<-NARRATOR:->Listen to part of a lecture in a dance history class.

旁白：听下面一段舞蹈历史课堂上的讲解。

<-MALE PROFESSOR:->As we’ve been studying, ballet, classical ballet, is based on formalized movements: specific positioning of the arms, of the feet, and the body.So, now let’s move on to modern dance, also known as “theatrical dance.”Modern dance evolved in the late nineteenth-early twentieth century, and in most cases, audiences were very receptive to this radical new type of performing art.

教授：我们经学过，芭蕾，古典芭蕾，是以规范的动作，精确的手臂，脚和身体的位置为基础。接下来我们要讲的是现代舞，就是我们所知道的剧场舞蹈。现代舞是在十九世纪晚期和二十早期出现的，而大部分观众对这种完全新生的表演形式比较欢迎。

Um, what made modern dance so radical?

是什么使现代舞出现这样极端呢？

Well, for example, I think the best analogy to modern dance is modern art or modern music.Compared to their classical predecessors, these newer art forms are freer, more experimental, more improvisational.Modern dance seeks to show how deep emotions…and the music itself… how these intangible attributes can affect and inspire physical movement and how movement can convey emotions to the audience.As-as I said, in classical ballet, emotions are conveyed through a set of strictly formalized movements.

比如说，我认为最合理的类比就是现代艺术和现代音乐。比起他们的前身，这些新生的艺术形式更加自由，实践性更强，也更加的即兴。现代舞努力要表达深度的情感和音乐本身的内涵，表现这种无形的属性如何影响并引导肢体动作，表现肢体动作如何将情感传递给观众。而正如我前面所说的没在古典芭蕾中，情感是通过一整套标准的动作表达的。

Now, a pioneer of modern dance was Isadora Duncan, who was born in 1878… Isadora Duncan did study ballet briefly as a child, but she quickly developed her own unique style, which she called “free dance.”

现代舞的一位先驱是伊莎多拉邓肯，她出生在 1878 年，邓肯在小的时候学过芭蕾，但是很快她就发展出了自己的独特的风格，她称之为自由舞。

And, by age fourteen, she was teaching her free dance to young children and giving recitals.Her early dance technique was loosely based on the natural movements of children: running, skipping, acting out stories; also on motions from nature: uh, waves crashing onto shore, trees swaying in the wind.

在她 14 岁时，她就将她的自由舞教给小孩，并举行了独舞表演。她早期的舞蹈技巧比较松散，只是建立在儿童自然的动作的基础上，跑动，跳跃，表演故事，还有大自然中的动作，海浪冲击海岸，树木在风中摆动。

Her expressive gestures were motivated from within rather than being dictated by strict technique.Duncan also wore her hair down; ballerinas typically wear their hair in a tight bun behind the head.And instead of the short stiff skirts and rigid toe shoes worn by ballerinas, Duncan wore loose, flowing tunics, and she danced barefoot.Now, that was something her audiences had never seen before!Duncan performed in Paris and other European cities, dancing to the music of classical composers but avoiding set movements and steps. No two performances were alike, and audiences, for the most part, adored her.In 1904, she opened a school of modern dance in Berlin. And the next year, she performed in Russia.[elongate]But…the Russian critics were not very kind.Some said Duncan’s art form was closer to pantomime than to dance.But, her style was a clear rebellion against ballet, and ballet is extremely important in Russia.A question, Julie?

她的表现动作只是自然的流露而没有严格的技术指导。邓肯还把她的头发散开，而芭蕾舞者通常将他们的头发在脑后盘成一个结。芭蕾舞者穿着陡峭的短裙和前尖坚硬的舞鞋，而邓肯却穿着宽松的，飘逸的短装，而且她还光着脚跳舞。这些都是观众们从前没有见过的。邓肯在巴黎和其他欧洲的城市演出，在古典作曲家的音乐中翩翩起舞，但却避免了成套的动作和舞步，每场演出都不一样，观众大多都很崇拜她。1904 年，她在柏林开设了一个现代舞学校。第二年她又到俄国去表演。但俄国的评论家却不是很友好。有的人说邓肯的舞蹈像是哑剧而不是舞蹈。但她的风格是对芭蕾的一种革新，而芭蕾在俄国十分被重视。有问题吗，朱莉？

<-FEMALE STUDENT:->Yeah, what did Duncan have against ballet? I mean, she studied it as a child …

学生：是的。为什么邓肯会反对芭蕾呢？我是说他小的时候也学过芭蕾啊。

<-MALE PROFESSOR:->As a youngster, she may have found it too restrictive, uh, not creative enough.I think that feeling is exemplified by something that happened …early in her career… in Russia.Duncan attended a ballet, and the lead dancer was the renowned Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova.

教授：作为一名少年，她可能觉得芭蕾太约束，不够创新。我认为是她职业生涯早期在俄国的时候，有些事使她产生了这种感觉。邓肯曾经参加过一个芭蕾舞团，这个舞团的领舞是著名的俄国芭蕾舞者安娜巴普洛娃。

The following day, Pavlova invited Duncan to watch her practice.Duncan accepted but was appalled by what she saw.To her, the exercises that Pavlova and the other ballerinas were doing seemed painful, even harmful— standing on tiptoe for hours, moving their bodies in unnatural ways.

随后，巴普洛娃邀请邓肯去看她的练习。邓肯接受了邀请，但是她被所看到的景象惊呆了。对她来说，巴普洛娃和其他的芭蕾舞演员所做的练习看起来十分痛苦，甚至是对身体有害的，几个小时连续的用脚尖站立，用一种超出自然的方式活动他们的肢体。

After seeing this, Duncan publicly denounced ballet as a form of acrobatics— a “complicated and excruciating mechanism,” she called it.This critique generated, I think, some undue rivalry between ballet and modern dance.And it would take a long time, many years in fact, for that rivalry to calm down.

在见到这些以后，邓肯公开的谴责芭蕾舞是一种杂技，她称之为“复杂又折磨人的技巧”。我认为这种评论造成了芭蕾与现代舞之间的不适当的敌对状态。而且需要很长时间，许多年才能使这种敌对状态消失。