modern dance is
whatever you want it to be.
it is movement, time, space, music (or
non-music).
modern dance as an
idea is the concept of
rejecting everything learned and just dancing.
modern dance as a
thing is the movement that made this idea
acceptable and more well known.
the modern dance movement began in the late 1890s/ early 1900s by
Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis. both
rebeled agaisnt the rigid structures of
ballet, where only certain movements are allowed.
Martha Graham, Jose Limon, Paul Taylor, Alvin Ailey, and many others continued this tradition.