American Creative dance is still interested in some of the issues raised by early modern dancers. These issues that the innovators in dance from the first half of the twentieth century raised have certainly not all been explored. We are interested in the relationship of the body to the earth, the relationship of dance to music, how bodies move and what kind of movement is good for dance, how dancers turn movement into art, what the art of dance is and how it is different from entertainment or gymnastics. All these questions, though perhaps defying definitive answers, remain.
It isn't that no one is addressing any of those issues to be sure. Twyla Tharp herself came out of the Judson Church "post modern" dance movement that explored many things including using "everyday movement" in dance. But the end result has been, in Tharp's case, more ballet without shoes. She herself trained as a ballet dancer. For some reason, in the West when all else fails, dancers fall back on ballet conventions.
When the rehearsal director of the Bill T. Jones Company was participating in an activity with another, more truly innovative dance company, the dancers were taking turns improvising alone in the center of a large circle of dancers who were making an accompaniment with hands and voices. The traditional "modern dancer" from the Jones Company took her turn and did the classical dance tour of barrel jumps all around the inside of the circle. This is a step that is usually done by the lead man dancer as part of his solo work at the grand pas de deux in classical dance.
When inspiration fails, Western dance falls back on ballet conventions.
And while there is nothing wrong with that, it is not the only choice.
