > 0:18:19and what is so wonderful about it is the musician is following her...
0:18:20 > 0:18:23..not she following the music.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27And that changes radically the relationship
0:18:27 > 0:18:30that has come right through contemporary dance.
0:18:37 > 0:18:39The relationship of dance to music
0:18:39 > 0:18:42was an issue to which Laban devoted himself.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49He is quite adamant that,
0:18:49 > 0:18:56until dance is relieved from being music visualisation...
0:18:57 > 0:19:01..it cannot lift itself out of being bottom of the pile,
0:19:01 > 0:19:05in terms of hierarchy and significance of the arts.
0:19:05 > 0:19:08So he's politically active, to that extent.
0:19:11 > 0:19:13And in order to do that, fundamentally,
0:19:13 > 0:19:17it must become a primary art and not a secondary art,
0:19:17 > 0:19:21by which he means take the music away.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24Kurt Jooss was another Laban protege
0:19:24 > 0:19:27who also went on to make ground-breaking choreography.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31In this film, he's dancing in a Laban work.
0:19:31 > 0:19:34But when he formed his own company, he combined Laban's methods
0:19:34 > 0:19:37with techniques of ballet
0:19:37 > 0:19:40to make a new form of political dance theatre.
0:19:43 > 0:19:45In 1932, The Green Table,
0:19:45 > 0:19:48an audacious anti-war piece,
0:19:48 > 0:19:52won the first international award for choreography.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07The opening scene with the diplomats,
0:20:07 > 0:20:09they are the gentlemen in black...
0:20:12 > 0:20:16..and they negotiate with elegant, flowery gestures.
0:20:17 > 0:20:19Yet, you know, underneath it,
0:20:19 > 0:20:22that they're out to outdo one another
0:20:22 > 0:20:24and they start this war.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34And the figure of death comes at the end of each scene
0:20:34 > 0:20:36and carries somebody off.
0:20:36 > 0:20:39And at the end, the green table returns.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42So the story of the ballet is this is just going to go on and on.
0:20:42 > 0:20:44We've got to do something about it.
0:20:47 > 0:20:53The Green Table was the first ballet with important ideas behind it.
0:20:54 > 0:20:58There are what I call the gentlemen in black,
0:20:58 > 0:21:01which are the ten figures around the green table in the beginning
0:21:01 > 0:21:06and are in masks, out of whose machinations results war.
0:21:06 > 0:21:11But the war is suffered and borne by the people.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15Kurt Jooss' statement on the inevitability of war
0:21:15 > 0:21:17was soon to become a reality.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22Just one year after The Green Table's creation,
0:21:22 > 0:21:26Hitler was made Chancellor of Germany
0:21:26 > 0:21:28and the Nazi dictatorship seized power.
0:21:32 > 0:21:36While Jooss and his Jewish company members fled Germany,
0:21:36 > 0:21:40the Nazis appointed Rudolf Laban as their head of dance.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44People have confused him of being a Nazi.
0:21:44 > 0:21:45Well, he wasn't.
0:21:45 > 0:21:49But he was employed by them for two years
0:21:49 > 0:21:51and, yes, he does sign his letters "Heil Hitler"
0:21:51 > 0:21:53because, if you didn't, you're out.
0:21:53 > 0:21:54I mean, you don't have a choice
0:21:54 > 0:21:57whether you sign a letter "Heil Hitler" or not.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02The Nazis censored many forms of art,
0:22:02 > 0:22:05but their ideals of physical perfection
0:22:05 > 0:22:08meant dance still had a role to play as a propaganda tool
0:22:08 > 0:22:11in their plans for the 1936 Olympic Games.
0:22:14 > 0:22:17Goebbels wants to present something
0:22:17 > 0:22:20modern and progressive about Germany,
0:22:20 > 0:22:25so Laban creates a movement choir with a very Nietzschean message.
0:22:25 > 0:22:29Remember, his ideas are absolutely egalitarian.
0:22:29 > 0:22:32No discrimination whatsoever.
0:22:32 > 0:22:35Well, of course, he's in the wrong place, isn't he?
0:22:35 > 0:22:38So the battle is set.
0:22:38 > 0:22:40Goebbels attends the dress rehearsal
0:22:40 > 0:22:42and Goebbels suddenly realises
0:22:42 > 0:22:45this isn't Nationalist Socialist philosophy.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48Goebbels writes in his diary,
0:22:48 > 0:22:49"I don't like this.
0:22:49 > 0:22:54"It's dressed in our clothes and has nothing to do with us.
0:22:54 > 0:22:55"I forbid it."
0:22:57 > 0:22:59The opening night of the Olympic Games
0:22:59 > 0:23:03included choreography by Mary Wigman, but not by Laban.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09The Nazis took away his position and closed his schools.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15In 1937, Laban was given refuge in England,
0:23:15 > 0:23:18where he set up his first British dance school
0:23:18 > 0:23:20in a small room in Manchester.
0:23:20 > 0:23:24As a German national, he wasn't allowed to earn money teaching.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27Instead, he was employed to use his skills
0:23:27 > 0:23:30to analyse the movements of factory workers.
0:23:31 > 0:23:33He had no money. Absolutely nothing.
0:23:33 > 0:23:35He was going into the factories
0:23:35 > 0:23:37and studying what the workers were doing
0:23:37 > 0:23:40to increase the war effort, basically.
0:23:40 > 0:23:44And I went in to help him with that.
0:23:44 > 0:23:48So the one that I went into was Pilkington's tile factory
0:23:48 > 0:23:53and I had to analyse exactly what was going on.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56And then we'd come back, you see, into the studio
0:23:56 > 0:24:00and he would get us to do all sorts of physical work,
0:24:00 > 0:24:03physicals of hammering and of slicing and these sorts of things
0:24:03 > 0:24:05and, in the evening,
0:24:05 > 0:24:07we might well do a lecture demonstration somewhere.
0:24:07 > 0:24:09OK, here we go. And...
0:24:15 > 0:24:19One of Laban's most important works is Green Clowns.
0:24:19 > 0:24:21And heads!
0:24:21 > 0:24:24But like most of his early works, it's been lost.
0:24:24 > 0:24:26Together.
0:24:26 > 0:24:27And...!
0:24:27 > 0:24:31It's very interesting how we deal with our heritage
0:24:31 > 0:24:32which has disappeared.
0:24:32 > 0:24:34Up and up.
0:24:34 > 0:24:37That's the trouble with dance.
0:24:37 > 0:24:40So, Green Clowns, we know it existed,
0:24:40 > 0:24:44but we do not know what its outer form was,
0:24:44 > 0:24:49except through the, I think, six photographs that we have of it.
0:24:50 > 0:24:54But we do know how he created.
0:24:54 > 0:24:57You're making tiles, like you have in your bathroom
0:24:57 > 0:25:00and, in order to do it, you have a conveyor belt,
0:25:00 > 0:25:02which is about the level of your tummy, going along like that...
0:25:02 > 0:25:05Although Green Clowns was made in the 1920s,
0:25:05 > 0:25:09Valerie is using her own memories of the factories in the '40s
0:25:09 > 0:25:11to re-imagine the dance.
0:25:11 > 0:25:13..a little stick and you pull it down.
0:25:13 > 0:25:15And it's hard.
0:25:15 > 0:25:16Then go and take hold of it.
0:25:16 > 0:25:18It's still delicate.
0:25:18 > 0:25:20So careful.
0:25:20 > 0:25:24Bring it in towards you onto the conveyor belt and it disappears.
0:25:25 > 0:25:27So it's quite fast.
0:25:27 > 0:25:31It's womp bla-bla-bla bom-bom-ba bam.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34Womp bla-bla-bla bom-bom-ba bam.
0:25:34 > 0:25:38And there it goes, on and on and on and on
0:25:38 > 0:25:41and again and again and again...
0:25:42 > 0:25:44Yes, that's the horror of it.
0:25:44 > 0:25:48It comes down on a direct path with an impact... Pow!
0:25:48 > 0:25:51It's a kind of different approach to moving
0:25:51 > 0:25:54and also to experience the space around,
0:25:54 > 0:25:56so it's really, really tiny movements
0:25:56 > 0:25:59and really strange dynamics
0:25:59 > 0:26:01that we are not really used to use.
0:26:02 > 0:26:04So it's a kind of total experience
0:26:04 > 0:26:06of using your body in a different way.
0:26:16 > 0:26:20We know that there was a section about the conveyor belt,
0:26:20 > 0:26:22which had just been invented.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26But we don't know exactly what movements were going.
0:26:26 > 0:26:31So I introduced the conveyor belt that I knew all about
0:26:31 > 0:26:33from working in Pilkington's tile factory.
0:26:36 > 0:26:38There is music in a rigid rhythm
0:26:38 > 0:26:42and it's there to make the dancers conform
0:26:42 > 0:26:44to that kind of movement,
0:26:44 > 0:26:47which is extremely uncomfortable and unpleasant to do.
0:26:51 > 0:26:55It's all a metaphor for the machine age imposition on the human body.
0:27:30 > 0:27:32# Out on the plains
0:27:32 > 0:27:34# Down in Santa Fe
0:27:34 > 0:27:36# I met a cowboy... #
0:27:36 > 0:27:40While modern dance was breaking new ground in Europe,
0:27:40 > 0:27:43one woman was pioneering
0:27:43 > 0:27:46her own distinct language of movement in America.
0:27:53 > 0:27:56I was very much frowned upon by the audiences,
0:27:56 > 0:28:01because they had expected me to be very lavish and very...
0:28:03 > 0:28:05..wooing and attractive
0:28:05 > 0:28:08and we won't use another word, but you can guess what.
0:28:08 > 0:28:12And I remember, it was a women's club in the south.
0:28:13 > 0:28:15I was dancing Lamentations
0:28:15 > 0:28:17and part way through the dance,
0:28:17 > 0:28:20a little old lady got up and came forward
0:28:20 > 0:28:22and she put her hands on the platform
0:28:22 > 0:28:24and just looked at me
0:28:24 > 0:28:27and just moved her head like this...
0:28:28 > 0:28:33Martha Graham was one of the many artists in the 1930s and '40s
0:28:33 > 0:28:37who sought to create a distinctive identity for American culture.
0:28:38 > 0:28:41No-one in the history of American modern dance
0:28:41 > 0:28:44was to have a greater impact than Martha.
0:28:52 > 0:28:57One of the remarkable driving forces of the contemporary dance scene
0:28:57 > 0:29:02was that it was very, very profoundly driven by women.
0:29:02 > 0:29:05So contemporary dance was reacting against ballet,
0:29:05 > 0:29:08which has always been a male dominated profession.
0:29:08 > 0:29:10Although the ballerinas were stars,
0:29:10 > 0:29:13the ballet masters were men, the choreographers were men,
0:29:13 > 0:29:15the company directors.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23Her narrative works, like Appalachian Spring,
0:29:23 > 0:29:27reflected the nationalistic feelings of the time
0:29:27 > 0:29:29and helped to make modern dance popular.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42Robert Cohan, who was to become one of the founders
0:29:42 > 0:29:44of modern dance in Britain,
0:29:44 > 0:29:47joined the Martha Graham Company in 1946.
0:29:48 > 0:29:52Like all those people who do something special,
0:29:52 > 0:29:57she was so focused and so intense when she was working
0:29:57 > 0:30:00that you didn't dare interrupt it
0:30:00 > 0:30:04by not paying attention, even.
0:30:04 > 0:30:06And you were learning so much.
0:30:09 > 0:30:12It was Martha's invention of a new dance language,
0:30:12 > 0:30:14the Graham Technique,
0:30:14 > 0:30:16that became her lasting legacy.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21In this film, one of her dancers demonstrates
0:30:21 > 0:30:24how the technique is based on breath
0:30:24 > 0:30:27and shows how a contraction and release of breath
0:30:27 > 0:30:29produces dramatic movements.
0:30:31 > 0:30:34Well, contraction is breathing out and release is breathing in.
0:30:34 > 0:30:37That's the most basic it can be.
0:30:37 > 0:30:40So Martha got known for the contraction.
0:30:41 > 0:30:43Although everybody all over the world
0:30:43 > 0:30:46contracts all the time, every day,
0:30:46 > 0:30:53because it was a good way to express a kind of grief or pain in the body.
0:30:53 > 0:30:56And since her dance was narrative
0:30:56 > 0:31:02and included nice times and bad times in the story,
0:31:02 > 0:31:04the body folding in on itself
0:31:04 > 0:31:08was very important as an emotional movement,
0:31:08 > 0:31:10as an emotional contact.
0:31:14 > 0:31:17Martha takes contraction and release
0:31:17 > 0:31:21and then, because Martha is a very passionate woman,
0:31:21 > 0:31:23you know, where does this contraction take place?
0:31:23 > 0:31:26It takes place right in your gut
0:31:26 > 0:31:30and, in particular, lower down into here...
0:31:30 > 0:31:32right into the stomach here...
0:31:32 > 0:31:33Here...into your groin,
0:31:33 > 0:31:37into really, shall we say, nearer your sexual centre.
0:31:37 > 0:31:41So her movement is very passionate, it's very womanly.
0:31:41 > 0:31:42One...
0:31:43 > 0:31:47Two. Press the chest up. Lift.
0:31:47 > 0:31:51'Her technique spoke of a landscape of the heart.
0:31:51 > 0:31:53'She wanted it built on breath.'
0:31:53 > 0:31:55In time, establish that spine, nice and long.
0:31:55 > 0:32:00How does breath affect the body dramatically from a "Ha!"
0:32:00 > 0:32:02to a laugh, to a cry?
0:32:02 > 0:32:04How does that all affect the body
0:32:04 > 0:32:07and then how can you put that in movement?
0:32:10 > 0:32:12Generations of Graham dancers
0:32:12 > 0:32:15went on to teach Martha's style across the world.
0:32:16 > 0:32:18Now, spiral.
0:32:18 > 0:32:20One, two, three...
0:32:20 > 0:32:24Thea Barnes joined the Martha Graham Company in the 1970s,
0:32:24 > 0:32:27where she came to understand the minutiae of the technique.
0:32:27 > 0:32:30Release, two, three.
0:32:30 > 0:32:31Return.
0:32:31 > 0:32:33Martha would sit in those company classes
0:32:33 > 0:32:37and we would discuss every single principle
0:32:37 > 0:32:40of every inch of the technique.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43Contract. Lift, one, two.
0:32:43 > 0:32:45Contract. Opening...
0:32:45 > 0:32:49They were analysed, broken down, built back up and broken down again,
0:32:49 > 0:32:52so they would meet her specifications
0:32:52 > 0:32:54for her use in the technique.
0:32:59 > 0:33:02Towards the end of her life, Martha created a piece
0:33:02 > 0:33:05that displayed the technique.
0:33:05 > 0:33:09For me, Helios is exhilarating,
0:33:09 > 0:33:12because it is actually a Graham class.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17It's what you call theatricalised.
0:33:26 > 0:33:29This is what Martha was best at.
0:33:29 > 0:33:30This is what she did.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34She told her stories using a movement vocabulary
0:33:34 > 0:33:39that had its foundation in the dancers knowing Graham Technique
0:33:39 > 0:33:42to what, I call, the nth degree.
0:33:56 > 0:34:00I think, with Martha Graham you did get a sense that, actually,
0:34:00 > 0:34:02here was an art form.
0:34:04 > 0:34:06It's a measure of her genius as a choreographer,
0:34:06 > 0:34:09it's a measure of her extraordinary potency on stage.
0:34:09 > 0:34:13But also of the absolute determination
0:34:13 > 0:34:16with which she kind of created her own empire.
0:34:16 > 0:34:18She made her own language, she made her own repertory,
0:34:18 > 0:34:20she made her company.
0:34:20 > 0:34:24She created her own posterity as she was making her work.
0:34:29 > 0:34:32By the second half of the 20th century,
0:34:32 > 0:34:35Martha had become an American icon.
0:34:37 > 0:34:40Her fame raised the profile of modern dance
0:34:40 > 0:34:43and helped it to be recognised by the establishment.
0:34:44 > 0:34:48There was one young dancer, a soloist in Graham's company,
0:34:48 > 0:34:50that was to take modern dance even further.
0:34:53 > 0:34:56We are presenting dances from our repertory.
0:34:57 > 0:35:01The various dances are intended to be an activity
0:35:01 > 0:35:04of humans moving in different ways
0:35:04 > 0:35:06and making different images,
0:35:06 > 0:35:10which may give to each of you a different impression.
0:35:13 > 0:35:18Merce Cunningham wanted to make dance for dance's sake,
0:35:18 > 0:35:21ridding it of meaning, expression and story.
0:35:29 > 0:35:33I am so deeply fond of movement by itself.
0:35:33 > 0:35:37That is, I can enjoy it without thinking it has to have a meaning.
0:35:37 > 0:35:40So we are presenting movement,
0:35:40 > 0:35:45to which anyone can bring whatever each individual thinks,
0:35:45 > 0:35:48rather than it being my telling them how to think.
0:35:51 > 0:35:56His approach was hugely influenced by composer John Cage.
0:35:56 > 0:35:58They met in the late 1940s
0:35:58 > 0:36:00and they became lovers and artistic collaborators.
0:36:02 > 0:36:06Cage was a leading figure in post-war avant-garde music
0:36:06 > 0:36:08and his radical experiments
0:36:08 > 0:36:11were to have a profound effect on Cunningham.
0:36:11 > 0:36:16I came to the intention of making my work non-intention...
0:36:17 > 0:36:23..because I had no desire to express my ideas or my feelings.
0:36:25 > 0:36:31I wanted, rather, to open my mind to what was outside of my mind.
0:36:32 > 0:36:34Cunningham adopted Cage's theories
0:36:34 > 0:36:37of using chance in the creation of his choreography.
0:36:37 > 0:36:40Right. That's what does it.
0:36:40 > 0:36:42It is an idea that comes from the I Ching,
0:36:42 > 0:36:44where you can cast your fortune
0:36:44 > 0:36:49and what you get is an answer that is suitable, so to speak,
0:36:49 > 0:36:52for that moment in time in space.
0:36:52 > 0:36:55Well, I thought, rather than my making the decision
0:36:55 > 0:36:56as to what follows what,
0:36:56 > 0:36:59I will discover something else.
0:36:59 > 0:37:03Cunningham and Cage took this idea of chance to extremes
0:37:03 > 0:37:05by making the choreography
0:37:05 > 0:37:07and the music separately.
0:37:10 > 0:37:12Although he commissioned new scores,
0:37:12 > 0:37:16he didn't choreograph to the music.
0:37:16 > 0:37:20It was always said that the dancers never actually heard the music
0:37:20 > 0:37:23they were going to be performing to until the dress rehearsal.
0:37:26 > 0:37:31Now the dance and music are truly independent of one another.
0:37:31 > 0:37:35I have no idea of anything that will be happening in the dance.
0:37:35 > 0:37:39Merce has no idea of what will be happening in the music.
0:37:39 > 0:37:42But we have a kind of confidence...
0:37:43 > 0:37:46..that they will work together.
0:37:53 > 0:37:55The first time I ever saw Merce,
0:37:55 > 0:37:57what I remember most vividly about it
0:37:57 > 0:37:59was that I had never seen anything like it
0:37:59 > 0:38:00and I didn't know how to read it
0:38:00 > 0:38:03and that, when I was sat there, I was panicking,
0:38:03 > 0:38:04because I was constructing a way
0:38:04 > 0:38:06of trying to put these disparate pieces together.
0:38:08 > 0:38:12We've got this conventional idea, haven't we, that music and dance,
0:38:12 > 0:38:13in some way, have to be synergistic
0:38:13 > 0:38:17and that is our aspiration, as dance makers, to make that the whole?
0:38:17 > 0:38:20Whereas, actually, when you look at something like Merce,
0:38:20 > 0:38:22the body will all of a sudden come to the front
0:38:22 > 0:38:25and the John Cage score might actually just support that.
0:38:26 > 0:38:28Then the John Cage comes to the front.
0:38:28 > 0:38:30All of the hierarchies
0:38:30 > 0:38:32of the ways in which we traditionally think about
0:38:32 > 0:38:34how dance and music should go together are subverted.
0:38:34 > 0:38:36And cue.
0:38:36 > 0:38:41Daniel Squire danced in the Merce Cunningham Company for 12 years.
0:38:41 > 0:38:44He's using these methods of chance with the Trinity Laban students
0:38:44 > 0:38:46to make a "MinEvent",
0:38:46 > 0:38:48a collage of Cunningham extracts.
0:38:48 > 0:38:50..open and then a bit closed.
0:38:50 > 0:38:52Very often, he'd be rolling dice
0:38:52 > 0:38:55or he would throw a coin to get an answer - yes or no.
0:38:57 > 0:39:00If it's a duet, do they come in together?
0:39:00 > 0:39:02Yes, they come in together.
0:39:02 > 0:39:03Is he carrying her?
0:39:03 > 0:39:05Yes, he's carrying her.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08So you've got run, run, run, trip. Run, run...
0:39:08 > 0:39:10We've used quite a lot of chance.
0:39:10 > 0:39:12All the sections and who is in the sections
0:39:12 > 0:39:14have been made by chance,
0:39:14 > 0:39:16so we'd just sit there with the dice
0:39:16 > 0:39:18and if it was evens, you'd be in the piece in that section
0:39:18 > 0:39:20and if it was odds, you wouldn't.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31In classical Cunningham style, we are wearing unitards.
0:39:33 > 0:39:37And whichever colour and what style you'd get
0:39:37 > 0:39:39was all done by rolling a dice.
0:39:40 > 0:39:44Cunningham's rehearsal process was also distinctive.
0:39:48 > 0:39:51We rehearsed in silence. It was very, very austere.
0:39:51 > 0:39:53He never said anything.
0:39:53 > 0:39:55He never gave corrections to anyone,
0:39:55 > 0:39:58whether physical or about performing style,
0:39:58 > 0:40:02it was very...you had to be completely self-motivated
0:40:02 > 0:40:06and simply be there and do.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12One of the things that he was doing was timing it with a stopwatch
0:40:12 > 0:40:15and have us run a section again if it was
0:40:15 > 0:40:18anything other than negligibly longer or shorter.
0:40:18 > 0:40:21One, two, three...
0:40:21 > 0:40:23Everybody just loves him.
0:40:23 > 0:40:26You'd do anything for him. The company class was
0:40:26 > 0:40:28completely electric.
0:40:28 > 0:40:32You just... The amount of sweat, the amount of work we did,
0:40:32 > 0:40:35and...and I never encountered it ever again.
0:40:37 > 0:40:40Cunningham's work requires great skill to execute
0:40:40 > 0:40:43and while some audiences were initially perplexed
0:40:43 > 0:40:46by the abstraction, the critics came to love it.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52The first time I saw a work by Merce Cunningham, I wept
0:40:52 > 0:40:56because, to me, there is such possibility,
0:40:56 > 0:41:01such inventiveness in the work it...
0:41:01 > 0:41:06it almost, to me, represents...the ultimate
0:41:06 > 0:41:12in terms of the spaciousness, the sense of what dance can be.
0:41:13 > 0:41:17That... He's a choreographer I can see over and over again
0:41:17 > 0:41:19and never tire of.
0:41:24 > 0:41:27In Cunningham's hands, dance had become pure movement.
0:41:30 > 0:41:34MUSIC: Sunday Morning by The Velvet Underground
0:41:39 > 0:41:43But for a group of dancers in the 1960s New York art scene,
0:41:43 > 0:41:46it was the world around them that came into focus.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51They staged a series of experimental performances
0:41:51 > 0:41:53at Judson Memorial Church.
0:41:55 > 0:41:58Cunningham had already made two huge steps
0:41:58 > 0:42:02separating dance from narrative and from music.
0:42:02 > 0:42:04It was still very sleek and very technical, had a certain look
0:42:04 > 0:42:06and the dancers had a certain idealistic form
0:42:06 > 0:42:10and there was a certain thing that still...looked like that.
0:42:12 > 0:42:15so Judson changed who can dance
0:42:15 > 0:42:18and what movement can be called a dance movement.
0:42:19 > 0:42:22The Judson Group used everyday movements
0:42:22 > 0:42:24to make their work less elitist.
0:42:37 > 0:42:41The artists associated with the Judson Church are people such as
0:42:41 > 0:42:45Trisha Brown, David Gordon, Steve Paxton, Yvonne Rainer.
0:42:45 > 0:42:48I mean, it is a really clearly defined scene
0:42:48 > 0:42:49of dancers working with artists,
0:42:49 > 0:42:52working with musicians, working with poets.
0:42:55 > 0:42:57This is a moment
0:42:57 > 0:43:00where dance picks up on the avant-garde
0:43:00 > 0:43:02in the visual arts big time.
0:43:02 > 0:43:08And they are experimenting with these minimalist ideas.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11There are lots of people doing everyday actions.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15Steve Paxton standing in a tray of ball bearings eating a pear,
0:43:15 > 0:43:18anything can be dance and it is a real kind of liberating moment
0:43:18 > 0:43:21where they are saying anything is possible,
0:43:21 > 0:43:24everything is interesting, or everything is boring
0:43:24 > 0:43:27and we are going to do it for three hours
0:43:27 > 0:43:29so it stops being quite so boring
0:43:29 > 0:43:30and Andy Warhol goes and says,
0:43:30 > 0:43:32"This is the most modern thing I have ever seen."
0:43:35 > 0:43:40This is a portrait of Yvonne Rainer, one of the group's leading artists.
0:43:40 > 0:43:44Her No Manifesto was written in 1965
0:43:44 > 0:43:49and it became a defining statement of the new minimalism.
0:43:49 > 0:43:50No to spectacle.
0:43:50 > 0:43:52No to virtuosity.
0:43:52 > 0:43:55No to transformations and magic and make-believe.
0:43:55 > 0:43:58No to the glamour and transcendency of the star image.
0:43:58 > 0:44:00No to the heroic.
0:44:00 > 0:44:02No to the anti-heroic.
0:44:02 > 0:44:03No to trash imagery.
0:44:03 > 0:44:06No to involvement of performer or spectator.
0:44:06 > 0:44:08No to style. No to camp.
0:44:08 > 0:44:12No to seduction of spectator by the wiles of the performer.
0:44:12 > 0:44:16- No to eccentricity. - No to being moved or moving.
0:44:16 > 0:44:19I don't read them as being negative.
0:44:19 > 0:44:22She is not simply saying no in order to be truculent.
0:44:22 > 0:44:26She is saying, if we refuse what is expected of dance,
0:44:26 > 0:44:30if we refuse how we usually, habitually view choreography,
0:44:30 > 0:44:34then something else might reveal itself as possible.
0:44:34 > 0:44:37This exploration of anti-performance
0:44:37 > 0:44:42climaxed with one of Yvonne Rainer's most famous pieces, Trio A.
0:44:45 > 0:44:48This film of Yvonne performing an extract
0:44:48 > 0:44:50was made 12 years after its premiere,
0:44:50 > 0:44:53and shows how she is deliberately refusing to entertain.
0:44:57 > 0:45:00I had never seen a dance like that and that was by virtue of
0:45:00 > 0:45:04the movement itself had this weighted ease to it,
0:45:04 > 0:45:07there was a plainness, but a beauty in the plainness.
0:45:07 > 0:45:10The move towards a natural feeling,
0:45:10 > 0:45:13the framing of the ordinary in the art, and all those things,
0:45:13 > 0:45:16it just captured the ideas, the feeling of the time.
0:45:19 > 0:45:22You can't do Cunningham movement
0:45:22 > 0:45:24without training in ballet,
0:45:24 > 0:45:28so there was a period where Cunningham-trained dancers
0:45:28 > 0:45:32would absolutely refuse any form of movement
0:45:32 > 0:45:36that required a technique or training.
0:45:38 > 0:45:43Trio A is a series of movements which are very awkward.
0:45:43 > 0:45:45They are actually quite hard work to dance.
0:45:45 > 0:45:48There is no sense of musical flow,
0:45:48 > 0:45:54of suspension of time into a kind of magical, musical time.
0:45:54 > 0:45:57This is happening in real time, it is slow, it is boring,
0:45:57 > 0:46:02it is really hard to see, it is the kind of end point
0:46:02 > 0:46:06of deconstructing what dance might be
0:46:06 > 0:46:09and making it just about ordinary people
0:46:09 > 0:46:12doing ordinary movement with ordinary bodies.
0:46:12 > 0:46:17And then run. One, two, three, four, together.
0:46:17 > 0:46:20To preserve the choreography of Trio A,
0:46:20 > 0:46:23Yvonne Rainer decided that it can only be passed on
0:46:23 > 0:46:26by carefully chosen "transmitters",
0:46:26 > 0:46:30dancers sanctioned to teach it following her strict instructions.
0:46:30 > 0:46:33Here we come. Walk, walk here.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37And then place the hands side by side.
0:46:37 > 0:46:42'I consult with Yvonne, often before I go off to teach or transmit it'
0:46:42 > 0:46:45and she conducts what she calls a tune-up,
0:46:45 > 0:46:49so as one would tune up their car, they would tune up the dance,
0:46:49 > 0:46:52so I would check in with her, I would show her the dance
0:46:52 > 0:46:55'and she would make comments and corrections.'
0:46:55 > 0:46:58And then it's just down and then here.
0:46:58 > 0:47:04I am a transmitter of Trio A. We call it a "custodian" of Trio A,
0:47:04 > 0:47:10'so my job is to try to transmit it the way Yvonne would want it done.'
0:47:10 > 0:47:13And she wants the details the way it is,
0:47:13 > 0:47:18so I have pages and pages of notes that I have got from her.
0:47:18 > 0:47:23You have to treat every movement as equally important,
0:47:23 > 0:47:25we are all important,
0:47:25 > 0:47:27so there is this sort of non-hierarchical
0:47:27 > 0:47:30and non-showing off,
0:47:30 > 0:47:33not presenting, it's not about the ego, it's not about
0:47:33 > 0:47:35seducing you or enticing you or showing off for you,
0:47:35 > 0:47:38I am just doing and you are watching.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48What was interesting to me about the Judson movement was that...
0:47:48 > 0:47:50You know the Yvonne Rainer famous No Manifesto -
0:47:50 > 0:47:53no psychology, no costume, no virtuosity,
0:47:53 > 0:47:56no meaning, no story, no...
0:47:56 > 0:47:58A lot of nos
0:47:58 > 0:48:03and I thought it was a very puritanical, very repressive way
0:48:03 > 0:48:07of looking at the world, so I thought it was time to say yes.
0:48:12 > 0:48:15Karole Armitage was a classically trained ballerina
0:48:15 > 0:48:17who'd danced with Merce Cunningham.
0:48:17 > 0:48:19But in New York in the 1970s,
0:48:19 > 0:48:23she decided to rebel against her mentors and her peers.
0:48:23 > 0:48:26I just felt like I was doing something from the 1950s.
0:48:26 > 0:48:28This was the late '70s.
0:48:28 > 0:48:32I want to do something more contemporary, more of my time.
0:48:32 > 0:48:35So I thought, "Why not combine the refinement and poetry
0:48:35 > 0:48:39"and loveliness, beauty of ballet
0:48:39 > 0:48:42"with the raw, visceral energy of punk?"
0:48:42 > 0:48:45MUSIC: Blitzkrieg Bop by Ramones
0:48:49 > 0:48:52Being a punk ballerina, I invented it,
0:48:52 > 0:48:54so people were essentially aghast,
0:48:54 > 0:49:02but I was...and to this day I am much a pariah for many people
0:49:02 > 0:49:04because I had betrayed both ballet and modern dance.
0:49:11 > 0:49:15The joyous thrill of destruction,
0:49:15 > 0:49:21the jubilation of bringing in that fuck-you attitude
0:49:21 > 0:49:23and it's our turn to create a revolution.
0:49:30 > 0:49:33I did a piece called Drastic Classicism
0:49:33 > 0:49:36with the loudest music probably ever played in front of the public.
0:49:36 > 0:49:39You know, when you're young, you have no idea,
0:49:39 > 0:49:41I mean, but it was just so thrilling.
0:49:41 > 0:49:46It was minimalism combined with electric guitars
0:49:46 > 0:49:48and that kind of contradiction
0:49:48 > 0:49:51is still really what makes art interesting.
0:49:51 > 0:49:54It's not about being in the middle, it is about being at the extremes.
0:49:57 > 0:50:01Karole Armitage inspired one young British dancer.
0:50:09 > 0:50:13Michael Clark was to take the extremes of his art even further.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16He had begun as a protege at the Royal Ballet School.
0:50:16 > 0:50:21I was going to a Royal Ballet party, and people were smoking a spliff,
0:50:21 > 0:50:23including myself for the first time, and suddenly I thought
0:50:23 > 0:50:26everyone in the room was speaking a different language,
0:50:26 > 0:50:29I thought they were speaking Arabic, I didn't understand a word
0:50:29 > 0:50:32and just saying very clearly, "This is not where I belong."
0:50:32 > 0:50:34Also, partly, I wanted them to ask me to stay,
0:50:34 > 0:50:37of course I did, partly I said, "I am leaving," because
0:50:37 > 0:50:40I wanted them to say, "Please don't leave," and they didn't,
0:50:40 > 0:50:42but I didn't belong.
0:50:42 > 0:50:45Clark left the Royal Ballet School
0:50:45 > 0:50:49and in 1984 launched the Michael Clark Company.
0:50:49 > 0:50:50I left the Royal Ballet
0:50:50 > 0:50:54because I wanted to have my own voice and be independent.
0:50:54 > 0:50:57I wanted to work with subject matter that was relevant to everyone.
0:50:57 > 0:51:00It's not about swans. And that was to do with
0:51:00 > 0:51:03bringing my two lives together -
0:51:03 > 0:51:07my very disciplined, rigorous training in ballet
0:51:07 > 0:51:10and the punk thing, which was a whole different spirit.
0:51:16 > 0:51:20He also drew influences from London's club scene
0:51:20 > 0:51:22and surrounded himself with collaborators,
0:51:22 > 0:51:27including post-punk band The Fall and performance artist Leigh Bowery.
0:51:27 > 0:51:29We are here every day so we think, well,
0:51:29 > 0:51:31something gorge and wafty and flowing
0:51:31 > 0:51:33would work very well in that section
0:51:33 > 0:51:36or something angular and sharp and cumbersome
0:51:36 > 0:51:38would work well in another section.
0:51:42 > 0:51:46In this piece, New Puritans, Bowery created costumes
0:51:46 > 0:51:48that exposed the dancers' bottoms.
0:51:48 > 0:51:52The first performance, we jumped up and down in front of the mirror
0:51:52 > 0:51:55and we sort of said, "That doesn't look good, does it?"
0:51:55 > 0:51:57It was like...jiggling, you know,
0:51:57 > 0:52:00and then the funny thing is, once you start dancing,
0:52:00 > 0:52:03you don't feel like you have a bare bottom,
0:52:03 > 0:52:05you just have your costume on.
0:52:07 > 0:52:10The reason I had the kind of costumes that I had
0:52:10 > 0:52:11was because, for a lot of my friends,
0:52:11 > 0:52:13we could ONLY communicate through what we wore.
0:52:13 > 0:52:16So to strip everything down,
0:52:16 > 0:52:19which is what everyone else was doing in "new dance",
0:52:19 > 0:52:24to me, was wrong, it was denying the whole visual aspect of dance.
0:52:27 > 0:52:30What's interesting about Michael Clark is that he doesn't just
0:52:30 > 0:52:33keep this within the realm of contemporary dance.
0:52:33 > 0:52:36He makes it really relevant to club kids
0:52:36 > 0:52:40who would never go to Sadler's Wells usually,
0:52:40 > 0:52:41or to fans of The Fall,
0:52:41 > 0:52:45who would never think of going to a dance performance.
0:52:45 > 0:52:48So he is really important, I think, for popularizing dance
0:52:48 > 0:52:49but not by dumbing it down,
0:52:49 > 0:52:52by actually saying, "Well, what else is happening?"
0:52:55 > 0:52:57There was something of Isadora Duncan about him,
0:52:57 > 0:53:00the fact that he was this free spirit, this very beautiful gay man
0:53:00 > 0:53:04who was actually grappling with his demons,
0:53:04 > 0:53:06that added to his charisma
0:53:06 > 0:53:09and there was a cult around Michael Clark.
0:53:10 > 0:53:13With this year's Edinburgh Festival now in full swing,
0:53:13 > 0:53:16its first dance event has already caused a stir.
0:53:16 > 0:53:20One critic has called his show "an incoherent outrage,"
0:53:20 > 0:53:22the sort of establishment reaction
0:53:22 > 0:53:27which Michael Clark may regard as the ultimate accolade.
0:53:27 > 0:53:31- Rubbish, I think.- Disappointed?
0:53:31 > 0:53:34Yes, I'm maybe not an art lover, but that wasn't art to me.
0:53:34 > 0:53:36I didn't understand a word of it.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39It is a cacophony and probably an atrocity,
0:53:39 > 0:53:41in some respects for some people
0:53:41 > 0:53:44and I brought... I brought friends along!
0:53:45 > 0:53:48Quite often, people think I'm sort of going out of my way to shock
0:53:48 > 0:53:51when it is simply something I think looks good,
0:53:51 > 0:53:53for example, the bare bottoms.
0:53:53 > 0:53:56I thought it was a lovely fashion detail.
0:53:56 > 0:54:00# Welcome to the '80s, '90s... #
0:54:01 > 0:54:05There was always a sense of, "Oh, what is he going to do in this work?
0:54:05 > 0:54:08"Is it going to be the dildo, is it going to be
0:54:08 > 0:54:10"the pretending to swallow a goldfish...?"
0:54:12 > 0:54:18But it felt raucous, abrasive and it was really exciting.
0:54:20 > 0:54:22It was definitely very rock and roll
0:54:22 > 0:54:26and we used to go to these clubs like Taboo.
0:54:26 > 0:54:32But we all worked really hard. Every night it was either live or die.
0:54:32 > 0:54:34Come on!
0:54:34 > 0:54:38My first group of dancers did feel like a band,
0:54:38 > 0:54:40like the Velvet Underground or something,
0:54:40 > 0:54:42where each member is equally important
0:54:42 > 0:54:46and I guess I was more interested in the music world
0:54:46 > 0:54:47than the dance world.
0:54:47 > 0:54:48I am a bit like that,
0:54:48 > 0:54:52I don't want to be part of the dance world, really.
0:54:55 > 0:55:00Four, five, six, seven, eight...
0:55:12 > 0:55:15The students at Trinity Laban are rehearsing
0:55:15 > 0:55:18a version of the seminal dance piece Rosas Danst Rosas...
0:55:21 > 0:55:24..created in 1983 by Belgian choreographer
0:55:24 > 0:55:26Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker.
0:55:32 > 0:55:35In this film version, the dancers perform everyday gestures
0:55:35 > 0:55:37repeated with military precision.
0:55:46 > 0:55:49The choreography was made in the early '80s.
0:55:50 > 0:55:55So it was a time of punk and there was...
0:55:55 > 0:55:57That choreography definitely carries
0:55:57 > 0:55:59the sign of the times.
0:55:59 > 0:56:03There was a certain energy, a certain provocative element.
0:56:07 > 0:56:12It is extremely constructed and those four young women
0:56:12 > 0:56:15throw themselves against this wall of structure.
0:56:20 > 0:56:22De Keersmaeker was inspired
0:56:22 > 0:56:25by one of the Judson Group's leading names - Trisha Brown.
0:56:30 > 0:56:34This witty and now-legendary solo Accumulation
0:56:34 > 0:56:37was first performed in New York in 1971.
0:56:37 > 0:56:41It is based on the simple idea of repeating gestures.
0:56:43 > 0:56:46I will show you some of the movements just to explain
0:56:46 > 0:56:48what the Accumulation series is,
0:56:48 > 0:56:50so one...
0:56:50 > 0:56:52one, two...
0:56:52 > 0:56:55one, two, three...
0:56:55 > 0:56:58one, two, three, four...
0:56:58 > 0:57:00So it's not complicated,
0:57:00 > 0:57:02it's like a nursery rhyme.
0:57:08 > 0:57:11There was nobody who developed like Trisha Brown
0:57:11 > 0:57:18such a language of a natural elegance and intelligence.
0:57:20 > 0:57:23And the way it is constructed like a moving architecture
0:57:23 > 0:57:27that celebrates the human body...
0:57:29 > 0:57:31That's just exquisite.
0:57:34 > 0:57:38De Keersmaeker adopted this technique in Rosas Danst Rosas
0:57:38 > 0:57:40but gave it attitude.
0:57:42 > 0:57:47These gestures seem to be teenage, stroppy gestures.
0:57:47 > 0:57:50It has this bolshie teenager shrug
0:57:50 > 0:57:53and yet they are all doing them in unison,
0:57:53 > 0:57:55so that you think they are individual,
0:57:55 > 0:57:57you think they are personal,
0:57:57 > 0:58:00but actually this is a mask they can hide behind.
0:58:02 > 0:58:05I think she is really using femininity
0:58:05 > 0:58:07as a choreographic device.
0:58:07 > 0:58:10There is lots of pushing the hair behind the ears,
0:58:10 > 0:58:11adjusting the clothes,
0:58:11 > 0:58:15taking a shirt off the shoulder to reveal a bra strap
0:58:15 > 0:58:17and then clutching the breast.
0:58:21 > 0:58:25This iconic feminist work has been widely performed for 30 years.
0:58:31 > 0:58:35But in 2011, it was controversially appropriated
0:58:35 > 0:58:37in Beyonce's Countdown video.
0:58:39 > 0:58:44This is what pop does. Pop takes from all manner of sources.
0:58:44 > 0:58:49De Keersmaeker's response to this is first of all surprise
0:58:49 > 0:58:51that they hadn't got in touch with her.
0:58:51 > 0:58:56And she actually says perhaps it has lost some of its feminist impact.
0:58:56 > 0:59:00She says this looks like it is being repackaged
0:59:00 > 0:59:02in order to sell a product
0:59:02 > 0:59:05and there is no real investment in the aesthetic,
0:59:05 > 0:59:06it is just a surface copy.
0:59:06 > 0:59:11It wasn't until she saw a YouTube clip of schoolgirls
0:59:11 > 0:59:14doing their own version of Rosas Danst Rosas
0:59:14 > 0:59:15that she knew how to respond.
0:59:15 > 0:59:18MUSIC: Like A Virgin by Madonna
0:59:25 > 0:59:30My friend sent me a little video of four schoolgirls
0:59:30 > 0:59:36who made a version of that to Just Like A Virgin
0:59:36 > 0:59:40and I found that it was very, very beautiful
0:59:40 > 0:59:45so I thought, "The time came to give it away."
0:59:45 > 0:59:49The first part is what we call the nodding...
0:59:49 > 0:59:52De Keersmaeker says, "Rather than sue for copyright,
0:59:52 > 0:59:53"anybody can do it,"
0:59:53 > 0:59:57and this is where the Re:Rosas! remix project comes in.
0:59:57 > 1:00:01She asks some of her dancers, together with herself,
1:00:01 > 1:00:06to teach it, via YouTube tutorials, to anybody that wants to learn it.
1:00:06 > 1:00:10..Four and one, two, three, four,
1:00:10 > 1:00:13five, six, seven, eight,
1:00:13 > 1:00:16and one, two, three, four,
1:00:16 > 1:00:19five, six, seven, eight,
1:00:19 > 1:00:22and one, two, three, four.
1:00:22 > 1:00:25You stay - five, six, seven, eight...
1:00:25 > 1:00:29But then there is this kind of viral invitation to produce
1:00:29 > 1:00:32lots and lots of different Rosas Danst Rosases,
1:00:32 > 1:00:35so you download it into your body, you remix it
1:00:35 > 1:00:37and then you upload it onto the internet.
1:01:02 > 1:01:05- VIDEO:- 'You bend over, then you come up
1:01:05 > 1:01:07'and your right hand you place on your right leg.'
1:01:07 > 1:01:10Martin is working with the Trinity Laban students
1:01:10 > 1:01:12to produce their own Rosas Remix.
1:01:14 > 1:01:18So it doesn't go back too far behind the chair.
1:01:18 > 1:01:20'One, two, three, four...'
1:01:20 > 1:01:23For me, I thought, we could just remix Rosas
1:01:23 > 1:01:27or we could try and put in other forms of movement
1:01:27 > 1:01:29that come from other sources.
1:01:29 > 1:01:32Really try and think of that upward movement
1:01:32 > 1:01:34as the first and the only moment that you stand...
1:01:34 > 1:01:38'Which is what, if someone remixes a music track
1:01:38 > 1:01:40'they may borrow from sounds
1:01:40 > 1:01:41'outside of the original track.'
1:01:41 > 1:01:44So I showed them some clips on YouTube, they copied
1:01:44 > 1:01:46and they started to build that into the structure.
1:01:53 > 1:01:56I remember when I was younger, watching various YouTube videos
1:01:56 > 1:01:59and trying to imitate it but never before has it been done
1:01:59 > 1:02:01where it has been so open and such an easy and accessible
1:02:01 > 1:02:03opportunity and project.
1:02:03 > 1:02:05Great, much better already.
1:02:05 > 1:02:10I definitely feel like the female is definitely being empowered
1:02:10 > 1:02:13because there is such a routine, such a boredom with daily life
1:02:13 > 1:02:15that comes through in the piece
1:02:15 > 1:02:18which I definitely take a feminist stance on.
1:02:18 > 1:02:21MUSIC: No Feelings by Bananarama
1:03:24 > 1:03:25For many choreographers,
1:03:25 > 1:03:30the 20th century had been about exploring dance as pure movement.
1:03:32 > 1:03:35But one choreographer, Pina Bausch,
1:03:35 > 1:03:38embraced the opportunity to create work on a grand scale.
1:04:02 > 1:04:06After her death in 2009, the celebrated director Wim Wenders
1:04:06 > 1:04:09paid tribute to her in this film, Pina.
1:04:14 > 1:04:19I think Pina Bausch really is up there with Merce Cunningham
1:04:19 > 1:04:21and Martha Graham as one of those choreographers
1:04:21 > 1:04:23who changed the landscape of dance
1:04:23 > 1:04:28and she did so, in a way, by bringing dance closer to theatre.
1:04:28 > 1:04:33Her works are epic. They are often three hours long.
1:04:33 > 1:04:35They are highly visual,
1:04:35 > 1:04:39she always transforms the stage into a kind of dreamscape
1:04:39 > 1:04:45where dance is just one element in a whole array of theatrical forms,
1:04:45 > 1:04:49there is some speech in them, people play games with props,
1:04:49 > 1:04:52people might cook, people will fight.
1:04:52 > 1:04:54It is like this almost birds'-eye view
1:04:54 > 1:04:57of the craziness of human behaviour.
1:05:06 > 1:05:09As a teenager, Pina was a protege of Kurt Jooss.
1:05:11 > 1:05:15At 26, she gave an emotionally intense performance
1:05:15 > 1:05:19as the old lady in Jooss's ground-breaking work
1:05:19 > 1:05:20The Green Table.
1:05:50 > 1:05:52Pina was later to draw upon
1:05:52 > 1:05:54her background in Expressionist dance theatre
1:05:54 > 1:05:58when she became the artistic director of Tanztheater Wuppertal.
1:06:01 > 1:06:05She surrounded herself with a close-knit group of dancers.
1:06:05 > 1:06:07They worked together for over 30 years
1:06:07 > 1:06:10and developed a unique way of collaborating.
1:06:12 > 1:06:15Her starting point, she always says, is that she says she has a feeling,
1:06:15 > 1:06:18a taste of something that she tries to give shape to,
1:06:18 > 1:06:21and she works very closely with her dancers
1:06:21 > 1:06:25to get them to respond to ideas, to images,
1:06:25 > 1:06:28to confess feelings they have,
1:06:28 > 1:06:31to talk about dreams, to talk about memories.
1:06:34 > 1:06:37'The first series of questions would be very simple,
1:06:37 > 1:06:41'would be like six different ways to be tender.'
1:06:41 > 1:06:44We would give all these movements. They would be filmed
1:06:44 > 1:06:50and at one point we would set Pina and each one of us separately
1:06:50 > 1:06:56to sort of try to make... a selection of all those movements.
1:06:59 > 1:07:04And from this moment, we will go in our corner and each one of us,
1:07:04 > 1:07:07we would start to construct something.
1:07:07 > 1:07:10We'd film and then she'd select again and comment
1:07:10 > 1:07:16and slowly by slowly she would feel if things provoke something,
1:07:16 > 1:07:18like chemistry, you know, like in a laboratory.
1:07:20 > 1:07:25Her great genius in a way was asking the right questions
1:07:25 > 1:07:28and then finding this way to assemble
1:07:28 > 1:07:32this very, very diverse range of dance and theatre.
1:07:36 > 1:07:38Using the resources at her disposal,
1:07:38 > 1:07:42Pina transformed the stage with spectacular sets,
1:07:42 > 1:07:46making whole worlds for the dancers to perform in.
1:07:46 > 1:07:49It's fantastic, I mean, it was such a big challenge.
1:07:49 > 1:07:53You have to dance on the sand, on the earth, into the water,
1:07:53 > 1:07:58through leaves or on stones, broken stones, or...
1:07:58 > 1:08:03It's completely different and then it brings you somewhere else.
1:08:03 > 1:08:08It is not always easy and sometimes painful,
1:08:08 > 1:08:11but after, you cannot imagine without it.
1:08:24 > 1:08:27The boundaries, they were broken.
1:08:27 > 1:08:30It was not theatre. It was not dance.
1:08:30 > 1:08:32It was not a piece of music.
1:08:32 > 1:08:36It incorporated all of it, somehow,
1:08:36 > 1:08:38and there were things that were absurd,
1:08:38 > 1:08:40there were things that were poetic,
1:08:40 > 1:08:42there were things that were fragile.
1:08:46 > 1:08:50In Cafe Muller, Pina drew upon her childhood memories
1:08:50 > 1:08:53of hiding under the tables in her parents' cafe,
1:08:53 > 1:08:55watching the customers.
1:08:58 > 1:09:02It was so personal that it remained one of the only pieces
1:09:02 > 1:09:05in which she continued to perform late into her life.
1:09:11 > 1:09:13Although Bausch trained in ballet,
1:09:13 > 1:09:17she does have very strong links with the German Expressionist scene.
1:09:19 > 1:09:25It's in this willingness to confront what is strange or grotesque in us.
1:09:31 > 1:09:33I think one of the reasons why
1:09:33 > 1:09:35people travel the world to see Pina Bausch's work,
1:09:35 > 1:09:38why her choreography has a cult following
1:09:38 > 1:09:40even if she didn't herself,
1:09:40 > 1:09:43is that they do see themselves reflected in it.
1:09:46 > 1:09:49While Pina went back to her roots in German Expressionism
1:09:49 > 1:09:52to develop her unique vision of dance theatre,
1:09:52 > 1:09:56one dancer whose roots were in ballet
1:09:56 > 1:09:59set about reinventing its language for today.
1:10:04 > 1:10:09I was working at the Paris Opera in 1987
1:10:09 > 1:10:11and I did a phrase and at one point
1:10:11 > 1:10:14one of the etoiles burst out laughing
1:10:14 > 1:10:18and I said, "What's so funny?" and she said, "That doesn't exist,"
1:10:18 > 1:10:21because of its...
1:10:21 > 1:10:26its combination was not, according to her, legal.
1:10:26 > 1:10:28I thought, "Well, now it does."
1:10:28 > 1:10:33So she believed things could not be recombined
1:10:33 > 1:10:37outside of this received notion of its appropriateness.
1:10:40 > 1:10:42As director of Ballet Frankfurt,
1:10:42 > 1:10:46William Forsythe was inspired by modern dance
1:10:46 > 1:10:48to question the language of ballet.
1:10:52 > 1:10:56It's never a question of pushing the language of ballet,
1:10:56 > 1:11:00it's a question of sensing what it can do
1:11:00 > 1:11:06and you realise that what is taught is just one set of possibilities.
1:11:12 > 1:11:16What I did was I presented ballet
1:11:16 > 1:11:21situated in the power of the dancer's body,
1:11:21 > 1:11:24it wasn't put in the story anywhere else,
1:11:24 > 1:11:26it was only in the body
1:11:26 > 1:11:30and there is no real decor, there was no costuming, really.
1:11:34 > 1:11:38Forsythe took inspiration from the ideas of Rudolf Laban,
1:11:38 > 1:11:41whose spatial theory of the body as living architecture
1:11:41 > 1:11:45broke down movement into geometric shapes around the dancer.
1:11:50 > 1:11:52In ballet, we've got, "Here I am in fifth here
1:11:52 > 1:11:54"and here I am in second here.
1:11:54 > 1:11:58"These are places that I am then going to know and use."
1:11:58 > 1:12:01Now, if you are seeing it as a living architecture,
1:12:01 > 1:12:05you are seeing that there is a connection between this and this.
1:12:05 > 1:12:09And there is a line that you can see
1:12:09 > 1:12:11that is between the two.
1:12:11 > 1:12:16And that line can be moved
1:12:16 > 1:12:19and can be contracted
1:12:19 > 1:12:21and can come to make a point
1:12:21 > 1:12:24and can be moved sideways.
1:12:24 > 1:12:28Now, we are making centres where two parts of the body meet.
1:12:28 > 1:12:32There she goes, hand to knee. Back of his neck.
1:12:32 > 1:12:36At Trinity Laban, Valerie is demonstrating Forsythe's techniques.
1:12:36 > 1:12:41Now, from that centre, they are going to extrude a line.
1:12:41 > 1:12:45Can you see, between her knees, between his hands,
1:12:45 > 1:12:48between his elbows?
1:12:48 > 1:12:50You see, the centre in ballet is usually here
1:12:50 > 1:12:52and we go all round the edge of it.
1:12:52 > 1:12:56Now he is saying, "What about making other centres, other centres,
1:12:56 > 1:12:59"other centres, other centres,
1:12:59 > 1:13:03"from which lines can emerge?"
1:13:03 > 1:13:08And then he goes on and says those lines can be replaced.
1:13:17 > 1:13:19So, here is the line,
1:13:19 > 1:13:21there it is
1:13:21 > 1:13:25and I am now going to replace it...there.
1:13:26 > 1:13:29And I am then going to replace it again over there.
1:13:29 > 1:13:31I mean, it is fantastic.
1:13:37 > 1:13:41This is the Royal Ballet performing William Forsythe's Steptext.
1:14:08 > 1:14:12'I remember the very first time I saw Forsythe,'
1:14:12 > 1:14:16it was the first time I really saw kind of a classical vocabulary
1:14:16 > 1:14:18but pushed to straining.
1:14:18 > 1:14:23There was a sense in which this protected, this codified style,
1:14:23 > 1:14:26which in some way had constraints,
1:14:26 > 1:14:28no longer had any constraints.
1:14:28 > 1:14:30And it really struck me quite quickly
1:14:30 > 1:14:34that, actually, ballet is a contemporary dance language.
1:14:35 > 1:14:39And I just thought that that kind of glint of light
1:14:39 > 1:14:41around the classical canon was really extraordinary.
1:14:46 > 1:14:48I think I spent a lot of time
1:14:48 > 1:14:52building bridges between communities in the dance field,
1:14:52 > 1:14:55trying to maybe open up the idea
1:14:55 > 1:14:59from people in the ballet sector
1:14:59 > 1:15:03that it is possible to think differently.
1:15:03 > 1:15:07And also to address the contemporary community
1:15:07 > 1:15:09and say that within the practice of ballet,
1:15:09 > 1:15:11there is not just one thing happening.
1:15:18 > 1:15:23As the 20th century came to a close, choreographers could look back
1:15:23 > 1:15:26over 100 years of modern dance for inspiration.
1:15:31 > 1:15:35Lea Anderson, a former graduate of Trinity Laban,
1:15:35 > 1:15:39made this work, Smithereens, in 1999.
1:15:40 > 1:15:42When I started work on Smithereens,
1:15:42 > 1:15:44it was continuation of a way of working
1:15:44 > 1:15:47that I'd been developing over maybe ten years,
1:15:47 > 1:15:50which was to collect images that I found really interesting
1:15:50 > 1:15:54and group them into categories that I understood
1:15:54 > 1:15:57to suggest certain kinds of mysterious dances.
1:15:57 > 1:16:00It might be something about a gesture
1:16:00 > 1:16:03or the spacing of an image, or the atmosphere,
1:16:03 > 1:16:04or a group relationship.
1:16:06 > 1:16:09Lovely. What comes after this one? It's this one, isn't it?
1:16:09 > 1:16:13Yeah, this one here, too.
1:16:13 > 1:16:15The Trinity Laban students
1:16:15 > 1:16:18are working with the images that inspired Lea.
1:16:18 > 1:16:22So the head and neck coming right across the body.
1:16:22 > 1:16:26And they are working on the movements with Lea's assistant Gabrielle.
1:16:26 > 1:16:33And then this hand together, so we are waiting, three, four.
1:16:33 > 1:16:36I have never worked from images before.
1:16:36 > 1:16:39It gives you like a fuel.
1:16:39 > 1:16:43So you see the image and there is an obvious shape and then you also...
1:16:43 > 1:16:46Gabrielle and Lea got us to think about,
1:16:46 > 1:16:51what is the image and why are they stood like this
1:16:51 > 1:16:52or what does this mean,
1:16:52 > 1:16:55is this questioning or is this like giving?
1:16:58 > 1:17:02This is a picture of a fascist speaking,
1:17:02 > 1:17:06an Expressionist fascist, this is Martha Graham,
1:17:06 > 1:17:09this is Bronislava Nijinska
1:17:09 > 1:17:11and these were all just gestures
1:17:11 > 1:17:14that I was going to use for the Wigman dance.
1:17:17 > 1:17:21Really, I just wanted people to move from one image to another
1:17:21 > 1:17:24in different gestures and they were very Expressionist
1:17:24 > 1:17:27and it has nothing to do with Wigman's own real dance,
1:17:27 > 1:17:32it's about my take on the imagery that I find of her dances,
1:17:32 > 1:17:36added together in the wrong order, with a few odd things put in.
1:17:45 > 1:17:48I like the idea, as well, that you might live on another planet
1:17:48 > 1:17:51and you get all this imagery coming to you on the internet
1:17:51 > 1:17:54and you might have this idea about what dance is, you've read about it,
1:17:54 > 1:17:57but you might not know and you might have a go yourself at making some,
1:17:57 > 1:17:58and it would be completely wrong,
1:17:58 > 1:18:01because you don't know, you don't know how people would ever do it,
1:18:01 > 1:18:07so, yes, I always pretend I am a Martian dance historian.
1:18:21 > 1:18:24There are references to cabaret and vaudeville
1:18:24 > 1:18:26and I guess I have always had an interest
1:18:26 > 1:18:28in that kind of populist theatre.
1:18:36 > 1:18:40I want people to come and see dance who aren't just people who would
1:18:40 > 1:18:44go and see things in a large opera house or a large dance theatre,
1:18:44 > 1:18:46it's for everybody and I love that connection
1:18:46 > 1:18:48and I think that everybody would love dance
1:18:48 > 1:18:51if only they saw the right kind of dance for them.
1:18:56 > 1:18:59Today, students like these at Trinity Laban
1:18:59 > 1:19:02have inherited the legacy of the rebels who made modern dance.
1:19:06 > 1:19:09After a century of breaking boundaries,
1:19:09 > 1:19:13dance has become a melting pot of diverse styles.
1:19:13 > 1:19:16For today's choreographers, anything is possible.
1:19:19 > 1:19:22With the internet and YouTube,
1:19:22 > 1:19:24the whole world of contemporary dance has changed
1:19:24 > 1:19:26because now, instead of having to wait a few years
1:19:26 > 1:19:30for the Netherlands Dance Theatre or Pina Bausch to come to your town,
1:19:30 > 1:19:32you can go and see that material online.
1:19:32 > 1:19:36So audiences are more informed,
1:19:36 > 1:19:39but also choreographers can see so many different influences
1:19:39 > 1:19:41and they draw that into their work.
1:19:45 > 1:19:46People often say,
1:19:46 > 1:19:49"Who is the next Pina Bausch, who is the next Merce Cunningham?"
1:19:49 > 1:19:51I am not sure that's going to be the case.
1:19:51 > 1:19:53I think there are many of them,
1:19:53 > 1:19:56they are all people who are emerging together
1:19:56 > 1:19:57in a different kind of world.
1:20:00 > 1:20:04Akram Khan is one of the biggest names in contemporary dance.
1:20:06 > 1:20:10A British dancer who combines his training in classical Indian dance
1:20:10 > 1:20:12with contemporary influences.
1:20:21 > 1:20:25'My influences were Michael Jackson, Bruce Lee, Muhammad Ali,
1:20:25 > 1:20:27'they were all physical people.'
1:20:35 > 1:20:40I knew I could not do Kathak to the way Kathak dancers do it in India.
1:20:40 > 1:20:42It's just... I had too much of Michael Jackson in me!
1:20:42 > 1:20:45I had too much of Bruce Lee in me.
1:20:51 > 1:20:53So where does that leave me,
1:20:53 > 1:20:55because I went into contemporary dance
1:20:55 > 1:20:59and the more contemporary dance I did, the more it affected my Kathak,
1:20:59 > 1:21:02the more Kathak I did, the more it affected my contemporary.
1:21:02 > 1:21:05So I had to find my own authenticity.
1:21:20 > 1:21:24Contemporary dance is also... it's very dangerous to assume
1:21:24 > 1:21:26that it belongs to one place.
1:21:26 > 1:21:30The kind of force of contemporary dance, the mega...
1:21:30 > 1:21:33the godfathers or godmothers of contemporary dance
1:21:33 > 1:21:35were mostly in the West.
1:21:35 > 1:21:38But it is shifting and it has to shift.
1:21:38 > 1:21:41In order for anything to transform and survive,
1:21:41 > 1:21:43it has to borrow from other things.
1:21:56 > 1:21:59Another leading choreographer is Wayne McGregor.
1:21:59 > 1:22:03He creates work for The Royal Ballet and his own company, Random Dance.
1:22:03 > 1:22:06He draws upon technology for inspiration.
1:22:06 > 1:22:10We have access to great research, we are able to sit online
1:22:10 > 1:22:14and be able to cull phenomenal amounts of really interesting images
1:22:14 > 1:22:17and written information that really fuels process
1:22:17 > 1:22:20but also there is a fantastic potential to be lost in that.
1:22:20 > 1:22:22You know what it's like when you sit on the internet -
1:22:22 > 1:22:24all of a sudden you start here and you end up here
1:22:24 > 1:22:27and this here place, not only the journey but this here place,
1:22:27 > 1:22:28is super interesting.
1:22:31 > 1:22:33The students at Trinity Laban are rehearsing
1:22:33 > 1:22:37a Wayne McGregor piece, Polar Sequences from 2003.
1:22:45 > 1:22:48One of the things I wanted to try is a series of non sequiturs,
1:22:48 > 1:22:50I wanted to make a piece which didn't have flow.
1:22:50 > 1:22:52So, at that time, it was interesting that I was talking about
1:22:52 > 1:22:54a convention of choreography
1:22:54 > 1:22:57where one thing had to seamlessly move into another,
1:22:57 > 1:22:59that there is a sense in which you didn't want any irritation.
1:22:59 > 1:23:01And so that piece is about that -
1:23:01 > 1:23:03how is it that you kind of build some disquiet
1:23:03 > 1:23:07between things that literally slam from one thing to another?
1:23:07 > 1:23:09MUSIC: Use Your Fist And Not Your Mouth by Marilyn Manson
1:24:03 > 1:24:04Every time a curtain goes up,
1:24:04 > 1:24:07when I go and see a production from around the world,
1:24:07 > 1:24:10you have no idea what is going to happen, you really don't.
1:24:10 > 1:24:11If you go and see Romeo & Juliet,
1:24:11 > 1:24:13you know it's going to end in tragedy.
1:24:13 > 1:24:16When you go and see a contemporary dance performance,
1:24:16 > 1:24:19the whole point is you don't know what to expect,
1:24:19 > 1:24:21that is its greatest asset
1:24:21 > 1:24:24and I love the fact that it is always reinventing itself.
1:24:30 > 1:24:33While technology provides a valuable tool
1:24:33 > 1:24:35for documenting the history of modern dance...
1:24:37 > 1:24:42..one choreographer is considering how to preserve the dance heritage
1:24:42 > 1:24:45that lies in the memories and bodies of the dancers.
1:24:48 > 1:24:53Boris Charmatz curated an event called Musee de la Danse
1:24:53 > 1:24:55and transformed Tate Modern
1:24:55 > 1:24:58into his vision of what a museum of dance could be.
1:25:12 > 1:25:16I would call it almost like a flash mob or a collective choreography...
1:25:18 > 1:25:23..so my own work, but mixed or intertwined with moments
1:25:23 > 1:25:25where people could just join in
1:25:25 > 1:25:27and do the choreography, move themselves.
1:25:27 > 1:25:31MUSIC: Let's Dance by David Bowie
1:25:54 > 1:25:56In Musee de la Danse, who is the visitor,
1:25:56 > 1:26:00who is the performer, where is the art, or the artwork?
1:26:02 > 1:26:06So, for me, I really don't see contemporary dance as a treasure
1:26:06 > 1:26:08that has its own identity,
1:26:08 > 1:26:11it is really completely what is around -
1:26:11 > 1:26:14the economy, the social network,
1:26:14 > 1:26:18the history, the political complexities around us.
1:26:18 > 1:26:21MUSIC: Let's Dance by David Bowie
1:26:24 > 1:26:27The story of dance is not over.
1:26:27 > 1:26:32Modern dance continues to evolve and to reinvent itself.
1:26:34 > 1:26:36Dance is everywhere.
1:26:36 > 1:26:38Life is a dance to me,
1:26:38 > 1:26:41whether it is like the blood going through your veins,
1:26:41 > 1:26:46it's all movement and when it stops, then life has ended,
1:26:46 > 1:26:48do you know what I mean?
1:26:53 > 1:26:55You have to look around.
1:26:55 > 1:26:59You have to see what is going on.
1:26:59 > 1:27:02Think about the community. Are we all part of the big conversation?
1:27:02 > 1:27:05I say to dancers sometimes, in my own company,
1:27:05 > 1:27:08"Is what you're doing right now
1:27:08 > 1:27:14"what you think is THE discussion in this segment of dance right now?"
1:27:18 > 1:27:24So, one tries to stay...communicative.
1:27:31 > 1:27:33It's got to be moving forward all the time
1:27:33 > 1:27:34and kind of the big guns
1:27:34 > 1:27:37of contemporary culture and contemporary dance,
1:27:37 > 1:27:39it's our obligation, in a way,
1:27:39 > 1:27:43to make sure that that life keeps moving forwards.
1:27:44 > 1:27:49I am absolutely optimistic about where dance is going
1:27:49 > 1:27:51so long as the choreographers pay attention
1:27:51 > 1:27:54to the culture that is surrounding them.
1:27:54 > 1:27:57I mean, after all, it was things like the photograph
1:27:57 > 1:28:00that started the revolution across all the arts.
1:28:00 > 1:28:03Well, now we are in the digital age, aren't we?
1:28:03 > 1:28:06Of course dance is going to embrace digital.
1:28:09 > 1:28:12I mean, what contemporary dance has managed to do
1:28:12 > 1:28:17has freed it to go anywhere it wants to go.
1:28:17 > 1:28:19And it can go...anywhere!
1:28:20 > 1:28:23MUSIC: Let's Dance by David Bowie