"The Expressionists‘ study of expressive movement was closely related to contemporary experiments in modern dance. In many artists‘ work , perhaps most emphatically that of Emil Nolde, dance was represented as the paradigmatic expression of spontaneous passion and vitality. Nolde had become friendly with several renowned avant-garde dancers, including Mary Wigman, who pioneered a form of modern dance involving elemental poses and free movements, which she often performed without music or accompanied only by drumbeat. Such experiments represented a stark departure from the graceful feminity of the more traditional dance routines that were fashionable with the German bourgeoisie."