Art History (Modern Dance)
Narrator：
Listen to part of a lecture in a dance history class.
Professor：
As we have been studying, ballet, the classical ballet, is based on formalized movements, specific positioning of the arms, 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.
Student：
Um... what made modern dance so radical?
Professor：
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 I said, in classical ballet, emotions are conveyed through a set of strictly formalized movements.
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. 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, waves crashing onto shore, trees swaying in the wind. Her expressive gestures were motivated from within rather than from 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 steep skirts and rigid toeshoes worn by ballerinas, Duncan wore loose, flowing tunics, and she dance bare foot. Now, that was something her audiences had never seen before.
Duncan performed in Paris composers, but avoiding set audiences, for the most part, and other European cities, dancing to the music of classical movements and steps, no two performances were alike. And adored her.
In 1904, she opened a school of modern dance in Berlin. And the next year she performed in Russia. But the Russian critics were not really 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?
Student：
Yeah. What did Duncan have against ballet? I mean, she studied it as a child.
Professor：
As a youngster, she might have found it too restrictive, uh, not creative enough. I think that feeling is exemplied by something that happened earlier in her career, in Russia. Duncan attended a ballet, and the lead dancer was the renowned Russian ballerina，Ana Pavlova. 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. After seeing this, Duncan publically denounced ballet as a form of acrobatics, uh, complicated and excruciating mechanism she called it. This critic generated I think some undue rivalry between ballet and modern dance, and it would take a long time, many years in fact, for the rivalry to calm down.
TPO 24 Conversation 2
Student& Geography Professor
Narrator：
Listen to a conversation between a student and his geography professor.
Student：
Hi. Professor Brown.
Professor：
Hi. Paul. What can I do for you?
Student：
I have a question about the final exam. I mean, will it cover everything we've done all term? Or just what we've been doing since the mid-term exam.
Professor：
Everything we've done all term.
Student：
Oh, boy. You know, I am still not too clear about the hydrologic cycle, um, the transfer of water back and forth between the earth and the atmosphere. I really blew the question about it on the mid-term exam. I want to do better on the final exam. But I am still having trouble with it.
Professor：
Well, uh, have you been to the tutoring center?
Student：
No, not for geography anyway. Isn't that just for when you need help with writing, like an essay or a research paper.
Professor：
Oh, no. you can get tutoring in a lot of subjects. Some graduate students from this department tutor there.
Student：
That's good to know. But I hardly go there because I have a part-time job. I never seem to be free when they are open.
Professor：
Well, they will be extending their hours when final exams begin. You might try then. But um... Well, since you are here now, can I help you with something?
Student：
Well, the hydrologic cycle. I remember we went over a diagram in class. And from what I remember, water changes back and forth from water in lakes and oceans to vapor, and then back to water again when it falls as rain or snow, as precipitation. It's constantly being recycled through evaporation and condensation.
Professor：
That's it. Basically. Um... so exactly what is it you don't understand?
Student：
OK. I guess what I am really confused about is how the topography of the land, the mountains and valleys and stuff, affects precipitation.
Professor：
OK. Good question. Precipitation is influenced by topography among other things. Um, why don't we talk about lake-effect snow? It's a phenomenon that occurs anywhere you have a large lake that doesn't freeze and have cold air flowing over it, mostly in the Northern Hemisphere
Student：
Like the great lakes in the United States?
Professor：
Yeah. What happens is that the cold arctic air blows across the lake from the north in winter. And as the air crosses the lake, the lower layer is warmed by the lake water, which is much warmer than the arctic air. And as this air is warmed and picks up moisture, it becomes lighter than the air above it.
Student：
So it starts to rise, right?
Professor：
Yes. And clouds begin to form. When the air gets closer to the shore, it's slowed down by the land and starts to pile up. So it rises even faster because it has nowhere else to go, that's where topography comes into the picture.
Student：
And then it snows because as the air rises, it cools off and loses its capacity to hold water vapor.
Professor：
That's right.
Student：
OK. Thanks. Any chance you'll have this question on the final?
Professor：
I don't know yet. But you seem to have a handle on it.
