If you read the story about how PILOBOLUS came to be, you might recall the group of “dancers” from Dartmouth.  One of those dancers had a father who was a biologist, studying Pilobolus the fungus in his lab. The first dance they made was inspired by the incredible physical nature of the fungus, a mushroom, found in barnyards and pastures. “It’s a feisty little thing—only ¼ inch tall, the length of your fingernail—and can throw its spores nearly 6 feet!”

The image of a spore shooting itself through the air was the perfect metaphor for the style of dance they were creating, and hence, the perfect name for their new dance. Later, when they started touring as a dance company, they decided to name their company Pilobolus. 

Modern and contemporary dance styles often stressed emotion and address contemporary subjects. This was in contrast to ballet, a dance form with aristocratic European roots, which frequently told stories of princesses, fairies, and enchanted forests. 

Modern itself has many different techniques/styles but contemporary tends to grow and develop too quickly to create a single codified style. 

Though modern and contemporary use body alignment and movement of ballet, they also intentionally break these rules. Modern was originally created as a rebellion against the uniformity and Eurocentric values. The most prominent of the first generation of modern dance creators were Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis. St Denis's students Martha Graham and Doris Humphries branched off and created their own movement theories as well. 

Through time and generations modern dance has explored emotions, stories, expressions, and inspirations. Modern dance also seeks to experience movement for movements sake without other assigned meaning. The video below expands on some of these stories and continues through into more modern ages of modern and conteporary dance. Please be aware before showing this video to students that some of the dancers featured are wearing form fitted, small, and sometimes flesh colored costuming. 

Nature Hike:

Taking a hike through any local nature students have access to, have students find things that interest them. You can "collect" them through photographs, sketches, or memory. After the hike there are many ways to continue exploring for example: 

• Research online more about things they "collected" (what function these objects have, their life cycles, where else they can be found, etc)

• Create a story about something they "collected" on the hike

• Recreate something they "collected" (draw, paint, sketch, try to create that shape with their bodies and how it moved, mold it out of clay, etc)

Animals On Parade!

Have students share their favorite animal. Discuss how this animal moves. Questions that could help with this:

• How does this animal travel? Walk, swim, fly, etc

• If it walks, is this on 2 legs or 4?

• Is this animal graceful or clumsy?

• How does this animal move its head?

• How does this animal move when it makes sound?

• How does this animal move to communicate with others?

• Does this animal move alone? With others? How many?

• Is this animal fast or slow? Does it take big steps or small? 

• What makes this animal move? Does it move for fun? Only to hunt? Does it move casually? Is it constantly moving or minimally?

Students can then try moving like these animals keeping all these things in mind.