World Leader.

The 1940s were the crucial decade for American dance in this century, crystallizing the experiments of the two previous decades and establishing the dominant forms of the medium until the 1970s. It was an age of remarkable cross-fertilization. Various forms heretofore distinct were imaginatively combined: ballet was fused with modern dance; modern dance with burlesque and vaudeville. Jazz, tap, and swing music influenced everything; popular dances and steps from Harlem nightclubs, such as the jitterbug, found their way to the performance hall and the Broadway stage. The giants of modern American dance — George Balanchine, Martha Graham, Helen Tamiris, Jerome Robbins, Agnes DC Mille, Fred Astaire, and Gene Kelly — established or consolidated their reputations during the decade; classic musicals such as Oklahoma! (1943), Pal Joey (1940), Annie Get Your Gun (1946), and Anchors Aweigh (1945) were scored in the 1940s. For dance it was a time...