History of Musical Movement

Материал из HEPTACHOR.

From the History of Musical Movement

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Isadora Duncan brought to Russia a “new” dance, which revived the tradition of the ancient Greek dance. In contrast with choreography, much of that dance was live improvisation. Her idea was to listen to music and express it in movements.

After having seen Isadora's performance in Saint Petersburg in 1905, a young woman, Stefanida Rudneva, decided to do something in the spirit of Duncan dance. In 1908 she and six other women – Natalia Ped’kova, Iulia Tikhomirova, Camilla Trever, Ilsa Trever, Katerina Zinserling, and Natalia Enman – founded a group called “Heptachor” - “the dance of seven”, in Greek. Following Isadora Duncan’s lead, the Heptachor sought profound ties between music and expressive movement. They called their approach to dance, “musical movement”, by which they emphasised that one’s movements are inseparable of music, as if the dancing person lived in music. In contrast with choreography, which, above all, develops physical qualities, the method of musical movement influences the entire person, beginning with his or her emotions and musicality.

Dance is a joyful, uplifting, and open state. Without imitating the ancient dance in detail, the Heptachor used its idea of natural movement and created a technique based on the ability to respond to music directly.

The Duncan movement had a dramatic history in Russia. Her Moscow school gradually came to an end. In 1934, the Heptachor group was officially closed down for political reasons. Despite the difficulties, one of the group founders, Stefanida Rudneva, and her students, succeeded in maintaining and developing the method. In Russia, they had a powerful impact on school teaching of music, especially at the primary level.

In the 1960s, Emma Fisch founded a group, “Look: Music!” – which, in the language of musical movement, expressed the search and confusion of the epoch. Olga Popova, who came to musical movement in the late 1950s, took the work further and taught a new generation of teachers and performers.