Berghaus Response

I found it interesting that the example of modernity that this author used was the gradual reconstruction of Paris. It was a ‘city of contradictions’. Gunter states that the grand, marble and glass buildings of the wealthy stood next to hovels with multiple families living inside. There were four main quarters of Paris, each drastically different.

Modernity has a lot to do with dance, and more specifically ballet. The ballets created and the styles used vary through time because of the ideals and culture of the people during that time. Is dance today any more ‘modern’ than in the 19th century? Perhaps, but then again we still witness the old works from the 19th and 19th centuries. They have amazingly, remained mostly intact because of our taste for tradition and history in ballet.

This article doesn’t talk about dance, but it does talk about art and its symbolism, realism, naturalism, and its affect with modernity; however, the article could be about dance in some aspects. The art created is affected by the modernity of its time. The text also talks about the avant-garde, which developed in parallel with modernity through time. It figuratively means an advanced position in arts or literature, originated in the Renaissance. Modernity and avant-garde are frequently at odds. While they develop similarly, they often have different meanings- current versus ahead of the time, for example. The avant-garde is also seen in dance, and still less appreciated than modernity, in both dance and the other arts.