Ovid.tv Puts Spotlight on Organizing Modern Dance
We learn from the film that in 1932, Robert Devore Leigh, the president of Bennington College, asks Martha Hill to organize the dance department. She then joins Bennington College and also creates Bennington School of the Dance, a summer program to study modern dance. Hill has modern dance visionaries like Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and others teach at Bennington. By creating this environment, Hill becomes the trunk of the modern dance tree, uniting modern dance in one place.
We listen as countless giants in the dance industry detail how incredibly remarkable Hill was to create such an opportunity for these dancers. Meanwhile we watch still photos from the Bennington School of the Dance flash on the screen. We see large groups of dancers outside on the grass creating abstract forms, rising and falling from the ground, and exploring the different ways they can shape their bodies. This montage of old footage not only summarizes but celebrates modern dance as an art form.
A Marriage Of Ballet And Modern -- Radical and Revolutionary
Martha Hill’s career then takes her to the dance department at Juilliard. She, again, creates a space for dancers to study from the best. Leading choreographers from both the ballet and modern dance world, with already established companies, come to teach at Juilliard. The various individuals featured in the film explain how Martha was adamant that both ballet and modern dance were taught—a revolutionary and radical idea at the time. To many, ballet and modern were opposites, but Hill understood how training in both styles strengthened a dancer’s repertoire.
Congratulations Sabrina. What a wonderfully written article. Your alma mater is so proud of you, me especially 😉