Reformations, re‐formings, modern dances

Abstract

So concludes Selma Jeanne Cohen's introductory essay to her important anthology, The Modern Dance: Seven Statements of Belief.' Because she points out ways in which modern dancers have defied established ideology and have flaunted the unacceptable symbol, one that startles us into awareness,2 it is appropriate to call these choreographers iconoclasts, in sense that involves attacks on venerable, but outworn, institutions or ideas. However, in religious history, iconoclasm is a term also applied to much more sinister attempts over centuries to mutilate or destroy all sacred images. Zealots have committed acts of vandalism, smashing stained-glass windows, obliterating frescoes, and lopping heads off cathedral statues. Iconoclasm in this sense, unfortunately, remains part of agenda of certain militant groups in many of world's religions.