Modern dance is an early-20th-century movement that broke from ballet's vocabulary in favour of barefoot expression rooted in breath, weight, and gravity.
Modern dance emerged in the United States and Germany in the early 20th century as a deliberate rejection of ballet's codified vocabulary, decorative aesthetic, and rigid hierarchies. Isadora Duncan, dancing barefoot in flowing tunics inspired by Greek vases, abandoned pointe and tutu in favour of natural, weighted movement initiated from the solar plexus. Ruth St Denis and Ted Shawn founded the Denishawn school, where Martha Graham trained before establishing her own technique in the 1930s. Graham's 'Lamentation' (1930) and 'Appalachian Spring' (1944) defined American modern dance for a generation. In Germany, Mary Wigman developed a parallel tradition in the Weimar years, taught by Rudolf Laban. Doris Humphrey, José Limón, Lester Horton, and Erick Hawkins each codified distinct techniques. Modern dance is less a single style than a permanent permission to start from the body's own truth rather than from inherited vocabulary.