Chapter 15 Outline

Note: You are not responsible for the international component of this chapter.

"During the 1960s, a dazzling period of conceptual reorientation in modern dance, the Judson Church movement had taken formalism and minimalism to their limits in search of an irreducible definition of dance. But when the boundaries were reached...yielding no further insights, it was inevitable that emotion, narrative, artifice, and virtuosity in performing, so devalued by the postmodernists, would emerge in the generation supplanting them" (Reynolds 605-606).

Revivals and Classics

• Annabelle Gamson revived the work of Isadora Duncan.
• Joyce Trisler's Danscompany revived the work of Ruth St. Denis.
• Deaths of major figures in the 70s "added urgency to the preservation of their work. The continued presence of other pioneers, still on hand to validate reconstructions....took on added significance. (By the year 2000, most of them, too, were gone.)" (Reynolds 606).
  
  Robert Wilson created multimedia extravaganzas with Philip Glass. "Wilson explored the multiplicity of meaning in language and used all the mystical allure of inferential imagery in visual and aural fantasy, but however seductive his spectacles, they reflected were conceived separately, without explicit conventions traceable to Cage and Cunningham (not to mention dada)" (Reynolds 607).
• Einstein on the Beach (1976) had a score by Philip Glass and choreography by Lucinda Childs which accounted to some degree for the continued success of the 5-hour work.
• "Einstein on the Beach established Wilson as one of the world's foremost 'theatre artists.' a term coined for multidiscipline stage directors whose work was broadly construed as a theatre of images.... Wilson's work, among the earliest to deomnstgrate that the reductive complexities of postmodern dance could be expanded to maximalist scale, helped define the world of European avant-garde theater; modern dance, which began to gain a new foothold there in the early l1970s, was profoundly affected as well" (609).
  
  Pilobolus was formed by three Dartmouth College undergrads in 1971. "Having little dance training, the young men made use of their gymnastic skills to produce odd sculptural configurations and catapulted flights, experimenting with such basic phenomena as force, gravity and balance. Humor turned out to be a natural byproduct of their way of working...Lacking a sense of history, its members felt no need to repudiate or reform traditions, with the result that audiences from all walks of life could savor their splendid athleticism and serious clowning..." (Reynolds 609-610).
• The addition of two women, Alison Chase and Martha Clarke, in 1973 shifted the work to a more professional level.
• Monkshood Farewell (1974) is a classic work to medieval music reflective of the group's collaborative work.
• Members who struck out on their own include Moses Pendleton who formed the group Momix, "which featured works of unbridled fantasy and humor, using offbeat stage properties and illusionistic effects to create fanciful or sardonic stage visions," and Martha Clarke, whose "tragicomic characterizations tended to stand apart" (612). Note description of Clark's work at bottom of page 613.
  
  Kei Takei and Eiko and Komo are Japanese-Americans that blend Eastern sensibilities with postmodern concepts. Both had connections to the Japanese dance-theatre known as Butoh.
• Light by Kei Takei is "a performance piece that came to total more than thirty installments, to be performed separately or joined together in marathon programs. The Japanese word for light, with its connotations of eternal spiritual radiance--akin to the Western concept of soul--in association with the animating spirit in nature and all creative inspiration, was the governing essence" (Reynolds 614).
• Eiko and Komo's "work was infused with the despair of a ruined nation.....They became known for their ability to assume primordial shapes reminiscent of inanimate natural forms and, with nearly imperceptible adjustments, to transform themselves into anthropomorphic creatures, their nudity partly obscured by mysterious lighting" (616).
  
  Gus Solomons jr danced with Graham, Lang, McKayle, Trisler and Cunningham and began doing his own work in 1968 with a pick-up company. "His dances often reflected Solomons's training in architecture: carefully organized patterns and clear delineation of space gave them something of the cool abstract beauty found in the best modern buildings. On another level, Solomons's work was meant to reflect a deep concern about factors in modern life that he felt were adversely affecting society" (Reynolds 616).
  
  Laura Dean, a dancer for Paul Taylor, developed a minimalist vocabulary based on trance dancing. "In the early 1970s she began choreographing with simplified repetitive movement, later relying entirely on sustained spinning and mathematical progressions of counts in a steady pulse to embody her quasi-mystical insights about space, time and energy" (Reynolds 617).
• Later work included scores she created with live musicians. She was commissioned by Joffery Ballet to create work to include ballet and complex partnering "however, these works lacked the conviction of those produced by her own work, the Laura Dean Musicians and Dancers" (617).
  
  Karole Armitage was dubbed the "punk ballerina" by critics based on her unusual blend of ballet and bizarre movement to punk rock music. Early training and performance in ballet later led to a 5 year career with Cunningham's company. "Her coupling of ear-splitting electronic sound (in 1979) with harsh lighting and Day-Glo punk-chic costumes, and the magnum force with which she and two other dancers attacked their expansive movements, seemed to embody the quintessence of urban trendiness" (Reynolds 618).
  
  Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company integrated their lives as gay men into their work. "Both...perpetuated the heroic ethos of the early moderns in their commitment to dance as an instrument for social change...over a period of seventeen years, they remained intent on developing a presentational style that ventilated interracial conflict and celebrated differences in class, culture and sexuality" (Reynolds 619).
• The company founded in 1982 was known for its diversity in race, gender, sexual preference, age and body type. Jones continued the company under the same name even after Zane's death from AIDS in 1988. "Jones's audacious union of art and life reached its acme in Last Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin/The Promised Land (1990), a three-hour discourse on suffering and faith that crosscut an array of themes and causes." Using his HIV-positive status, he began conducting "Survival Workshops for people struggling with life-threatening illnesses...[which] culminated in 1994 in Still/Here, a multimedia production costing $1.2 million, in which audio excerpts from the confessional workshops provided the backbone of the work...As Jones's career moved into high gear at the end of the 1980s, his work encapulated the themes of multiculturalism, homosexuality, and black sensitivity that were currently being aired in society at large" (620).
  
  Garth Fagan's Bottom of the Bucket, BUT Dance Theatre, renamed the Bucket Dance Theatre and then Garth Fagan Dance, grew out of a desire for a company that dealt primarily with the black experience. Fagan studied with Graham, Limón, and Ailey and began his company at SUNY-Brockport in 1970. Fagan described his training as a synthesis of influences: "The speed comes from ballet but the center comes from modern, and the rhythm comes from Afro-Caribbean" (Reynolds 621).
• Griot: New York (1991) featured a commissioned score by Wynton Marsalis and "alluded without polemics to both the slave background and the current urban pace of black life, he modulated moments of lyrical calm and sudden changes of momentum with the fluency of unself-conscious street dancing. Explosive episodes radiated physicality in lurching tilted balances and spectacular leaps that cut through stage space with energy to burn" (622).
  
  Jawole Willa Jo Zollar's Urban Bush Women was founded in 1984. Zollar studied with a disciple of Katherine Dunham. Her work focuses on "explorations of the folk traditions and the reality of black women's experience, in visionary mixed-media works combining dance with singing, spoken text, and imaginative production elements....in the emotional maelstrom of lives lived at terrible risk, she managed to find images of resilience, dignity, regeneration, community, and even humor" (Reynolds 622).
• Shelter (1987) is a major work "later taken into the Ailey repertory, [that] looked at a world made hostile by downsizing" (622).
• Zollar's residencies typically include a community component and students participating in her workshops are required to complete community service as part of the workshop.
  
  Molissa Fenley, a dance graduate of Mills College, explored the minimalist ideas through constant motion. "The most striking feataure of her performances, exemplified by Energizer (1980), was the amazing stamina with which Fenley and her dancers sustained the breakneck pace and kinetic intensity of her choreography....Fenley developed some distinctive moves--a whiplash action swiveling the torso with arms constantly on the move slicingthe air for example--but for the most part she used a simple vocabulary made up of running and playful skips, jumps, spins in constant motion" (Reynolds 624).
• She abandoned her company in 1989 to concentrate on solo work. "She sought challenging collaborations with composers and artist-designers, often sharing the stage with striking sculptural objects and pieces.....Fenley's style of moving, which had once been monofaceted and frenetic, became more rooted, more meditative, and more allusive" (624).
  
  Elizabeth Streb also focuses on extreme physicality in her work. She performed for several years with experimental companies, including Fenley's after graduating from SUNY-Brockport. "Much of her work concentrated on velocity and stimulating the thrilling sensation of risk she associated with downhill skiing and motorcycle riding....[Her dancers], interacting with one another and following exchanges of verbal cues, swung from cables, leapt off platforms, and hurled themselves against padded walls or mattresses. Once in motion, they were trained to follow a movement's natural trajectory to the brink of real danger" (Reynolds 624).
  
  Susan Marshall "took movement as a point of departure--in her case, every day, pedestrian movement--and injected it with the physicality of contact improvisation...In 1983 she formed a small group, and two years later, her Opening Gambit won a Bessie award" (Reynolds 625).
• See detailed description of her work (625).
  
  Mark Morris "created work that implied respect for tradition, even as he seemd to be thumbing his nose at it; his approach reflected not only the socially conscious ethos of the heroic era but the irreverance of the 1960s, with its blurring of pop culture and high art" (Reynolds 626).
• Danced in other people's companies from age 19 to 26 including Eliot Feld Ballet, Lar Lubovitch, Laura Dean and briefly, Twyla Tharp. Then he began offering his own choreography beginning in 1980 which was initiall "compared to that of Paul Taylor for its breadth and openness of movement, restricted step vocabulary, bounding energy, interest in a wide variety of music, and a gift for comedy. But his personal style of heady independence was also noted" (Reynolds 627).
• A prolific choreographer, Morris is almost chameleon-like in the diverse artistic, musical, design and subject matter choices he makes. See detailed descriptions of various works (628-633). Also collaborated with Baryshnikov on the White Oak Dance Project.