| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.5

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.5 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Julia L. Foulkes. Modern Bodies: Dance and American Modernism from Martha Graham to Alvin Ailey. (Cultural Studies of the United States.) Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2002. Pp. xii, 257. Cloth $49.95, paper $18.95.
Julia L. Foulkes describes the efforts of modern American dancers in the 1920s and 1930s to break free from the classical ballet tradition. Foulkes illustrates the development of modern dance and analyzes political and social issues, particularly left-wing causes, taken up by a number of choreographers. Her interest is in creative decision making by pioneers of modern American dance, including Isadora Duncan, Edna Guy, Doris Humphrey, Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn, Helen Tamiris, Asadata Dafora, Katherine Dunham, Martha Graham, and Alvin Ailey.	1
Foulkes maintains that during the early twentieth century, "White women, African American men and women, and gay men created in modern dance a malleable art form within which they might re-imagine conventional social roles" (p. 6). These three groups—white women, blacks, and gay men—used their bodies expressively in order to create a new aesthetic. Foulkes credits Duncan with the first major innovation, the rejection of ballet. Following Duncan's lead was Graham, who discarded many of the prevailing social norms that had weighed heavily upon women of talent who aspired "to embody abstract ideas of individualism, heritage, and collectivity" (p. 49). From Graham, Foulkes turns her attention to Dunham, who led the way for Pearl Primus and other black female modern dancers.	. . .

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