Showing papers in "Dance Research Journal in 2004"
TL;DR: Caribbean dance from Abakua to Zouk as discussed by the authors is an overview of the dances from each of this region's major islands and the complex, fused, and layered cultures that gave birth to them.
Abstract: "Caribbean Dance from Abakua to Zouk" is an unprecedented overview of the dances from each of this region's major islands and the complex, fused, and layered cultures that gave birth to them. The authors in this collection, from distinguished cultural leaders to highly innovative choreographers, reveal how dance shapes personal, communal, and national identity. They also show how Caribbean rhythms, dances, fragments of movement, and even attitudes toward movement reach beyond the islands and through the extensive West Indian diaspora communities in North America, Latin America, and Europe to be embraced by the world at large. From the anthropological to the literary and from the practical to the creative, these dances are explored in the contexts of social history, tradition, ritual, and performance. Connections are made among a fascinating array of dances, both familiar and little known, from culturally based to newly created performance pieces. Particular emphasis is placed on the African contribution in making Caribbean dance distinctive. An extensive glossary of terms and more than 30 illustrations round out the book to make it the most complete resource on Caribbean dance available.
36 citations
TL;DR: The lifestyle of the sadir dancers of the early twentieth century was extensively researched by Amrit Srinivasan (1979-81) and documented in her ethnographic dissertation at Cambridge University 1984 and in subsequent articles as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: As Bharatanatyam dancers across the world talk about what they do through listservs, websites, and performance publicity—in academia's world dance courses and amidst international cultural diplomats—I keep re-encountering the Orientalist representation of a “pan Indian transhistorical” devadāsī. Her history is a linear deterioration of aesthetic quality and personal agency, from temple to courts and from courts to streets and to (deserved) abandonment from where the dancer and the dance must be rescued (see Hanna 1993; Banerji 1983).The lifestyle of the sadir dancers of the early twentieth century was extensively researched by Amrit Srinivasan (1979–81) and documented in her ethnographic dissertation at Cambridge University 1984 and in subsequent articles.2 The devadāsī was selected for her talent. She was highly trained in dance, texts, and music, and she performed temple rituals. Her freedom from household responsibilities (grhastya) was made possible by the largesse of a patron, and bhakti theology legitimized “both the housewife and god's wife as parallel life-possibilities” both for women and for those men who could afford to support both kinds of liaisons. Temples frequently reimbursed devadāsī-s with bourses and land donations.Dancers today persist in maintaining that dancers had no “technique” since they danced only for God, that they knew nothing of music or theory, performed in a vulgar manner, and that contemporary dancers are much more beautiful, intelligent, and better trained.
32 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe Rukmini Devi's art and education movement, which could not be recuperated within the territorializing intellectual framework of Indian nationalism, and explain why she, in fact, manifests herself as a discursive failure in standard scholarly accounts of Bharatanatyam in the United States.
Abstract: he promise of critical liberation that postcolonial and transnational perspectives of Ifer by urging us to think the complex imbrication of the global in the local remains an unfulfilled promise in South Asian dance scholarship. I will elaborate this point by describing the global thrust of Rukmini Devi's art and education movement, which could not be recuperated within the territorializing intellectual framework of Indian nationalism, and explain why she, in fact, manifests herself as a discursive failure in standard scholarly accounts of Bharatanatyam in the United States.
26 citations
TL;DR: A growing number of practitioners in the international community of choreographers and performers have begun to experiment with computer-assisted work linking dance and new technologies as mentioned in this paper, which hardly comes as a surprise, since dance-on-film and videodance had already attracted considerable attention, at least since the 1980s.
Abstract: A growing number of practitioners in the international community of choreographers and performers has begun to experiment with computer-assisted work linking dance and new technologies. This hardly comes as a surprise, since dance-on-film and videodance had already attracted considerable attention, at least since the 1980s. Earlier experiments, such as the astonishing films by Maya Deren, take us back to the 1940s, and today's motion capture-based animations find their historical roots in late nineteenth century motion studies in chronophotography and early cinema (Muybridge, Marey, Melies). Furthermore, dancemakers, researchers, and teachers have used film or video as a vital means of documenting or analyzing existing choreographies. Some scholars and software programmers published tools (LabanWriter, LifeForms) that attracted attention in the field of dance notation and preservation as well as among choreographers (e.g., Merce Cunningham) who wanted to utilize the computer for the invention and visualization of new movement possibilities.
24 citations
TL;DR: Ballipadu is a small village in the West Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh, South India as mentioned in this paper, where the Madanagopaalasvāmi temple was constructed by Pemmaraju Konayamatya, who constructed the temple sometime in the late eighteenth century (exact dates unknown).
Abstract: Ballipadu is a small village in the West Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh, South India. One of the most prominent markers in the village landscape is the Madanagopālasvāmi temple (Fig. 1). Pemmaraju Konayamatya constructed the temple sometime in the late eighteenth century (exact dates unknown). The central image in the temple is that of Kṛṣṇa as Madanagopālasvāmi, The Cowherd Beautiful as the God of Desire (Fig. 2). From the time of its consecration, the Ballipadu Madanagopālasvāmi temple had supported over fifteen devadāsīs (women artists who served in temples and/or courts) by providing them with tax-free land, money, and a platform to present their art. In return, some of the women performed ritual tasks such as the waving of the fiveflames (panca-hārati) and the pot lamp (kumbha-hārati), as ritual duties in the temple. In 1948, at the end of a long struggle with the discursive contours of social reform, five women—Manikyam, Anusuya, Varahalu, Seshachalam and Maithili—were expelled from the temple. These five women from Ballipadu subsequently moved to the small town of Duwa, where they maintain a small matrifocal home, adhering to their traditional patterns of kinship as devadāsīs. They do not ostensibly retain any markers of devadāsī identity: they no longer sing or dance in public, have any ritual duties in temples, receive tax-free land (manyalu) from temples or feudal kingdoms (zamīndāri samasthānas), and bless homes during auspicious occasions. Yet, they insist on referring to themselves as devadāsīs, despite the extreme social stigma attached to this identity.
17 citations
TL;DR: For twenty-five years, Arlene Croce was The New Yorker's dance critic, a post the magazine created expressly for her. Her entertaining, forthright, passionate reviews and essays revealed the logic and history of ballet, modern dance, and their postmodern variants to a generation of theatergoers.
Abstract: For twenty-five years, Arlene Croce was The New Yorker's dance critic, a post the magazine created expressly for her. Her entertaining, forthright, passionate reviews and essays revealed the logic and history of ballet, modern dance, and their postmodern variants to a generation of theatergoers. This volume contains her most significant and provocative pieces - over a fourth of which never appeared in book form - covering classical ballets, the rise of George Balanchine, the careers of Twyla Tharp, Mark Morris, and Merce Cunningham, and the controversies surrounding many of the twentieth century's great dance companies.
17 citations
TL;DR: Parallel Passions as mentioned in this paper is a program devised for Mavin Khoo Dance and toured extensively around Britain in the fall of 2003, the halflight atmosphere creates difficulties in distinguishing among dancers (Fig. 1).
Abstract: In the first few moments of Parallel Passions, the program devised for Mavin Khoo Dance and toured extensively around Britain in the fall of 2003, the halflight atmosphere creates difficulties in distinguishing among dancers (Fig. 1). Bodies, genders, technical backgrounds, and ethnicity become subsumed for a few short moments to a greater purpose that is unconcerned with the trappings of identity, and the viewer begins to wonder optimistically how this will evolve. The effect is not sustained, however, and another evening of worthy crosscultural experiments in dance forms unfolds. Being momentarily surprised in this way helped to develop some interesting ideas. What remains in memory are those extraordinary moments where the project of Modern Britain seemed suddenly to have shape and be given expression. The eclectic mix of the dancers and their heritages, cultural and professional, was abandoned as a preoccupation. This allowed, albeit momentarily, a protean practice to peep through the layers of cultural ritual. The embrace of ballet and bharatanatyam cited in the promotional literature became momentarily irrelevant. But then, as if recalling the essence of the project and its obligation to teach lessons about sympathy and tolerance through the arts, a touring show financed by six different funding sources remembered itself and resorted to comparing and contrasting, later abandoning seriousness altogether for a light-hearted jazzbased club number. During a ponderous second half the dancers looked to be willing a connection that would not come, and then it was over.
15 citations
TL;DR: In contemporary Indian dance, there are two major dancers who have looked to the West for contemporary Indian Dance, Uttara Asha Coorlawala and Astad Deboo as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Uday Shankar was responsible for placing Indian dance on the world map. They are all well-trained in the classical dance forms they have chosen and have contributed a sizeable body of work which has shown new directions in Indian dance. In the deaths of Manjusri and Ranjabati, India has lost two great dancers/choreographers who were extending the frontiers of modern Indian dance. There are two major dancers who have looked to the West for contemporary Indian dance, Uttara Asha Coorlawala and Astad Deboo. Today, therefore, 'Indian dance' does not mean only 'classical' Indian dance forms. Dancers and choreographers like Anita Ratnam, Jayachandran, Tripura Kashyap, Bharata Sharma, Madhu Nataraj-Heri, Priti Patel, Navtej Singh Johar, Madhu Gopinath and others are producing choreographic works seeking new directions in Indian dance. Indian dance is today at a stage where one can look forward to new and creative expressions reflecting contemporary sensibilities.
15 citations
TL;DR: The authors defined Bollywood dance as a description of choreography inspired by Hindi films, and used the term Hindi film dance to refer to song and dance sequences contained in the films themselves.
Abstract: Today, Bollywood dance has become a term used by film professionals, amateur performers, and audiences to refer to dances choreographed to Hindi film songs. The question of what Bollywood dance is, however, remains debated in both movement and text. In classes, Bollywood dance movement varies in quality and style from song to song, instructor to instructor, and choreographer to choreographer. Costume choices, facial expressions, gestures (as interpretations of sung lyrics), “jhatkas and matkas” (percussive “emphasizing] … pelvic movement”) (Kabir 2001, 189), wrist whirls, and turns, all set to film music could be identified as essential ingredients of “Bollywood dance.” Yet, this definition only begins to skim the surface of what constitutes Indian film dance, as Hindi films make up approximately one-third out of the more than eight hundred films produced in India every year (Nandy 1995). Popular films produced by language-specific regional cinemas include song and dances that often retain a degree of regional specificity. While it is important to recognize the similarities shared by these dance traditions, it is also necessary to acknowledge the definitional slippage underlying the collo quial use of the term “Bollywood Dance.” For the sake of clarity, I limit the term “Bollywood dance” to a description of choreography inspired by Hindi films. This includes combinations taught in dance classes and performed on stages. I use “Hindi film dance” to refer to song and dance sequences contained in the films themselves.
12 citations
TL;DR: A personal history of growing up in Kolkata, India, with a strong tradition of leftist cultural forums; the current escalation of religious fundamentalisms globally; and my questions about the signifying potential of performing bodies in this context are discussed in this paper.
Abstract: his essay is the result of a long and tortured preoccupation stemming from my Tpersonal history of growing up in Kolkata, India, with a strong tradition of leftist cultural forums; the current escalation of religious fundamentalisms globally; and my questions about the signifying potential of performing bodies in this context. While I have tried to untangle and understand the complicated issues in this search for the secular dancing body in the context of Indian performance, I have been able to arrive only at a series of questions, which, in riotous recoiling, have constantly spun new questions and interjections. I offer my journey through these questions as considera tions in thinking through one of the directions of contemporary Indian dance. While I had been trying to understand the secular traditions in Indian dance for a while, questions around it grew especially urgent with the growing power of Hindu fundamentalism in India, and in particular with the destruction of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, I992, by an angry mob of "Hindus" on the grounds that the mosque had been built by Muslim ruler Babar in the sixteenth century, supposedly after destroying a Hindu temple dedicated to Rama which preexisted in that spot. This inci dent, followed by the Hindutva claim that a new temple dedicated to Rama be built on that spot, sparked off a horrifying spate of communal violence. That the Babri had been one of the last vestiges of the shaqri style of architecture in India was hardly raised. But the overwhelming of cultural icons by religious ideology as mobilized by fundamentalists was indubitable. What was also obvious-particularly in the images of the karsevaks, as the Hindutva activists identify themselves, wearing saffron turbans and armed with
11 citations
TL;DR: Genthe's 1915 photograph of Anna Pavlova, taken as she leaps into the air, is perhaps the earliest photograph of free movement in dance (Fig. 1). Unlike many other early images, with long exposure times requiring static poses or wires to hold up the dancers, this photograph depicts actual movement as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Arnold Genthe's 1915 photograph of Anna Pavlova, taken as she leaps into the air, is perhaps the earliest photograph of free movement in dance (Fig. 1). Unlike many other early images, with long exposure times necessitating static poses or wires to hold up the dancers, this photograph depicts actual movement. This claim to authenticity and actuality is a powerful part of its appeal; looking at the image, viewers are sure that they are witnesses to a faithful reproduction of Pavlova dancing, that they are seeing the dance of the past. Considered in this manner, the photograph is an example of the revelatory power of the camera to show us what has been.However, Genthe's photograph is not a powerful image simply because it is, authentically, of a dancer in motion. It might have mechanically frozen its subject in time, but the photograph communicates movement beyond the moment it depicts—beyond, in a sense, what it reveals photographically to what it evokes in the mind of the viewer. Viewers are able to see movement in details indicative of motion: the flowing fabric of the costume, Pavlova's bodily posture with raised and powerfully muscled thigh, the elevated arm gestures, and the sharply bent and thrusting toes. Additionally, the degree of blur in the photograph provides an indistinctness that is suggestive of something in motion; oddly, the partial obscurity of the picture prompts viewers to imagine more than they can see. All of these elements are evocative indications of movement; they are neither documentary nor part of what can be called photographic revelation, but are instead representational.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the relationship between dance and anticolonial struggle in the Caribbean and propose a transhistorical approach to dance and post-colonization theory.
Abstract: Nearly twenty years ago, I took a graduate seminar on postcolonial theory with Edward Said in the Department of Comparative Literature at Yale University. It was a heady experience: competitive grad students and young faculty members vied for his imperious (I realize the irony of the word in reference to Said!) attentions. We read novels-potent, searing, difficult novels-alongside some of the theorists of political struggle who would indelibly alter my understanding of what cultural resistance could mean. Said's recent death, which of course coincided with a period of distressing shifts in political tides, has placed pressure on those of us engaged with cultural analysis to probe even more deeply the significance of anticolonial struggle in cultural forms. As a dance scholar, I have found myself reflecting on the ways in which postcolonial theory might inform my understanding of the power of choreography to affect political change-but also on the ways in which dance can inform our readings of postcolonial theory. Just recently I was invited to Columbia University to speak specifically on the relationship between dance and anticolonial struggle in the Caribbean. I am sure the horrible irony is lost on none of us that many academic and artistic events were being planned months ago in anticipation of Haiti's bicentennial, and while certainly that country even then was in a state of political distress, any hopes we had of marking the phenomenal historical moment of the founding of the first black republic in pure celebration were utterly dashed with the unfolding of recent catastrophic events. I had planned to offer a transhistorical talk, taking the Haitian revolution as its point of departure, examining the use that two of the primary theorists of black revolution, C. L. R. James and Frantz Fanon, had made of dance, and gesturing to the radical possibilities that choreographic politicization might afford-all this in anticipation of a
TL;DR: Fisher and Fisher as mentioned in this paper studied the potential depths of The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty and found that the adaptation of traditional make us see it again with a newly acquired dance forms of rural or small-town corncritical perspective.
Abstract: to the local grocery store. One might recall, FOLK DANCE COMPANIES, REPRESENhowever, that dance critic Marcia Siegel TATION AND POWER once reproached dance artists and historiby Anthony Shay. Middletown, CT: Wesley an ans for not seeing that "dance has an intelUniversity Press, 2002. xix + 2ijpp., illustralectual life as well as a temporal life" and tions, notes, bibliography, index, $65.00 cloth; that this aspect of creativity neither "spoils $19.%paper. the viewer's experience, nor renders the dance invalid" (1996, 30). The concept of This study is a further development of maflow provides a good explanation of both terial originally presented by Anthony Shay the potential depths of The Nutcracker as a in his 1999 Dance Research Journal artimeaningful event and the relation such cle, "Parallel Traditions: State Folk Dance events have to Fisher's book, as an intellecEnsembles and Folk Dance in The Field,'" tual analysis. Fisher brings to The Nutand focuses on the same international phecracker new insights and associations that nomenon—the adaptation of traditional make us see it again with a freshly acquired dance forms of rural or small-town corncritical perspective. Anyone immediately munities (loosely termed "folk dance") for involved in the production of classical ballet theatrical presentation. Shay's interest is will find that Nutcracker Nation enriches specifically in folk ensembles that have been their experience in provocative ways. With sponsored by national governments to more knowledge of the ballet, there is a further political agendas: the promotion better chance of getting into its flow. among their own constituencies of pride Suzanne Jaeger in the nation and allegiance to its values University of Central Florida and the dissemination to the rest of the world of attractive and admirable images Works Cited of the culture and its people. Dr. Shay Footnotes: The Classics of Ballet. 1996. Vol. 3, is admirably suited to pursue this type of The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty study. A self-described "folk dance ensem[videorecording]. Sound Venture Proble junkie" for more than forty years (ix), he ductions and Frank Augustyn Produchas performed with, founded, and directed tons in association with Bravo! and major folk dance companies in California Saskatchewan Communications and has been involved for decades in the Network. study of folk dance and its various modes of McRobbie, Angela. 1991. Feminism presentation in the international arena. He and Youth Culture. Boston: Unwin thus brings to the work not only his perHyman. sonal experience, but also an academic unSiegel, Marcia B. 1996. "Visible Secrets: derstanding of relevant historical and theoStyle Analysis and Dance Literacy." retical issues. The book offers much that In Moving Words: Rewriting Dance. is valuable in both the information and the Edited by Gay Morris. London: insights that it provides, but it suffers from Routledge. a lack of clarity in some of its terminology, a lack of rigor in editorial matters, and the incorrect presentation of foreign language names and terms.
TL;DR: The Rodin Museum in Paris has a collection of early dance photographs of Loie Fuller, a strong, mature woman, one who exudes a joyful, yet earthy energy as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Long before I became a committed academic, long before I was a college professor teaching dance history, long before terminal degrees and professional titles, I chanced upon an exhibition of early dance photographs at the Rodin Museum in Paris. I bought the small catalogue, and from time to time I would page through the striking black and white images searching for dancing inspiration. I always paused at a certain one of Loie Fuller. There she is, radiant in the sunlight of Rodin's garden, chest open, arms spread like great wings, running full force towards the camera. It is an image of a strong, mature woman, one who exudes a joyful, yet earthy energy. A copy of this photograph taken in 1900 by Eugene Druet currently hangs above my desk.With a nod to the meanings embedded in historical study, Walter Benjamin once wrote: “To dwell means to leave traces” (1999, 9). Indeed, traces are the material artifacts that constitute the stuff of historical inquiry, the bits and pieces of a life that scholars follow, gather up, and survey. The word itself suggests the actual imprint of a figure who has passed, the footprint, mark or impression of a person or event. These kinds of traces are omnipresent in the case of Loie Fuller. Some traces are more visible than others, some more easily located. But all traces—once noticed—draw us into another reality.
TL;DR: For the past few years, critics, fans, and even Bill T. Jones himself have been talking about the artist's move from explicitly political, identity-based works to an investigation of aesthetics and pure movement as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: For the past few years, critics, fans, and even Bill T. Jones himself have been talking about the artist's move from explicitly political, identity-based works to an investigation of aesthetics and pure movement. They talk about the more conventional makeup of Jones's current ensemble—the fact that Lawrence Goldhuber and Alexandra Beller are no longer in the company, dancers described in the New York Times as “imperfect” because “chubbier than the norm” (Dunning 2002). They discuss the fact that Jones rarely uses text these days and is no longer confrontational. He dances to Beethover and performs at Lincoln Center with the Chamber Music Society. In a 1997 mterview with Richard Covington, Jones explains this shift in his work by stating, “It's not quite as sexy to talk about. What was being said in those earlier works was as important as how it was being danced. Here, I'm trying to think about how it's danced first, trusting that the political, social, all those things are in our bodies literally, and in the eyes of the beholder” (Covington 1997).
TL;DR: The Nāṭyaśāstra is a Sanskrit work on drama, dance, and music of uncertain date, which has acquired the status of Ur-text of Indian classical dance.
Abstract: The Nāṭyaśāstra is a Sanskrit work on drama, dance, and music of uncertain date, which has acquired the status of Ur-text of Indian classical dance. It was in the twentieth century, through the modernization process of bharatanatyam, that the Nāṭyaśāstra and its related texts came to be regarded as setting out the grammar of Indian dance classicism (Coorlawala 1994; Meduri 1996; O'Shea 2001).Chapter 4 of the Nāṭyaśāstra deals specifically with dance, here distinct from acting, and describes the 108 dance units—Karaṇas—of the tāṇḍava dance of Śiva and their combinations, dance phrases named aṇgahāras (NS 1988–89, 4, w. 1–245). This particular chapter of the Nāṭyaśāstra has attracted attention ever since Naidu, Naidu, and Pantulu published its translation into English, Tānḍavalakṇaṣam, in 1936. Since then there have been other translations of the Nāṭyaśāstra, among which the two volumes by Manmohan Ghosh, in 1951 and 1956 respectively, and different interpretations of the Karaṇas of chapter 4. Readings have drawn on the iconography of the Karaṇas as found at the temples at Thanjavur, Kumbakonam, and Chidambaram in southern India. The karana reliefs on the walls of Kumbakonam and Chidambaram have been identified by inscriptions found on each karaṇa slab, that give the Sanskrit name of the karaṇa as recorded in the Nāṭyaśāstra.
TL;DR: Morris's dance Site (Fig. 1) as mentioned in this paper performed at the Surplus Dance Theater in New York City in February 1964 with Carolee Schneemann and several sheets of four-by-eight foot plywood.
Abstract: Robert Morris's dance Site (Fig. 1) premiered in February 1964 at the Surplus Dance Theater in New York City. Choreographed and performed by Morris, Site also featured the visual artist Carolee Schneemann and several sheets of four-by-eight foot plywood. Although it may seem odd to include these wooden panels among the performers, they assumed an active role in the choreography. Ironically, it was Schneemann who provided the background scenery. Nude and covered in white paint, she sat motionless throughout the performance, recreating the pose and persona of Edouard Manet's famous 1863 painting of Olympia while Morris manipulated the large wooden boards. In a graceful duet with inanimate partners, Morris spun the rectangular planes from a point on the ground, maneuvered them around his body, lifted them over his head, caressed their even form as he slowly moved his hand across one edge, and balanced the panels on his back as he moved across the stage. Not only did Morris never dance with Schneemann, he did not even seem to notice her. In a career spanning over forty years, Robert Morris has produced theoretical articles, paintings, videos, installations, and environmental art in addition to his work in dance; nevertheless, the American artist remains best known for his Minimalist sculptures of the 1960s (Figs. 2 and 3). Like the works of his colleagues Donald Judd and Carl Andre, Morris's spare, geometrical objects of that period were three-dimensional and called attention to issues of site and artistic context. They also resisted past artistic conventions based in subjective methods of composition, expressivity, and metaphor. Morris, however, distinguished himself among this group of visual artists by the emphasis he placed on the viewer's bodily relationship with the art object, a distinction that derives directly from his unique involvement in avant-garde dance.
TL;DR: Thea Nerissa Barnes, London, UK as mentioned in this paper describes her encounters with Primus as An Introduction and discusses her own use of improvisation in port, I found the following works valuable: dancemaking, as inspired by ngomo, a SwaJune Layson.
Abstract: discusses her own use of improvisation in port, I found the following works valuable: dancemaking, as inspired by ngomo, a SwaJune Layson. 1983. \"Historical Perspectives hili expression for dance and sing. Jamison in the Study of Dance.\" In Dance History: describes her encounters with Primus as An Introduction. Edited by Janet Adsheadshe learned the West African welcome Lansdale and June Layson, 3-17. London: dance, Fanga, and DeFrantz recollects seeRoutledge; James Olney, ed. 1980. Autoing the Ailey company perform Dunham's biography: Essays Theoretical and Critical. Shango, discusses dance practiced by AfriPrinceton: Princeton University Press; and can slaves, and explores what it is to be Elizabeth Tonkin. 1992. Narrating Our African American. Pasts: The Social Construction ofOralHisOral histories, mixtures of anecdote, detory. Cambridge: Cambridge University scription, public pronouncements, and priPress. vate ramblings create a rich mix of inform3. Dr. Dunham preferred not to be ination and imagery. While life stories and terviewed for the program. Pearl Primus remembrances are sometimes faulty and died in 1994. need verification from a variety of resources, they are valuable primary source materials representative ofa particular time and place. REFLECTIONS ON PINA BAUSCH'S Our project was especially powerful for the ISTANBUL PROJECT juxtaposition of life stories of different eras, drawing together past, present, and future. The audience of the International Istanbul Life stories and the movement descriptions Festival has a complex structure. Istanbuimbedded in them can stir the mind's eye, lites itstanbullular) situate themselves on a allowing the listener to imagine and make world-class scale, believing that Istanbul is sense of artistry never seen nor experienced. a world metropolis. As a world metropolis, Thea Nerissa Barnes, London, UK it is loaded with historical baggage, while at the same time its people constantly produce Thea Nerissa Barnes had a distinguished and reproduce new social structures and performance career with the Alvin Ailey artistic forms. Istanbulites, like New YorkDance Theater and the Martha Graham ers or Parisians, are fascinated by their city, Dance Company. She is currently an inin constant negotiation with its dynamism dependent dance researcher and Resident and addicted to its variety of \"mekans,\" a Dance Supervisor of The Lion King in the unique Turkish term that defines a socially West End, London, UK. and culturally loaded sense of place. In other words, Istanbulites are attached to Notes their city with all its past, seeing more than 1. The Jerome Robbins Dance Division what is simply Turkish in the city, of the New York Public Library for the When choreographer Pina Bausch Performing Arts, The Library of Congress launched a project on Istanbul, many people in Washington, D.C., and Laban in Lonfelt proud that this important artist would don have copies of the broadcast. Tranreflect on their city and built high expectascripts are available upon request from tions about what was to come. When her Thea Nerissa Barnes by email only at company visited Istanbul in 1998 to present Theanerissa@aol.com. Window Washer and in 2000, Masurca Fogo,
TL;DR: The 2004 Barbara Stoler Miller Confernce as mentioned in this paper recognized the growing scholarship in the field of South Asian performing arts and provided an opportunity for South Asian performance artists and scholars to discuss their most contemporary research works, demonstrate and perform, and to get to know each other.
Abstract: B arnard College, Columbia University, hosted the 2004 Barbara Stoler Miller Con ference in New York City, February 20-22, 2004. Called "Contesting Pasts, Per forming Futures: Nationalism, Globalization, and the performing arts in Modern South Asia," the conference recognized the growing scholarship in the field of South Asian performing arts. Since "performing arts" as a scholastic field of inquiry arrests little attention within the complex enormity of Asian Studies conferences, and dimin ishingly so, South Asian performing arts occupy just as little space within performing arts conferences (Association for Theater in Higher Education, Society for Ethnomu sicology, American Anthropological Association, Society of Dance History Scholars, Congress on Research in Dance, and others), the 2004 Barbara Stoler Miller Confer ence certainly provided one of the few opportunities open to South Asian performance artists and scholars to discuss their most contemporary research works, to demonstrate and perform, and to get to know each other. Barbara Stoler Miller, a Milbank Professor at Barnard, was a distinguished Sanskri tist with strong interests in art history. She died of cancer at age fifty-two in April I993. Among the corpus of the Sanskrit literature translations she published is Love Song of the Dark Lord: Jayadeva's Gitagovinda (Columbia I977), a text that has been for centuries close to the hearts of many Indian dancers, and another edited by her, Theatre of Mem ory: The Plays of Kalidasa (Columbia I984), presented a topic that has earned significant popularity in Euro-American academia. As one of the more famous faculty members of Barnard, the college remains institutionally committed to commemorating Barbara Stoler Miller in a variety of ways: funded in part by Barnard College (through the
TL;DR: In this paper, a nineteenth-century German girl waits for her first encounter with the Middle East, which will come courtesy of Tchaikovsky and the many years of choreographic evolution that have preceded the current version of The Nutcracker in which she is performing.
Abstract: Onstage, a nineteenth-century German girl waits for her first encounter with the Middle East, which will come courtesy of Tchaikovsky and the many years of choreographic evolution that have preceded the current version of The Nutcracker in which she is performing. The girl's name is Clara (or sometimes Marie), and she has come to a fantasy land, where a lively Spanish dance has been given in her honor. Now, there is softer, slower music with a steady, insistent rhythm and a snaking melody carried by an English horn. Dancers glide onto the stage wearing gauzy harem pants and jeweled headdresses, their faces impassive, their gait deliberate and stately. Who are they? Clara's face seems to ask, and what will they do? Certainly it will be like nothing she has ever seen before because they are dressed like people from far away, a hot climate perhaps, where no one moves quickly and different customs prevail. There is a woman who walks like a princess, with a cool, internal gaze and limbs that stretch out imperially. A consort picks her up and swirls her arched figure around as if she were in need of a breeze. Then they stand side by side, pausing as if transfixed by a greater power, their hands drifting above them with palms facing the sky. When they disappear, Clara stares after them, wondering, no doubt, where they came from and what on earth that was all about.
TL;DR: In this article, Fouchard, Jean et al. discuss the Ajricanist presence in American performance: Dance and Other Contexts, and present a collection of works related to dance and other contexts.
Abstract: Works Cited Fouchard, Jean. 1988. La Meringue: Danse National d'Haiti. Port-au-Prince: Editions Henri Deschamps. Gilroy, Paul. 1993. The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Gottschild, Brenda Dixon. 1996. Digging the Ajricanist Presence in American Performance: Dance and Other Contexts. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Haley, Alex and Malcolm X. 1999 (1964). The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Ballantine Books. Leaf, Earl. 1948. Isles of Rhythm. Foreward by Katherine Dunham. New York: A.S. Barnes and Co. Lekis, Lisa. i960. Dancing Gods. New York: The Scarecrow Press.
TL;DR: Shay et al. as discussed by the authors used the narrative tendency of socalled traditional West African dance to rework the old tale of a gypsy Arkin, Lisa C. and Marian Smith.
Abstract: also encourage both Shay and Wesleyan to (discounts available for select organizations; be more careful with language, grammar, contact distributor). and other technical matters in their future publications. Billed as a musical, Karmen Get at times has Nancy Lee Ruyter the look and feel of a dance made for camUniversity of California, Irvine era. Utilizing the narrative tendency of socalled \"traditional\" West African dance, Works Cited Karmen Gei reworks the old tale of a gypsy Arkin, Lisa C. and Marian Smith. 1997. girl named Carmen with rolling hips and \"National Dance in the Romantic Balexacting rhythms. It would be easy for the let.\"'In Rethinking the Sylph: New Perviewer to get sucked into the seduction of spectives on the Romantic Ballet. Edited the opening music, to float along on David by Lynn Garafola, 11-68. Hanover, NH: Murray's saxophone solo, intoxicated by Wesleyan University Press. its juxtaposition with the sounds of what Hoerburger, Felix. 1968. \"Once Again on surely must be ancient drumming techthe Concept of Folk Dance. ''Journal of nique, here performed by the orchestra of the International Folk Music Council 20: internationally renowned master drummer 30-32. Doudou N'Diaye Rose. Yet the drumming Kealiinohomoku, Joann. 1972. \"Folk is for the dance sabar, a vibrant urban form Dance.\" In Folklore andFolklife: An Inof Wolof heritage in the country of Senetroduction. Edited by Richard M. Dorgal. Sabar is particularly connected with the son, 381-404. Chicago: University of city of Dakar, and its performance, while Chicago Press. citing an antiquity remembered primarily Najera Ramirez, Olga. 1989. \"Social and by the djale (griot), has an edginess derived Political Dimensions of Folklorico from its development in the social life of Dance: The Binational Dialectic of the city. Residual and Emergent Culture.\" WestManipulating the elasticity of time in em Folklore 48 (January): 15-32. the narrative arc of the film through the Shay, Anthony. 1999. \"Parallel Traditions: dancing of sabar, director Joseph Gal RaState Folk Dance Ensembles and Folk maka evinces the feverish dreams of the faDance in 'The Field.'\" Dance Research tally in love. For example, as the story beJournaly., no. 1 (Spring): 29-56. gi> w e a r e not certain if we are in a show Thomas, Helen. 1995. Dance, Modernity in the present or a show about the past, and Culture: Explorations in the Sociology some hidden ritual or a party in a dreamof Dance. London and New York: scape. Lost in the cyclical nature of the Routledge. rhythm of m'ballax, our introduction to Karmen positions her as an enthroned goddess or a terrible soucoyant (lifeforce stealer). KARMEN GEI, We are not sure which one we should apdirected by Joseph Gai Ramaka, in French preciate as she hungrily approaches the and Wolof with English subtitles. Senegal, camera, but we need to make sense out of California Newsreel, distributed by www. it to create a soothing context: is this, is it, newsreel.org, 2001. 82 minutes, jjmm and is she for real? Indeed that is always the
TL;DR: DeFrantz et al. as discussed by the authors present a survey of African American dance in the context of music videos, focusing on how the videos themselves might the term's amorphous categorization by predirect an analysis, or how they mediate senting scholarship that not only examines other, absent spaces, but also lays a theoretical foundation they serve as an alternate media stream to on which to base further reflection and the commercial domain of the music video.
Abstract: produces space and time as it moves, opervideo, the mobilization of the built environates precisely to materialize the boundary ment might all be opened by the activity upon which the binary rests. That dance of thought that flows from the dancing can at once figure presence and absence and body. This is, I believe the challenge that display interior and exterior space replaces Briginshaw leaves us. Much can be learned the binary either/or with a both/and while about reading dance in the world by means still delineating specific movement. Yet it of visual decoding, but dance enlivened by would seem that this insight depends on this desire to affect contemporary thought relinquishing some of the emphasis on the also has moves to teach, providing we take visual (and not simply reinscribing it as its lessons as our own. its opposite, namely disappearance). Even Randy Martin a body that momentarily disappears from New York University view or a sudden revelation of negative space can have kinesthetic effects that do not necessarily register as a visual image. DANCING MANY DRUMS: EXCAVAThis demands that we move beyond the TIONS IN AFRICAN AMERICAN DANCE question of how a space looks to consider edited by Thomas DeFrantz. 2002. Madison: what it does and what we do to make it. The University of Wisconsin Press. Largely, for Briginshaw, the dances she xiii+j66 pp., photographs, notes, bibliogexamines remain visual recordings of cerraphy, index. $22.%paper. tain dominant assumptions of our culture. While potent, this approach precludes While meant to be descriptive of the wideothers. Consistent with her deconstructive ranging movement practices of African claims for dance, then, it is worth considerAmericans when they dance, the term ing the effects of significant methodological \"black dance\" is perplexing nonetheless, absences. For example, although she relies In this groundbreaking anthology, editor heavily on video examples, she does not Thomas DeFrantz addresses the issue of question how the videos themselves might the term's amorphous categorization by predirect an analysis, or how they mediate senting scholarship that not only examines other, absent spaces, or how, through televisuch practices in light of the African diassion broadcast based on public arts funding, pora, but also lays a theoretical foundation they serve as an alternate media stream to on which to base further reflection and the commercial domain of the music video, study. In his introductory essay, DeFrantz Pushing on these theoretical opportunities undertakes an extended and critical investifor dance might allow for more than an apgation of the term \"black dance,\" discussplication of theories from elsewhere to a ing its origins and subsequent history. He somehow passive and mute dance body that notes, for example, that in the late 1960s sits still, awaiting its moment of application, and 1970s white critics used it as a label From here we could begin a reflection on to identify dance performances they conissues of space, where dance helps break the sidered to be outside European-American Cartesian silence that holds the secrets to artistic canons. This kind of proscriptive how people move together to make such categorization designated an \"outsider\" stathings as history and politics. The choreogtus for \"black dance,\" thus relegating the
TL;DR: Perpener's chronicle of the Harlem Renaissance, The Harlem Renaissance in Concert Dance as mentioned in this paper, is a good starting point for a more complete analysis of the history of African-American dance.
Abstract: hurdle it proved. Cary D. Wintz's Black Culture and the At the same time, the historical account Harlem Renaissance (1988), and George Perpener presents in African-American Hutchinson's The Harlem Renaissance in Concert Dance leaves certain questions unBlack and White (1995). answered. To begin with, what are the values and risks in constructing an AfricanWorks Cited American tradition of concert dance? To Anderson, Jervis. 1981. This Was Harlem. what extent should this tradition continue New York: Noonday, to be labeled and treated as something Emery, Lynne Fauley. 1972. Black Dance distinct from modern dance? And though, From 1619 to 1970. Palo Alto, CA: Naas Perpener asserts, the work of more recent tional Press Books. Rev. ed. 1988. PenAfrican-American artists often seems more nington, NJ: Princeton Book Company, interested in issues of gender and sexualHuggins, Nathan Irvin. 1971. Harlem Reity than race, these issues seem equally naissance. New York: Oxford University germane to an understanding of early black Press. concert dance. The fact that reviewers of Hutchinson, George. 1995. The Harlem ReWinfield's 1929 performance as Salome naissance in Black and White. Cambridge, were riveted by his female impersonation, MA: Harvard University Press, for example, begs for further analysis (34). Lewis, David Levering. 1981. When Harlem Additional questions arise about how the Was in Vogue. New York: Knopf, middle-class origins of most of the black Wintz, Cary D. 1988. Black Culture and the choreographers considered informed their Harlem Renaissance. Houston: Rice Uniartistic project. Still, even in dissertation versify Press, form, Perpener's research facilitated a number of other investigations into the place of African-American dance in American culTHE BOLERO SCHOOL ture (this reviewer's included). Accessible by Marina Grut. 2002. Hightstown, NJ: now to a broader audience of readers— Princeton Book Company Publishers/Dance undergraduates, graduates, teachers, and Books Limited, xvi + 416pp., illustrations, the general public alike—African-American appendices, bibliography, index. $60.00 cloth. Concert Dance will no doubt inspire future dance scholars to explore the connections More than any recent film on Spanish and theoretical questions that emerge from dance, Carlos Saura's striking 1992 art docPerpener's chronicle, just as Emery's book umentary, Sevillanas, juxtaposes a variety of once inspired him. flamenco, regional, and classical interpretaAnthea Kraut tions of the sevillanas, thus revealing both University of California, Riverside the tripartite nature of the popular dance and of Spanish dance in general. Saura's Notes film is particularly informative for the pur1. Prominent studies of the Harlem Reposes of understanding contemporary clasnaissance include Nathan Irvin Huggins's sical Spanish dance because it includes both Harlem Renaissance (1971), David Levering a neoclassical sevillanas (performed with Lewis's When Harlem Was in Vogue (1981), heeled shoes), and a contemporary balletic
TL;DR: In the early 1970s, the teaching of dance to children at the Hebrew Association's Young Men's and Young Women's Conference on Dance to Children (Teaching of Dance-to- Children held at 1968-1983) was discussed.
Abstract: Teaching of Dance to Children held at 1968-1983). The very next day Boorman the Young Men's and Young Women's wrote in correspondence, \"The conference Hebrew Association, New York. is going to happen but as usual when I start Walsh, Joan. 1979. \"Flowing Ginny these things the budget is zero. . . . FortuGowns.\" Mountainwest (March). nately, some of us are insane\" (Boorman to Jack Geddes). THE JOOSS LEGACY: Works Cited ONE PERSPECTIVE Fleming, Gladys Andrews, ed. 1973. Creative Dance. Washington, DC: American To go to the University of Birmingham in Alliance for Health, Physical Education, the late 1970s to study in a course unique in and Recreation Publications. Britain at that time—a BA in Music, Fleming, Gladys Andrews. 1954. Creative Drama, and Dance—was a revelation. The Rhythmic Movement for Children. NY: dance lecturer, Andy Adamson, was a stuPrentice Hall. dent of Jane Winearls, who had been a stu. 1966. Physical Education for Boys dent of Sigurd Leeder, the long-term artisand Girls. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, tic partner of Kurt Jooss. Adamson taught Inc. that dance was a medium of expression, . 1976. Creative Rhythmic Movement: that technique was useful in order to state Boys and Girls Dancing. Englewood more clearly what you wanted to say, and Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc. that there was a whole analysis of moveForsberg, Helen. 1978. \"'Miss Virginia' ment to help with this expression. The noloves music, dance, kids.\" The Salt Lake tion that what you thought about when you City Tribune, November 5. were dancing, working from the inside out, Joyce Boorman Papers, 1968-1983. The or how a particular movement made you Physical Education and Dance for Chilfeel, working from the outside in, brought dren Collections, Jackson Library, Unitogether my interests in acting and dancing, versity of North Carolina at Greensboro, while the analysis of rhythm and dynamLudwig, Elizabeth A. 1944. \"The Allics tapped into my musicality. As a student Round Program—Can it satisfy wartime of Adamson's, I flourished in the univerdemands?\" Health and Physical Education sity environment where intellectual devel15, no. 6 (June): 309, 346-347. opment ran alongside the development of Porter, Lorena. 1969. Movement Education practical skills. for Children: A New Direction in ElemenFrom this experience of the Joosstary School PhysicalEducation. In cooperLeeder approach, developed from Laban's ation with the American Association for movement analysis, came a desire to know Health, Physical Education, and Recremore about the people and their works. My ation. Washington, DC: American Asdoctoral research focused on Jooss's The sociation of Elementary, Kindergarten Green Table, largely as a result of being beand Nursery Educators. witched as an undergraduate when I saw an Tanner, Virginia. 1955. Transcript of teachancient black-and-white recording of the ing demonstration from unpublished work, and through dancing sections of it records of the Conference on Creative while attending a summer school taught by
TL;DR: In this paper, the origins of the Bolero School are discussed and a series of articles edited by origins, as well as a chapter on the Lefebre Javier Suarez-Pajares and Xoan M. Foulkes.
Abstract: the Bolero School, a series of articles edited by origins, as well as a chapter on the Lefebre Javier Suarez-Pajares and Xoan M. CarCompany in Seville, lists of collections of reira, which offers a more scholarly, contexts, a list of foreign dancers active in cise, and chronological approach to the Spain c. 1750-1800, and an iconography study of the Escuela Bolera. that brings into focus the reproductions in Katherine Thomas Grut's The Bolero School. Los Angeles Works Cited Notes Finca Manchuca/Spanish Ministry of Cul1. See the documentary film series Rito ture. 1997. Ritoy Geografia delBaile Flay Geografia delBaile for examples of the Esmenco. Video series in collaboration with cuela Bolera. Video 3 includes an example RTVE, Espana. 12 volumes. Alga Ediof a nineteenth-century bolero, \"Ole'de la tores, S.L.: Murcia. Distributed by curra\"; Video 5 includes an example of the flamenco-world.com sevillanas boleras performed in heeled Lalagia. 1985. Spanish Dancing: A Practical shoes. Handbook. Lyn Gray (illustrations); Ana 2. See Carlos Saura's 1992 film Sevillanas Ivanova (editor). London: Dance Books, for an example of the contemporary seviLtd. (distributed by Princeton Book lianas boleras. Company in the United States). 3. In his book The Art of Flamenco, Donn Molina, Ricardo and Antonio Mairena. Pohren notes flamenco writers Molina and 1963. Mundoyformas delcanteflamenco. Mairena, who theorize that the word Madrid: Revista de Occidente. buleria could have developed from the word Pohren, Donn E. 1990. The Art ofFlabolera, intimating a connection between the menco. 5th ed. Madrid: Society of Spantwo dances. Another possible theory is that ish Studies. the style developed as a remate, a quick Saura, Carlos, dir. 1992. Sevillanas (film), ending by a singer who is ending a slower Distributed by flamenco-world.com. song in a like rhythm, and that the word Suarez-Pajares, Javier and Xoan M. Carderives from burleria or burlar, to make fun reira, eds. Lynn Garafola, preface. 1993. of. In truth, all is conjecture. The Origins of the Bolero School. In Studies 4. Antonio Gades was the first director in Dance History 4, no. 1 (Spring), of the Ballet Nacional de Espana from 1978 to 1980, and although Gades's name is MODERN BODIES: DANCE AND noted throughout the biographical chapter AMERICAN MODERNISM FROM in other artists' biographies, there is no biMARTHA GRAHAM TO ALVIN AILEY ography of him here. Jose Greco was inby Julia L. Foulkes. Chapel Hill: University strumental in promoting artists versatile in of North Carolina Press, 2002. xiv + 2$ypp, the three styles of Spanish dance in dance jo black-and-white illustrations. $49.% cloth, companies in both Spain and the United $18.95paper. States: classical, flamenco, and regional Spanish dancing. Julia Foulkes's book appears at a time of 5. The Origins of the Bolero School, with a astonishing ferment in revisionist writing preface by Lynn Garafola, features scholabout modern dance's history in the United