Denishawn Dance Company

Unhappy ending

FITCHBURG  —  The mural depicts a large window looking out over a bleak downtown street in a city lined with empty storefronts.

Cornerstone Performing Arts Center’s Executive Director Ellen E. Gorman said the mural was created by her sister for “Music Box” — a dance and theater production by Ms. Gorman and Jimi Stanton that examined how difficult it is to run a business in the city.

“You can ask any business in Fitchburg how tough it is to be a business in Fitchburg,” she said. “ ‘Music Box’ is about a doll store that needed to shut down because there weren’t enough people coming in to buy the dolls. It represents small, local businesses.”

The show only ran for one weekend in June, and Ms. Gorman asked local business owners to attend. At that time, Ms. Gorman said, she and others still held onto a thread of hope the nonprofit dance and theater company could somehow remain open.

“ ‘Music Box’ was about Fitchburg and owning a business and how sad is it to give up your love and passion and close your doors because of life,” she said. “It was a very emotional show for everybody.”

Last Friday, Ms. Gorman moved the last of Cornerstone’s belongings from the newly renovated space at 454 Main St. back to the First Parish Church near the Upper Common, where the dream of running the first nonprofit performing arts center in the area started in 2005.

The theater company also provides dance, music and theater lessons for marginalized youth who could not otherwise afford them. The group rents Phillips Hall in the church and, last year, it expanded by moving some of its operations into space at 454 Main St.

The space was also rented out by dance groups and musicians.

“I’ve done all of my crying,” she said. “We’ve been getting ready for a while and it is time to admit that it is not going to happen. We were going to close in June and decided not to.

Modern Dance History « Crazy's Blog

They say that dance is a manifestation of your expression. There is no emotion which is outside the purview of dance. For instance, you want to show your joy to the whole world, you dance. Dance is just about everywhere in our lives. Some of us have an inborn talent and have a sense of rhythm and grace, while some of us have to work really hard at dancing. But the question which keeps coming in my mind is that how and when did it all start? I found out quite a few interesting things about modern dance history. Let us go through it in details!

Modern Dance History Timeline

Even before dance started in the west, the Orient, specifically in India and around, classical dance forms had already started taking root with Bharartnatyam and a few others, based on ‘natya shastra’ (the science of dramatics). Dance was then perceived to be an extension of drama in India. Now we take a look at how things were in the west.

1903

History of modern dance cannot be complete without Isadora Duncan, thus we start off with that. In 1903, Isadora Duncan devised a dance technique, inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy. Another thought process associated with this was the belief that the dance which the ancient Greeks did was the dance of the future. She proposed the concept of dance as a high and spiritual art.

1905

Well, another person who was going to be credited for what dance as we know it now was Ruth St.Dennis. She was greatly influenced by Sarah Bernhardt and a Japanese artist, rather dancer, Sada Yacco. Based on that, she came up with her own translations and performances based on Indian culture and mythology. She toured a lot researching on Oriental culture and arts.

1915

This was a major breakthrough in modern dance history. Ruth St. Denis again took a big leap ahead and founded with her husband Ted Shawn the Denishawn school and dance company. It was a perfect husband wife collaboration. Ruth took care of the creative department, while her husband looked after teaching technique and composition. The students of this school later on became members of the dance company and then formed their own dance schools. Read more on modern dance moves.

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