Attitudes.At times it's useful to consider, perhaps reconsider, basics. The other day sitting at my desk, idly staring at the Chelsea Hotel, I found myself wondering about a stupid question upon which few might have a definitive answer but all will have a definite opinion. What is dance? And how did it get that way? As we barge mercilessly into the 21st century, I seem to find the answer in this Alice-in-Wonderland world "curiouser and curiouser." When I was growing up--a process I like to believe has not actually finished, even if it has perhaps imperceptibly slowed down--it appeared to be a simple matter. I actually knew what dance was, could hold it in the palm of my hand, feel it on the sole of my foot. This was during World War II in London, spiced up with air raids and rockets, and my hometown was dancing through the blitz. Dance then was a quantifiable constant. For starters, there was theatrical dance and non-theatrical dance. Theatrical dance was mainly thought to be classical ballet--Les Sylphides, Swan Lake Swan Lake (Russian: Лебединое Озеро, Lebedinoye Ozero, Swan Lake , that kind of stuff with pretty girls (yes, they called them girls in those days) and pointe shoes 'Pointe shoes', also referred to as toe shoes, are a special type of shoe used by ballet dancers for pointework. They developed from the desire to appear weightless, and sylph- like onstage and have evolved to allow extended periods of movement on the tips of the toes . Then there was "other" dance. In those days in Britain we didn't call it modern dance; it was expressionist dance
She was born Liselotte Heymansohn in Cologne, Germany, to a German mother and Russian-born father, both of whom were Jewish. Her father owned a chain of quality menswear shops. or the Laban-influenced Hettie Loman, appeared less acceptable. Also we had ethnic dance: Indian dance, represented by Ram Gopal; a few Spaniards, or pretend Spaniards; and by the end of the war there was Jamaican Berto Pasuka's Ballets Negres--which, while no challenge to Katherine Dunham (then unknown outside the U.S.), was the first black dance company in Europe. There was also show dancing--ranging from Bluebell bluebell, common name for several plants belonging to completely different classes, particularly the bellflower and the Virginia cowslip, or Virginia bluebell, of the family Boraginaceae (borage family) and the wood hyacinth, a squill of the family Liliaceae (lily Girls, Windmill Girls (those striptease chorus girls who showed off most of their all), tap dancers, novelty dancers, and semiacrobatic "adagio a·da·gio adv. & adj. Music In a slow tempo, usually considered to be slower than andante but faster than larghetto. Used chiefly as a direction. n. pl. a·da·gios 1. " dancers. This was before Agnes de Mille Noun 1. Agnes de Mille - United States dancer and choreographer who introduced formal dance to a wide audience (1905-1993) Agnes George de Mille, de Mille and Oklahoma! arrived in 1947. Additionally, of course, Britain had social dancing--waltzes, fox trots, even tangos. Plus, a new revelation was imported from the cinema: the jitterbug jitterbug Dance variation of the two-step in which couples swing, balance, and twirl in standardized patterns to syncopated music in ⁴⁄₄ time. It originated in the U.S. in the mid 1930s and became internationally popular in the 1940s. , a shocking freestyle kind of dance and a specialization of visiting (and bewilderingly be·wil·der tr.v. be·wil·dered, be·wil·der·ing, be·wil·ders 1. To confuse or befuddle, especially with numerous conflicting situations, objects, or statements. See Synonyms at puzzle. 2. racially segregated) American servicemen. Finally there was folk dancing: seriously, above the border, with Scottish Highland dancing; not so seriously, but devotedly, below the border with English Morris dancing. And the Irish community had step dancing Noun 1. step dancing - dancing in which the steps are more important than gestures or postures hoofing dancing, terpsichore, dance, saltation - taking a series of rhythmical steps (and movements) in time to music , often referred to as the Irish jig. Yes, 60 years ago I knew what was dance. Now I'm less certain--about what it is and what it isn't. Today, dance in the theater can stray over those old pure dance boundaries into various areas of theater or mixed media--not necessarily a bad thing, but undeniably a different thing. In general as society has progressed technologically from the Industrial Revolution, our general culture has reflected that progress. The technological changes--from steam engine to microchip--have advanced at an awesome rate. The arts offer a parallel universe where change has been equally remarkable, The entire spectrum of the arts in the 20th century, that shock of the new, changed more rapidly in a hundred years than it had in all of previously recorded time. Some things in dance remain much the same. Classical Petipa and modern Graham are still more or less in place, and some say even the waltz is making a return to the ballroom. But ever since modernism, Dada, and in 1957 Paul Taylor
In this 21st century of ours, dance, theater, and drama in the Western world have drawn closer together. In Eastern cultures, such artistic cross-fertilization is not at all unusual, and it should widen our scope of dance. Yet it should not blur it. As cussedly cuss·ed adj. Informal 1. Perverse; stubborn. 2. Cursed. cuss ed·ly adv. fuddy-duddy
as it may sound, I firmly believe that the business of dancing is still
predominantly dancing, rather than mixed media, where the likes of
Robert Wilson and Robert LePage are obvious masters. The purely kinetic
factor is something I see less of in the current work of some
present-day icons I myself once admired, such as Pina Bausch and William
Forsythe, not to mention the offerings of many other choreographers of
lesser renown. So, let's just shake those booties! Remember Paul
Taylor didn't stand stock still for very long, and Merce Cunningham
has always been on the move, even up to the iPod generation.
Senior Consulting Editor Clive Barnes also covers dance and theater for the New York Post The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and the oldest to have been published continually as a daily.[3] Since 1976, it has been owned by Australian-born billionaire Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and is one of the 10 . |
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