Analytic Post-Modern dance contrasts from its predecessor, Modern dance, in that it emphasizes the pure movement of dance above all else. Unlike previous movements, the Post-Modern dance movement stressed that seemingly ordinary and everyday movements should be looked at as art. Analytic Post-Modern dancers did not believe that the dances they performed should be examined for underlying meanings, rather they maintained that the choreography should be acknowledged for the pure physical movement.
Steve Paxton’s style of contact improvisation is a true embodiment of the Analytic Post-Modern dance movement. In contact improvisation, multiple dancers interact with improvised movements without music or any other cues. Dancers experiment with different movements to interact with their partners and develop a keen understanding of how the dynamics of the human body. As with Post-Modern dance, contact improvisation does not try to tell a story or evoke a specific emotional response. Instead, Steve Paxton’s contact improvisation highlights the mechanics of bodily movement.
As Alvin stated, Post-Analytic Modern dance differs greatly from Modern dance, its predecessor. Modern dance, which originally started as an inclusive term that applied to almost all theatrical dances, became its own genre with its own styles and theories. Modern dances usually contain a plot or meaning. Analytic Postmodern dance however, is the opposite. It is a 20th century dance movement that focuses on the natural movement of the body. Every movement does not have a plot or a meaning. The dancers of analytic post modern dance will dance for their own pleasure, not for the enjoyment of the audience. The dances are minimalistic and reject musicality. It uses props, costumes and lighting instead to convey its ideas.
Trisha Brown epitomizes post analytic modern dance. In one of her performances, Brown danced on a chicken-coop roof and in a parking lot allowing the scenery to guide her dance. In her performance, “Solo olos”, she instructed the dancers to preform choreography in a mathematical way. The dancers we’re instructed to do the dance backwards or forward depending on Brown’s instruction. This mathematical movement exemplified what analytic postmodern dance was about. Brown also used costumes instead of music as her main focus, which is a main component in postmodern dance.