ABSTRACT
Thus far, the emergence of American modern dance has been examined in terms of the sociological context of its development. The aim has been to explain how modern dance is understandable as a feature of the socio-cultural milieu of its creation. This has entailed an exploration of the reasons why serious theatrical dance did not establish a sustained tradition in nineteenth-century America: a consideration of the changes that took place in American culture, which opened up a space in which the grounds for the emergence of a serious dance in America were made possible; and an analysis of the dominant features of American modern dance, involving a discussion of the relationship of the movement to the tradition of dance itself and to the other arts within the wider context of American culture. The analysis of American modern dance, then, has been viewed overwhelmingly from an extrinsic perspective. However, in order to point to the symbolic character of dance as art, the examination has also incorporated a consideration of the intrinsic properties of modern dance. As I argued at the beginning of the book, and have demonstrated at intervals throughout the historical analysis, American modern dance did not simply reflect the social conditions of its emergence, but it was also reflective upon those conditions.
