Art without boundaries : the world of modern dance / by Jack Anderson.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [319]-332) and index.

PART 1 From the beginnings to World War I : Indelible ephemeral -- Setting the stage -- O pioneers! -- Isadora Duncan, hellenism, and beauty -- Ruth St. Denis and the exotic -- Dancing into the future -- PART 2 From World War I to the Great Depression : New times, new arts -- Form, feeling, pattern, passion -- Family trees and hardy growths -- Denishawn -- American ferment -- Rebels -- PART 3 From the Depression to World War II : Struggles, dispersals, amalgamations -- Catastrophe -- Modern dance: an american art -- Crosscurrents -- American moderns -- Choreographic consciences -- PART 4 From World War II to the 1960s : American victories -- Explorers and dissenters -- Iconoclasts -- Fertile ground, barren soil -- PART 5 Since the 1960s : Stability and change -- Contemporary British dance -- A league of dancing nations -- Conclusion: The undefinable redefining art.

"International in scope and heterogeneous in aesthetics, modern dance reaches across all boundaries, defying or redefining the conventions and time periods of countries where it has flourished. Out of his long experience as dance critic for the New York Times and Dancing Times of London, Jack Anderson gives us this important, comprehensive history of one of the liveliest and most unpredictable of the arts, illustrated with thirty-six images of dancers, dances and choreographers. Treating modern dance as a self-renewing art, Anderson follows its changes over the decades and discusses the visionary choreographers (some of whose lives are as colourful and tumultuous as their creations) who have devised new modes of movement.
'Art without Boundaries' begins with an analysis of the rich mixture of American and European influences at the end of the nineteenth century that prompted dancers to react against established norms. Anderson show how reformist social and educational ideas as well as the impact of the arts of Asia and ancient Greece led such pioneers as Loïe Fuller, Maud Allan, Isadora Duncan, and Ruth St. Denis to forge deeply personal views.
Anderson discusses the increasingly bold approaches of choreographers and dancers after World War I, how the politically troubled thirties gave rise to social protest in America, and how the menace of racism was reflected in the work of European practitioners. Following World War II many European nations turned to ballet, whereas American ,modern dance prepared under inventive new choreographers like José Limón, Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, and Alwin Nikolais. The book concludes with an authoritative view of how modern dance thrives once again on a worldwide basis." -- Book Jacket