ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the way discussions about dance and physical culture were associated with ideas about the natural, focusing on writing from a variety of sources including general commentators as well as dance authorities. These reveal a range of attitudes towards embodied expression and physical exercise during the first quarter of the twentieth century, as well as the relation between dance practices and the new consumer culture. The chapter looks at how practitioners offered their own approaches to natural dancing and the commercial context within which this happened. It then considers how scientific advances led some practitioners to interrogate the body as a natural phenomenon, and the new practices that emerged within dance pedagogy specifically. In particular, it examines the work of F.M. Alexander, Gertrud Colby, Margaret H’Doubler, Margaret Morris, and Mabel Elsworth Todd.
