Showing papers on "Modern dance published in 2014"
Dissertation•
1 Mar 2014
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined Irish society in the 1940s and 1950s through the "embodied cultural knowledge" of recreational dance and found that both men and women were immersed in these dancing pleasures, a finding that challenges views of males as reluctant dancers.
Abstract: This investigation can be seen as an 'ethnohistory of dance' that has examined Irish society in the 1940s and 1950s through the 'embodied cultural knowledge' of recreational dance There has been a particular focus on 'small farmers' and their culture in north Co Roscommon It has been established that in the dance halls around Elphin, 'modern dances' such as quicksteps and foxtrots were embraced by the majority of young people during these years Such moves ran contrary to the thrust of hegemonic 'national-popular' culture, associated with 'Irish dances' such as ceili, and promoted by powerful groups in the young Irish state On this basis, and challenging perceptions of cultural life at the time as sterile, insular and conservative, it can be said that Irish youths constructed a generational dance culture that was vibrant, outward-looking and pluralist A type of counter-hegemonic subculture was activated on the basis of dance, music, space and 'deviance' The discourses of moral panic during the period act as a marker for these tensions At the same time, another perspective on this dance culture would see it in more conservative terms as related to the rise of the transnational culture industry, as well as to more exclusive processes around 'distinction' Finally, other findings clearly present the pleasures of attending dances, those related to the moving body, to collective emotions and to 'being together' on the dance floor Significantly, it has been found that both men and women were immersed in these dancing pleasures, a finding that challenges views of males as reluctant dancers
Two main theoretical frames have been used to conceptualise dance moves, meanings and events within the research setting The first, Gramsci's notion of 'cultural hegemony', has allowed recreational dance to be viewed as both undermining and reproducing power The second has operated at a more microcosmic level, drawing on a critical challenge to the gramscian paradigm in the form of a 'post-hegemony' influenced by radical anthropology and anarchist cultural studies In particular, Turner's 'communitas' and Malbon's 'playful vitality' have been critically combined to posit a more phenomenological understanding of dance
Methodologically, the research has centred on forty-five depth interviews carried out over a period of five years of 'yo-yo ethnography' This data has been complemented by an analysis of census returns from 1946 and 1956, as well as by an examination of the local newspaper, The Roscommon Herald These methodological considerations have been located within a reflexive approach that has drawn in a deliberate fashion on the researcher's experiences in three ways - first, as a recreational dancer with an embodied understanding of the complexities of dancing; second, as the son of a man who grew up in the research setting; and, third in my role as a male researcher Together, they have allowed me to see my role as that of 'halfie' ethnohistorian
25 citations
Book•
17 Jul 2014
TL;DR: Watching Weimar Dance as discussed by the authors investigates the reception of various performances, from cabaret to concert dance and experimental theatre, in their own time and place - at home in interwar Germany, on tour, and later returning from exile after World War II.
Abstract: Watching Weimar Dance asks what audiences saw in the peculiarly turbulent and febrile moment of the Weimar Republic. It closely analyses the reception of various performances, from cabaret to concert dance and experimental theatre, in their own time and place - at home in interwar Germany, on tour, and later returning from exile after World War II. Spectator reports that performers died or became half-machine archived not only the physicality of past performance, but also the ways audiences used the temporary world of the stage to negotiate pressing social issues, from female visibility within commodity culture to the functioning of human-machine hybrids in an era of increasing technologization. These accounts offer offer limit cases for the body on stage and, in so doing, speak to the preoccupations of the day. Approaching a range of performance artists, including Oskar Schlemmer, Valeska Gert, Kurt Jooss, Mary Wigman, Bertolt Brecht, Anita Berber, and the Tiller Girl troupes, through archives of watching, the reception of these performances also revises and complicates understandings of Ausdruckstanz as the representative dance of this moment in Germany. They further reveal how such practices came to be reconfigured and imbued with new significance in the post-war era. By bringing insights from theatre, dance, and performance studies to German cultural studies, and vice versa, Watching Weimar Dance develops a culturally-situated model of watching that not only offers a revisionist narrative, but also demonstrates new methods for dance scholarship to shape cultural history.
* Brings insights from Dance, Theatre, and Performance Studies to Weimar Studies and vice versa to develop a culturally-situated model of watching
* Considers the transnational connections and afterlives of Weimar-era dance, including historicizing the post-World War II usage of Ausdruckstanz
* Offers new methods for dance scholarship to shape cultural history through, rather than despite, the instabilities of performance
* Based on a collection of rare archival materials, from published cartoons and annotated 1920s scrapbooks to legal case files from a copyright suit
21 citations
TL;DR: Le Balet Comique as mentioned in this paper was a publication that brought together information on the performance, costumes, decor, music and dance of a ballet de cour, as well as the planning and intentions of the organisers.
Abstract: The prominence of Le Balet Comique in the narrative of Western theatre dance cannot be denied, as every dance history book implies that this performance of 1581 initiated the ballet de cour, while the image of the fugitive gentlemen is reproduced over and over again to represent the work (McGowan, 2008, 169). The performance was certainly innovative, but also a development of previous theatre dance in France and Italy. Barbara Sparti questions the basis of the work's fame and places it in a context of earlier Italian dance theatre (2011, 304–322). The impact of the publication in England has not so far been examined. Amongst its many claims to fame, Le Balet Comique was unique in the latter half of the sixteenth century as a publication that brought together information on the performance, costumes, decor, music and dance of a ballet de cour, as well as the planning and intentions of the organisers. The records of other ballets of the period are scattered between published verses, eyewitness accounts, mus...
20 citations
12 Jul 2014
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a survey of the state of the art in the field of theatre and dance in the United States, focusing on the role of gender in performance.
Abstract: Department of Theatre and Dance, Graduate and Professional Student Association, Office of Graduate Studies
17 citations
TL;DR: The Shanghai Theatre Academy Winter Institute 2013 performance series ranged from a Yue opera adaptation of Ibsen's The Lady from the Sea to modern dance theatre to an exhibition by students.
Abstract: The productions of the Shanghai Theatre Academy Winter Institute 2013 performance series ranged from a Yue opera adaptation of Ibsen’s The Lady from the Sea to modern dance theatre to an exhibition by students. Each production worked in a unique way within the framework of the encounter between foreign and local, guest and host. Together they offered a vision of cross-cultural theatrical exchange that is reconstitutive and inclusionary.
15 citations
01 Jan 2014-Journal of dance medicine & science : official publication of the International Association for Dance Medicine & Science
TL;DR: It is concluded that dancers do suffer dance-related concussions that can result in severe symptoms, limitations in dance participation, and difficulty with activities of daily living.
Abstract: Sport-related concussion is a topic of increasing public and media attention; the medical literature on this topic is growing rapidly. However, to our knowledge no published papers have described concussion specifically in the dancer. This case series involved a retrospective chart review at a large teaching hospital over a 5.5-year period. Eleven dancers (10 female, 1 male) were identified who experienced concussions while in dance class, rehearsal, or performance: 2 in classical ballet, 2 in modern dance, 2 in acro dance, 1 in hip hop, 1 in musical theater, and 3 were unspecified. Dancers were between 12 and 20 years old at the time of presentation. Three concussions occurred during stunting, diving, or flipping. Three resulted from unintentional drops while partnering. Two followed slips and falls. Two were due to direct blows to the head, and one dancer developed symptoms after repeatedly whipping her head and neck in a choreographed movement. Time to presentation in the sports medicine clinic ranged from the day of injury to 3 months. Duration of symptoms ranged from less than 3 weeks to greater than 2 years at last documented follow-up appointment. It is concluded that dancers do suffer dance-related concussions that can result in severe symptoms, limitations in dance participation, and difficulty with activities of daily living. Future studies are needed to evaluate dancers' recognition of concussion symptoms and care-seeking behaviors. Additional work is also necessary to tailor existing guidelines for gradual, progressive, safe return to dance.
15 citations
Book•
1 Jan 2014
TL;DR: Kuhlke and Pine as mentioned in this paper discuss modernity, post-modernity and the Paradigmatic Mudra: Corporeal Negotiations in the Works of Toronto's Contemporary Bharatanatyam Choreographers Paromita Kar and Adam Pine.
Abstract: Introduction Olaf Kuhlke and Adam Pine Chapter 1: Modernity, Post-modernity and the Paradigmatic Mudra: Corporeal Negotiations in the Works of Toronto's Contemporary Bharatanatyam Choreographers Paromita Kar Chapter 2: Neighboring in Strip City: Local Conflict and Spaces of Exotic Dance in Portland, Oregon Moriah McSharry McGrath Chapter 3: One Foot Inside the Circle: Contemporary Dance of Los Angeles Steps Outside Postmodernism and into Neo-Modernism-with-a-Twist Teresa Heiland Chapter 4: Some Dance to Remember: The Emotional Politics of Marginality, Reinvention, Embodied Memory, and All that (Cape) Jazz Tamara M. Johnson Chapter 5: Social Dance as Social Space Jonathan Skinner Chapter 6: Mediating the Other through Dance: Geopolitics, Social Ordering, and Meaning-Making in American and Improvisational Tribal Style Dance Georgia Connover Chapter 7: Mimetic Moves: Dance and Learning to Learn in Northwest Alaska Matthew Kurtz Chapter 8: Dance, Architecture and Space in the Making Frances Bronet Chapter 9: At Home in Motion: Networks, Nodes, and Navigation: The Varied Flight Paths of Bird Brain Dance Katrinka Somdahl-Sands Chapter 10:Belly Dancing in Israel: Body, Embodiment, Religion and Nationality Tovi Fenste Conclusion Adam Pine and Olaf Kuhlke
13 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored Lanchester's world before her marriage to the actor Charles Laughton in 1929 to investigate aspects of bohemian culture in the early 20th century and found that modern dance and musical comedy opened up new identities and spaces for female self-exploration.
Abstract: Elsa Lanchester (1902–86) is best known today as a character actress in Hollywood, who played the title role in the Bride of Frankenstein. Less well known is her remarkable early life in Britain where she participated in the avant-garde through dance, theatre, film and other forms of performance. This article explores Lanchester's world before her marriage to the actor Charles Laughton in 1929 to investigate aspects of bohemian culture in the early twentieth century. It focuses on Lanchester's artistic nightclub, the Cave of Harmony, on the edges of London's West End. Bohemianism, modern dance and musical comedy opened up new identities and spaces for female self-exploration.
12 citations
Dissertation•
1 May 2014
TL;DR: The role of the Haitian dance yanvalou in the work of Maud Robart is explored in this article, where the dance is combined with Vodou chants and the body is seen not as an object limited by time and space, but as an entity of relatedness, an interface that connects our consciousness to the external world perceived through the senses, as well as to the inner, subjective world, what we feel within our body and psyche.
Abstract: This research is an inquiry into the role of the Haitian dance yanvalou, in the work of the Haitian artist Maud Robart. Robart works with groups of individuals in structures of movement, in which the dance is combined with Vodou chants. Robart’s work focuses not on the creation of dance forms, but on the search of pulses of creative awareness or inherent creative drive within the individual, as the source of dance. In this thesis I argue that Robart emphasizes the exploration of dancing and singing as a window into a deeper and larger view of the human being and creativity. I explain how her approach to form, in both dance and chant, widens the experience of the body by going beyond the inherited cultural viewpoints that consider dance as a tool of the mind to create forms. I explain that in the context of her research, the body is seen not as an object limited by time and space, but as an entity of relatedness, an interface that connects our consciousness to the external world perceived through the senses, as well as to the inner, subjective world— what we feel within our body and psyche. In Robart’s work, the body is an open door to the present, past, and future, to all beings, to the most mundane and to the most sacred in the human being. In Robart's research, form, articulated either as dance or chant, is the expression of a duality. Such duality includes the subject’s pulses of creative awareness and its response to those same pulses. Robart calls the pulses of creative awareness élan. For her, élan is more than a physical or kinesthetic impulse; it is like a fervor, a passion, and a will to go beyond our limited human condition to find freedom— it is a propulsion toward God. Dance and chant are simultaneously a call and a response to that call. The call represents an innate need to overcome our limitations and realize our transcendental
12 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the spatial and mobility discourses that these instructions simultaneously build upon and produce while exploring the seductiveness of technique's promise of mastering space through the moving body.
Abstract: Ballet and modern dance teachers often exhort students to ‘travel across the floor’ and ‘cover ground’. These instructions invoke metaphors of travel and mobility that capture an array of common assumptions about dance, space and movement. This essay examines the spatial and mobility discourses that these instructions simultaneously build upon and produce while exploring the seductiveness of technique's promise of mastering space through the moving body. Threading auto-ethnography with critical theory and moving across different disciplinary fields and writing styles, the article explores the ways in which these instructions leak outside the perimeter of the dance studio to feed into the narrative of a dancer's extended physical, geographical and social mobility. Analysing the mobility and travel discourses of dance training vis-a-vis poststructuralist theorisations of the subaltern power of the nomad and theories of space and place, it is argued that this narrative becomes complicit in the construction o...
12 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors compare classical ballet and movement-based contemplative practice on the dimensions of (i) cultivation of attention, (ii) development of interoception, cultivation of meta-cognition, and (iv) emotion regulation.
Abstract: There is a rising scientific interest in the neuroscience behind contemplative practices (see e.g., Vago and Silbersweig, 2012 for a review), including movement-based practices such as yoga and tai chi. Given that, it becomes important to ask how such contemplative practices differ from Western movement practices such as dance. In both dance training and contemplative movement, one learns to control the body very precisely, and this requires an assortment of mental skills as well. As a practitioner of both classical ballet and contemplation, and as a neuroscientist who studies contemplation, I will examine how the neural and mental causes and consequences of movement training differ between dance and contemplation. Ballet, rather than modern dance, serves as a good contrast for contemplative practice, because modern dance itself has been influenced substantially by contemplative practice (Hay, 2000). I will compare classical ballet and movement-based contemplative practice on the dimensions of (i) cultivation of attention, (ii) development of interoception, (iii) cultivation of meta-cognition, and (iv) emotion regulation. To date, there are limited studies of movement-based practices, for the obvious reason that movement tends to create artifacts in neuroimaging and EEG measures (e.g., Gwin et al., 2010). I will point out important gaps in our neuroscientific understanding of these phenomena. The results have implications for how we conduct studies of contemplative practitioners and dancers.
Book•
24 Mar 2014
TL;DR: Inger Damsholt as discussed by the authors described the North in motion as a "strategic mobility and way-finding artists" performing in the Nordic region and described the role of central agents across countries and categories.
Abstract: Contents: North in motion, Karen Vedel and Petri Hoppu Rock around the North, Inger Damsholt Strategic mobility and wayfinding artists: performing the region, Karen Vedel Folk dance competitions in the 21st century, Mats Nilsson Dancing African-American jazz in the Nordic region, Lena Hammergren Class dimensions of dance spaces: situating central agents across countries and categories, Egil Bakka Nordic dance performances in the North American marketplace, Inka Juslin Working in Nordic dance venues, Anne Margrete Fiskvik Together and apart: all-Nordic folk dance events before 1975, Petri Hoppu Index.
Book•
1 Jan 2014
TL;DR: In this article, Dankworth et al. discuss the issues of traditionality, modernity, and authenticity in traditional dance and present a framework for the representation of traditional dance.
Abstract: Contents List of Figures Notes on the Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction: Global Perspectives in Ethnographic Fieldwork, Theory, and the Representation of Traditional Dance Linda E. Dankworth and Ann R. David PART I: ISSUES OF TRADITIONAL, MODERNITY AND AUTHENTICITY 1. Embodied traditions: Gujarati (Dance) Practices of Garba and Raas in the UK Context Ann R. David 2. How Black Is Black: The Indigenous Atis Compete at the Ati-atihan Festival Patrick Alcedo 3. Performative Participation: Embodiment of Identities and Relationships in Sabar Dance Events Elina Seye PART II: ISSUES OF CULTURAL IDENTITY THROUGH THE INFLUENCES OF SOCIAL DANCE EVENTS AND TOURISM 4. Uncovering the Invisible Female Dancers of Moreska: An Ethnochoreological Analysis Iva Niem?i? 5. Embodying Cultural Identities and Creating Social Pathways through Mallorquin Dance Linda E. Dankworth 6. Kecak Behind the Scenes - Investigating the Kecak Network Kendra Stepputat PART III: DANCE IN PSYCHOSOCIAL WORK, GENDER AND TEXTUAL REPRESENTATION 7. Forced Displacement, Identity, Embodiment and Change Allison J. Singer 8. Sounding Contestation, Silent Suppression, Cosmopolitics and Gender in Japanese Flamenco Yolanda van Ede 9. Embodiment of Cultural Knowledge: An Ethnographic Analysis of Okinawan Dance Chi-fang Chao Index
TL;DR: Stanger as discussed by the authors uses an examination of social space and spatial aesthetics as a basis upon which to develop a socio-aesthetics of dance, an approach in which the societal contexts and the aesthetic forms of choreography are understood to be fundamentally interrelated.
Abstract: With its emphasis on the socially constructed and mobile nature of ‘space’, Henri Lefebvre's theory of spatial production presents rich possibilities for a sociocultural analysis of choreography. In this article Arabella Stanger uses an examination of social space and spatial aesthetics as a basis upon which to develop a socio-aesthetics of dance – an approach in which the societal contexts and the aesthetic forms of choreography are understood to be fundamentally interrelated. Borrowing from Lefebvre's The Production of Space (1974) and Maria Shevtsova's sociology of the theatre and performance, Stanger establishes the theoretical parameters and methodological steps of such an approach, and locates a short illustrative example in the socio-spatial formations of Aurora's Act III variation from Marius Petipa's The Sleeping Beauty (1890). Ultimately extending a bridge between formalist and contextualist strands of dance studies, the article argues for the use of a particular concept of space in understanding choreographic practice as social practice. Arabella Stanger is Lecturer in Dance at the University of Roehampton. Having trained in classical ballet, she completed her MA and PhD studies at Goldsmiths, University of London, and has published on the work of Merce Cunningham, Michael Clark, and William Forsythe.
TL;DR: The Parisian audience famously rioted when Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes premiered Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) at the Theâtre des Champs-Elysees on May 29, 1913.
Abstract: The Parisian audience famously rioted when Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes premiered Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) at the Theâtre des Champs-Elysees on May 29, 1913. Sacre represents an international convergence of modernist art, with choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky, designs and scenario by Nicholas Roerich, and music by Igor Stravinsky. One hundred years later, Sacre’s choreography of vernal consecration and sacrifice, its invocation of a pre-Christian Slavic past, and the music’s polyrhythmic energy continue to vibrate in dance performance and throughout this issue of Modernist Cultures. In spite of Sacre’s influence, the interdisciplinary innovation and artistic ferment that produced this and other remarkable dance performances have not been sufficiently explored – one symptom of the lack of exchange between modernist studies and dance studies even as both have flourished simultaneously in the past two decades. This special issue on ‘Modernism and Dance’ uses the centennial of Sacre as an occasion to encourage that conversation. By bringing into focus the often uncomfortable positions of dance in relation to modernist cultures, this issue presents a flexible, mobile, rather messy version of modernism. Definitions of modernism must stretch to accommodate dance, as dance highlights early twentiethcentury preoccupations with varieties of movement: motion and rhythm in performance and other arts, bodies transported on stages and across national, racial, and ethnic borders, movement-enabling technologies and the international markets that sold them, the passage between elite and popular cultures, and the (often imagined) new
1 Dec 2014
TL;DR: In this article, Rainer discusses the approach that Yvonne Rainer has taken to conserving her Trio A, a work made originally in 1966 and which has been performed many times since, including now by custodians or "transmitters" of the dance.
Abstract: This article discusses the approach that Yvonne Rainer has taken to conserving her Trio A, a work made originally in 1966 and which has been performed many times since, including now by custodians or ‘transmitters’ of the dance. The discussion is contextualized within the broader frame of the question of whether and how the legacy of modern and postmodern dance might be maintained for the benefit of future dancers and their capacity to develop contemporary dance art – particularly at a time when a generation of seminal artists who also voice their desire regarding these matters is passing away. I use the question ‘What is a transmitter?’ and an alternative notion of ‘translator’, drawing on philosopher Paul Ricoeur, to highlight the complex role of dancer-performers, not only in the creation and performance of work(s) but also in maintaining a repertoire.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors address the potential and precariousness of contemporary dance's experiments with redoing history at the intersection of multiple contested legacies, and present Future Memory (2012) to engage more directly with her inheritance, from caring for the personal things and stories that surrounded the piece to reworking its promise of dancing between European and Indian forms.
Abstract: In 1975, German choreographer Kurt Jooss created his last dance, Dixit Dominus, for Swedish-based Indian dancer Lilavati Hager. After Rani Nair reconstructed what is often seen as a “minor” work, she then created Future Memory (2012) to engage more directly with her inheritance, from caring for the personal things and stories that surrounded the piece to re-working its promise of dancing between European and Indian forms. Working outward from my position as dramaturg and historian for this project, this essay addresses the potential and precariousness of contemporary dance's experiments with redoing history at the intersection of multiple contested legacies.
12 Jul 2014
TL;DR: Cul-De-Sac: Social Conversation Through the Lens of Jazz Dance as mentioned in this paper explores the role of women within the suburban community and how the research into these social issues evolved into an evening's length piece of dance theatre told through the language of jazz dance.
Abstract: Cul-De-Sac: Social Conversation Through the Lens of Jazz Dance, discusses the rise of the suburbs following the Second World War, the homophobic society of the 1950s forcing homosexual men to hide in the closet, and the role of women within the suburban community, and how the research into these social issues evolved into an evening’s length piece of dance theatre told through the language of jazz dance. Jazz dance is a distinctly American art form, often overlooked on the concert stage. In this dissertation, I endeavor to prove that jazz is a style of dance capable of carrying social messages to audiences. I will investigate the lives and roles of gay men and domestic women in 1950s America, identifying the gaps of knowledge that house potential for future research. Finally, I will discuss these roles and subsequently describe my choreographic process in reinterpreting these roles on the concert stage for my MFA concert, cul-de-sac.
Dissertation•
1 Jan 2014
TL;DR: Necessary Incursions as discussed by the authors explores the practice of dancing and the agency of the dancer in a choreographic elaboration of the unstable body, and it seeks to contextualize, integrate and expand on three related arenas (technique, practice and theatrical presentation) and to throw light on the conditions that have led to the demise of choreographic practices in western concert dance during the past thirty years.
Abstract: Necessary Incursions explores the practice of dancing and the agency of the dancer in a choreographic elaboration of the unstable body. It seeks to contextualize, integrate and expand on three related arenas (technique, practice and theatrical presentation) and to throw light on the conditions that have led to the demise of choreographic practices in western concert dance during the past thirty years. As a theoretical enquiry articulated from the position of ‘an expert practitioner’ (Melrose 2005), Necessary Incursions will include reflections on my own artistic work written as a series of polemical texts. These texts seek to problematise domains of modern and postmodern dance practice through the re-contextualisation and analysis of personal narratives.
Necessary Incursions will be realised in two parts: dance for the time being, which comprises a theatrical rendition to be presented in Dance Massive (March 2013) and Southern Exposure, which will consist of polemical texts that help situate the work and which have formed an integral part of the methodology. Southern Exposure will also articulate the underlying premises of the ongoing performance work dance for the time being and offer a number of contextual elaborations.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors highlight how Beckett's plays provide unusually detailed verbal and pictographic instructions, which so meticulously prescribe the deportment and movement of the performers, that they appear to have been choreographed.
Abstract: Modern dance has been hugely influenced by the theatre, and to some extent prose, of Samuel Beckett. References to a ‘Beckettian aesthetic’ abound in dance criticism. However, critical examination of the relationship between Beckett and dance has thus far been fairly one-sided; the influence of dance on the work of Beckett is almost entirely unaccounted for. This article highlights how Beckett's plays provide unusually detailed verbal and pictographic instructions, which so meticulously prescribe the deportment and movement of the performers, that they appear to have been choreographed. Line is used in dance as a tool for notating movement and as a reflection of the linearity of the body; in Beckett, there is a clear interest in theline of limbs, and in the lines of movement. This interest in the linear is emphasized in a choreographic approach to writing that includes the use of line diagrams in the stage directions. This article interrogates the interest in highly specific movement that pervades Beckett...
1 Jan 2014
TL;DR: Cunningham as mentioned in this paper was one of the early choreographers to use abstract expressionism in dance. But it is difficult to find an example of a dance piece that can be considered true art.
Abstract: Expressionism: Modern choreographers are frequently inspired by the artistic and philosophical movements of the current era. Early on, Merce Cunningham was introduced to the artistic lens of postmodern art, and therefore became fascinated with the budding movement of abstract expressionism. This new movement spanned all forms of artistic expression including painting, writing and music, and therefore was easily adapted to dance as well. Abstract expressionism emphasized the idea that art could be art for the sake of being art. A further meaning or inspiration was not essential for something to be considered true art. Jackson Pollock’s drip painting is a fleeting example of a method invented during this artistic period that exemplifies these ideals. Pollock would splatter paint onto a canvas without planning, and without ever touching the paintbrush to the canvas. During this movement, painters were painting for the act of painting, and not for any higher purpose. At the same time, composers such as John Cage were making music that questioned everyone’s sense of the word “music”. He would sit in silence at a piano for four minutes and thirty-three seconds while his audience eagerly awaited his playing. He would then get up and leave, without ever having made a sound. The piece questioned the meaning of music, was it the noises the audience made in their suspense? Or was it the silence of the piano he never touched? In conjunction with artists such as Pollock, Cage, Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, “Cunningham [was] widely regarded as a choreographic formalist who believe[d] that movement
Dissertation•
21 May 2014
TL;DR: The relationship between ballet and contemporary choreographic creation in Western concert dance has been explored in this article, where the authors discover the role of ballet in the choreographic process, and determine whether or not it facilitates this process.
Abstract: This research work involves deviling the relationship between ballet and contemporary choreographic creation in Western concert dance. The objective is to discover the role of ballet in the choreographic process, and determine whether or not it facilitates this process. This has been done within the conceptual framework of modernism and postmodernism and references aspects of the movements such as semiotics and dance, modern and avant-garde dance, and contemporary choreographers' work which have been influenced by ballet. After analyzing the bibliography, the importance of the choreographic process as a way of defining an
artistic work as contemporary is highlighted as well as how contemporary dance creations are constantly producing and re-inventing signs and meaning. All of these support an understanding of current ballet practice not only as a classical tradition but also as a source of inspiration for new artistic practices.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the relocation of a global genre through cultural adaptation should not be taken as a mere act of imitation, since the embedding of the genre into a new sociocultural environment requires adjustments to both the pre-existing ways of learning in the new environment as well as to the new meanings the genre may have for its apprentices.
Abstract: The indigenization and domestication of foreign (western) culture in Japan has, according to Koichi Iwabuchi, led to an increasing variety of ‘modes of indigenized modernities’. Flamenco dancing, I argue, presents one such mode. Since the 1980s, Japanese women have been appropriating and adapting flamenco, an assumed local, ‘authentic’ Spanish genre turned into a so-called world music/dance, to their cosmopolitan dreams. They have turned flamenco in Japan into modern dance. This case shows that the relocation of a global genre through cultural adaptation should never be taken as a mere act of imitation, since the embedding of the genre into a new sociocultural environment requires adjustments to both the pre-existing ways of learning in the new environment as well as to the new meanings the genre may have for its apprentices. This is so, even in a society as reputed for cultural imitation as Japan. In this case, it is exactly the local social developments concerning femininity and modernity that explain flamenco’s appeal to Japanese women. The genre’s sound-based quality, as identified through a sensory analysis of their learning and transmission processes, revealed itself to be quintessential in terms of these women expressing their newly found sense of self. Adaptation of form and content has rendered a distinct, female and Japanized flamenco.
1 Jan 2014
TL;DR: In this paper, a study of the relationship between French Baroque dance and solo vocal works by J.S. Bach is presented, focusing on five of the most popular eighteenth-century French court dances.
Abstract: OF DISSERTATION A STUDY OF J.S. BACH’S SACRED AND SECULAR VOCAL WORKS INFLUENCED BY POPULAR STYLIZED DANCE OF THE FRENCH BAROQUE COURT: A PERFORMER’S GUIDE Among the existing body of literature on J.S. Bach’s massive compositional output, a scarce percentage of this research is dedicated specifically to the study of French Baroque court dances and their influence on Bach’s solo vocal repertoire. This study presents secular and sacred solo vocal works by J.S. Bach that were influenced by popular French court dances of the eighteenth century. The study explores musical and dance traits extracted from some of the most popular French Baroque court dances and incorporated into solo vocal repertoire. The intent of this paper is to provide a resource from a performer’s perspective that serves as an informative guide for vocalists, vocal coaches, and voice instructors. It includes biographical information about J.S. Bach, an historical overview of five of the most popular eighteenth-century French court dances, and it features five solo vocal works by Bach whose conception was influenced by French Baroque court dances. The overall goal of this study is to inform the reader about the influences and relationships between French Baroque dance and solo vocal works by J.S. Bach. This study is unique in that it is limited only to those solo vocal works which share a relationship with eighteenth-century French court dances.
TL;DR: In this paper, Morris's choreography to their music reflects not only audible components but also their external references, displaying a deep understanding of the composers' work, and making many references in these works to iconic gestures from the works of the pioneers of American modern dance, suggesting a self-reflexive process that makes his work less ultra-modern and more postmodern.
Abstract: Importing tuning systems and temporal structures from both ancient and non-Western music into their compositions, West-Coast American composers Henry Cowell, Harry Partch, and Lou Harrison became known as “ultra-modernists.” Mark Morris's choreography to their music reflects not only these audible components but also their external references, displaying a deep understanding of the composers’ work. Like these composers, Morris thrived on self-education that went beyond Western subjects in his childhood and youth. At the same time, Morris makes many references in these works to iconic gestures from the works of the pioneers of American modern dance, suggesting a self-reflexive process that makes his work less ultra-modern and more postmodern.