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 What Is Dada?

What Is Dada?
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 4 to 6
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   5.72

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    anarchy, chaos, cynicism, everyman, publication, shocking, surrealists, elegant, politics, realistic, romantic, definitely, classic, geometric, affected, motto
     content words:    World War I., Tristan Tzara, Alfred Stieflitz, New York, In Germany, Everyman His Own Football, One Dadaist, Nude Descending, United States

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What Is Dada?
By Colleen Messina 		  
1     Many art styles sound elegant. Classic and romantic art sounds refined. One art style sounds quite different. It sounds like baby talk! You might think of rattles and baby bottles when you hear the word Dada, but in spite of its silly name, this art style made a serious statement.
 
2     Dada began in Switzerland in 1916. The artists who started it were against World War I. They wanted to rebel against the horrors of war. Their motto was "Destruction is also creation" because Dada had no rules. Dada had no values. Dada shocked people. The Dada artists liked to do absurd art. It may be one of the strangest art styles ever invented. Dadaists did not even want to be called an art movement!
 
3     The Dadaists first met at a café in Zurich. Their leader was named Tristan Tzara. He was a poet from Romania. The story goes that someone took a knife, opened a dictionary, and stabbed the page. The knife hit the word dada, so that is what they named their group. Some believe that the term Dada came from a Slavic word that meant "Yes! Yes!" Others think it came from a French word for a horse. Regardless of how the movement was named, others in Europe and American joined the Dadaists after the war was over.

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