<P> It was during the explosion of new thinking and exploration in the early 20th century that dance artists began to appreciate the qualities of the individual, the necessities of ritual and religion, the primitive, the expressive and the emotional . In this atmosphere modern dance began an explosion of growth . There was suddenly a new freedom in what was considered acceptable, what was considered art, and what people wanted to create . All kinds of other things were suddenly valued as much as, or beyond, the costumes and tricks of the ballet . </P> <P> Most of the early 20th century modern choreographers and dancers saw ballet in the most negative light . Isadora Duncan thought it most ugly, nothing more than meaningless gymnastics . Martha Graham saw it as European and Imperialistic, having nothing to do with the modern American people . Merce Cunningham, while using some of the foundations of the ballet technique in his teaching, approached choreography and performance from a totally radical standpoint compared to the traditional balletic format . </P> <P> The 20th century was indeed a period of breaking away from everything that ballet stood for . It was a time of unprecedented creative growth, for dancers and choreographers . It was also a time of shock, surprise and broadening of minds for the public, in terms of their definitions of what dance was . It was a revolution in the truest sense . </P> <P> After the explosion of modern dance in the early 20th century, the 1960s saw the growth of postmodernism . Postmodernism veered towards simplicity, the beauty of small things, the beauty of untrained body, and unsophisticated movement . The famous "No" manifesto rejecting all costumes, stories and outer trappings in favour of raw and unpolished movement was perhaps the extreme of this wave of thinking . Unfortunately lack of costumes, stories and outer trappings do not make a good dance show, and it was not long before sets, décor and shock value re-entered the vocabulary of modern choreographers . </P>

The first person in the world to dance