Chapter 9 Outline

• Mid-1930s to 1940s--"big four" creating longer works with artistic collaborators for larger ensembles; as a result established own training programs to produce dancers to perform in their work.
• Students encouraged to choreograph from the beginning of their training in order to discover "personal vocabularies"; but not much was codified yet regarding methods of composition.
• Doris Humphrey did not codify her theories until she published The Art of Making Dances in the 1950s. Louis Horst, a musician with Graham, also taught composition to many.
• Graham dancers with companies or solo careers: Anna Sokolow, Jane Dudley, Sophie Maslow, May O'Donnell, Jean Erdman, Pearl Lang, Yuriko, Mary Hinkson, Matt Turney, Bertram Ross, John Butler, Stuart Hodes, Robert Cohan, Donald McKayle, Gus Solomons jr, Merce Cunningham, Erick Hawkins, Paul Taylor.
• Anna Sokolow: "fiercely committed to dance as a force for social change" (Reynolds 321). Managed to learn Graham's fundamental principles yet put her own signature on the work. Work was often dark and despairing.
  Major works include:
  Strange American Funeral (1935)
  War Is Beautiful (1936)
  Street Scene (Kurt Weill, 1947, Broadway)
  Rooms (1955)
• Jane Dudley: Graham dancer who also dealt with social issues in her choreography who first showed her work with the New Dance Group. Stayed with Graham for 9 years while choreographing her own work with Sophie Maslow. Noted for her exhuberant movement style and comedic ability. They planned to make modern dance more accessible through folk material, making modern dance "unformidable, friendly....it spoke of patriotism, and love, grief, anger, courage, laughter, and other common themes, so that all could understand" (Reynolds 324).
  Major works include:
  Jazz Lyric (1938)
  Harmonica Breakdown (1940)
• Humphrey-Weidman dancers with companies or solo careers: Eleanor King, Sybil Shearer, Esther Junger, William Bales, José Limón
• José Limón: Began dancing at 21 and was handsome and tall and athletic. Seeing a performance by German modern dancer Harald Kreutzberg in 1929 inspired him to become a dancer. Wanted to create powerful male roles as a contrast to the dominant feminine perspective in modern dance. Humphrey nurtured and guided him during his ten years in the company. She also became his artistic director when he formed his own company in 1950. Building on Humphrey's work, Limón created a distinctive way of moving characterized by off-center turns and sudden drops to the floor.
• Limón dancers with solo careers or companies include: Lucas Hoving, Pauline Koner, Betty Jones, Carla Maxwell. Company continues after his death in 1972 under the direction of Maxwell. The first modern company to survive the death of its founder.
  Major works include:
  Danza de la Muerta (1937)
  Danza Mexicanos (1939)
  The Moor's Pavane (1949)
  The Emperor Jones (1950s)
  There Is a Time (1950s)
  Missa Brevis (1957)
  Choreographic Offering (1963-tribute to Humphrey)
• Holm dancers with companies or solo careers: Valerie Bettis, Alwin Nikolais
• Valerie Bettis: Performed with Holm for 3 years then left for own creative work. Physical beauty plus strong dramatic ability led to success on Broadway and in film. Committed to a synthesis of techniques for the actor and dancer including mime.
  Major works include:
  The Desperate Heart (1943-solo)
  As I Lay Dying (1948)
  A Streetcar Named Desire (1952)
• Tamiris dancers with companies or solo careers: Daniel Nagrin.
• Daniel Nagrin: Worked as Tamris' assistant and leading dancer on Broadway. Preferred solo work creating roles for himself "usually images of people confronted with demanding situations or psychological dilemmas" (Reynolds 335).
  Major works include:
  Strange Hero (1948)
  Indeterminate Figure (1957)
  The Peloponnesian War (1968)
• Modern dance concentrated in NYC during this period, except for one exception in LA (Lester Horton). Summer programs at Bennington College, Mills College and the Perry-Mansfield Camp in Colorado provided training for college students as well as employment for companies.
• Lester Horton: "invented a movement technique that was kinetically sound and adaptable to as many uses as its practictioners chose to give it" (Reynolds 336). Wanted to develop choreography and a system of movement reflective of "primitive cultures": American Indian, Aztec, Haitian and African. His aim was "to create a system which would correct physical faults,...having all the basic movements which govern the actions of the body, combined with a knowledge of hte origin of movement and a sense of artistic design" (336). A hallmark of Horton's company was the interracial nature of the ensemble.
  Major works include:
  Salome (1934)
  Le Sacre du Printemps (1937)
  Beloved (1948)
  To José Clemente Orozco (1952)
• Horton dancers with companies or solo careers: Alvin Ailey, Bella Lewitsky, Carmen de Lavallade, Joyce Trisler, James Truitte
• African-American contributors to modern dance during this period: New Negro Art Theatre Group (1931), Asadata Dafora (African roots), Wilson Williams's Negro Dance Company, Katherine Dunham, Pearl Primus
• Katherine Dunham: Goal was "to [present] dark-skinned people in a manner delightful and acceptable to people who have never considered them as persons" (Reynolds 341). Directed Federal Dance Theatre in Chicago. Anthropology student at University of Chicago and connected it with dance. Also a political activist. Dunham school opened in 1945 in Manhattan affected performers in Broadway and concert dance. "The technique taught there was based on anatomical principles of ballet and modern dance but emphasized a vocabulary of torso movements and muscular isolations developed from Caribbean and African movement, practiced to jazz rhythms. School closed in 1954, company disbanded in 1965, but she continued her work in East Saint Louis at the Performing Arts Training Center" (Reynolds 343).
  Major works include:
  Tropics and "Le Jazz Hot": From Haiti to Harlem (1940)
  Cabin in the Sky (Co-choreographed with Balanchine for Broadway)
  Tropical Revue (1943)
  Southland (1950)
  Shango
• Dunham dancers with companies or solo careers: Talley Beatty, Archie Savage, LaVerne French, Lenwood Morris, Vanoye Aikins, Peter Gennaro, Arthur Mitchell, Janet Collins.
• Pearl Primus: drifted into dance by chance after excelling in athletics in college. Had no formal training but premiered four pieces in 1943. Began studying with Graham and Humphrey while pursuing scholarly anthropological research on dance in Africa and southern black religious ceremonies (Reynolds 344). "She succeeded in bringing black traditions to life in a way that revealed them as part of a larger American heritage, creating an image that was acceptable to blacks and attractive to white audiences as well" (344).
  Major works include:
  Strange Fruit (1943)
• Donald McKayle: danced with nearly all of the major choreographers of the 1950s. Works usually developed out of some aspect of the black experience but expanded to give a more universal context (Reynolds 346). Also successful on Broadway and in television.
  Major works include:
  Games (1951)
  Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder (1959)
  District Storyville (1962)
  Sophisticated Ladies (Tony-Broadway 19?)
• Talley Beatty: combined Latin and jazz rhythms with modern; movement was percussive and taut. Created dances in which "black audiences could find truthful images of their own experience but that also illuminated that experience for whites" (Reynolds 347).
  Major works include:
  The Road of the Phoebe Snow (1958)
  The Stack-up
• Alvin Ailey: debuted in NYC 1953. Worked on Broadway and continued his training with Graham, Holm, Weidman and Sokolow. Envisioned a racially diverse company like Horton's and eventually succeeded. Also wanted to preserve or revive great dances from the past. Toured extensively internationally; first modern-based company at City Center in Manhattan. Goal was to "broaden the audience for a genre that was commonly considered esoteric and 'difficult'" (Reynolds 348).
  Major works include:
  Blues Suite (1958)
  Revelations (1960)
  Cry (solo for Judith Jamison-1971)
  The Mooche (1975)
  To Bird--With Love (1984)
• Ailey dancers with companies or solo careers: Judith Jamison (current director of Ailey company), Dudley Williams, Ulysses Dove