What a find! I had no idea Louise Brooks studied with Ruth St. Denis. I just watched Pandora's Box last night.

Those are the two principles on which I base any comment on dance as art or entertainment, having been born awkward and dedicated myself early on to amplifying that.

Nevertheless, much modern dance seems to me to consist in the main of moving with grace and athleticism from one awkward pose to another. Dance is kinetic, obviously, which may be why the subjects of still photos like these invariably look odd, stuck in the pose rather than able to demonstrate how very lovely was their passage there.

I believe she is the young lady seated at the center of the photo, to the right of the other seated dancer. I saw her in the audience of one of her company's performances of "Appalachian Spring" in the late 1980s. It was unforgettable.

Those are classical ballerina hands. The two main hand positions are called arrondi and allongé, and I believe they’re supposed to look graceful. To me, they look dementedly unnatural. I thought modern dance was supposed to do away with poses like that.

[Consider the alternatives. - Dave]

I notice that the dancers tend to have three fingers extended with the middle finger and thumb relaxed. I tried this hand gesture, and it does not feel natural. Perhaps this gesture separates the true modern dancers from the common folk shuffling around the dance floor?

One of my relatives (great-great-aunt? something along those lines) was a dancer for the Denishawn company and, in fact, changed her name to Florence O'Denishawn. I never knew her and am not sure, but she might be the one sitting on the far left.

Lets us show them how to Twerk.

There was Denishawn.