ABSTRACT
In several Asian countries, ballet and modernist dance were received side by side as foreign novelties. In the strictest meaning of the term, ‘modern dance’ thus refers only to those artists who were in direct contact with the Western modernist dance movement, either by being able to see actual performances or by studying with Western teachers. This denition is, however, very narrow, since in a wider sense the modernization, which is practically interchangeable with the westernization within the context of dance, started earlier in Asia than the modern dance movement evolved in Europe and in the United States during the rst half of the twentieth century.
