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at the turn of the century, clearing a path for the great pioneers of expressive dance to emerge.
Although this story is often told through the exceptional work of dance pioneers such as Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis, it unfolded in communities across the nation. The first schools of expressive dance in Boston were deeply connected to Boston's upper-class society. Boston's regional dance pioneers forged powerful relationships with their community that shaped their broader work in terms of education, choreography, and advocacy. An investigation of their schools, artistic work, and audience development provides insight into the development of expressive movement both regionally and nationally.
In order to investigate these topics, it is necessary to begin with an investigation of reformers and advocates such as Catharine Beecher and Dioclesian Lewis, who laid a philosophical foundation for physical and intellectual equality for women, and to consider new models of expression such as those of Francois Delsarte and the American Delsarteans. Embracing this American Delsartean foundation that combined expression, movement, and spirituality, the first expressive dancers joyfully promoted the wholesomeness of dance and its place in upper-class society. Finally, the early expressive dancers emerged, helping to legitimize dance as a serious and worthy art in America.
There are a few themes that connect these movements in terms of both physicality and philosophy over the broad sweep of time. Physically, both early systems of exercise and later systems of more expressive movement had roots in the Swedish gymnastic system of Per Henrik Ling (1766–1839). Ling's work has been interpreted again and again as a sound physical base for both movement and later expression. Philosophically, the mind-body-spirit connection offered by ancient Greece is set forth as a way to legitimize movement. This return to the Greek model would have been a surprise to the earlier Bostonians who gave their city its illustrious appellation of the Athens of America. It is fascinating, however, to consider that Greek philosophy continued to have a deep influence on the cultural development of Boston. For the Bostonian dancers, the concept of the body expressing the soul mandated