Modern Dance Before 1914: Commerce or Religion?

The popularity of modern dance in Europe before 1914 can be explained in part by its astute appeal to a range of aesthetic and moral registers important to diverse segments of the new urban “mass” market of the period, and by its success in building a complex of co-marketing strategies with other cultural endeavors including film, fashion, ballet, opera, and both academic and avant-garde art. At the same time, modern dance was also able to position itself as a de facto liturgy for a new, nascent secular and biological religion in formation during the same period, variously called evolutionism, the religion of joy, or the religion of life. This combination—astute market strategy plus religious fervor—was characteristic of the culture market in this period.