Living the Legacy of Modern Dance

The movie develops a chronology of Modern Dance centered on the device of a family tree (yes, a beautifully photographed and drawn one). The purpose is to educate students who don't know the history and see Modern Dance as whatever modern styles and idioms are out there. Dance as intelligence and feeling going from the roots, Duncan and Denishawn, to the trunk or "spine", Graham and Humphrey Weidman, branching out into the New Dance Group, Sokolow, Limon, Ailey, and Taylor into the "leaves" of Parsons, Tharp and Battle. The fact that many choreographers are missing is stated at the outset, as the point is to show how this art has branched and developed a myriad of forms, styles and techniques, but still retains the origin of working with "natural movements."