DR635 Dance

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DR635 Dance Discourse - Autumn Term 2007
Post-Modern Dance Dynamic Bodies
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The Constitution of Physical Action

• Last week, we studied some basic categories and
  constitutive components of physical action. We
  mainly focused on spatial qualities.
• Today, we will add to this investigation the
• DYNAMIC QUALITIES OF PHYSICAL ACTION

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Dynamic Qualities

• The same physical action (in spatial terms) can
  be performed in a number of different ways,
  depending on the DYNAMIC QUALITIES of the
  movement.
• Laban suggests that each movement has not only
  its spatial trace but also a dynamic SHADOW
  TRACE, and that there is not only each bodys
  (spatial) kinesphere but also its (dynamic)
  DYNAMOSPHERE.
• His idea of EFFORT QUALITIES is another of his
  useful tools to describe movement.

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Constitution Effort Aspects
There are four basic effort scales
Its not either one end or the other, but a
scale with all of its many shadings in between
the polar ends!!!
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Constitution Effort Aspects

• There are four basic effort scales

• FLOW free to bound
• SPACE flexible to direct
• WEIGHT light to strong
• TIME sustained to sudden

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Constitution Effort Aspects

• When analysing dance, look for significant effort
  patterns (i.e. structures of these dynamic
  elements)
• Also look how these effort patterns are
  distributed
• role
• time
• space
• ....

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Constitution Effort Aspects

• Do not confuse EFFORT QUALITIES with SUBSTANTIAL
  DYNAMIC QUALITIES (force, speed, duration,
  rhythm)!
• The latter are measureable quantities, the
  former are not.

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Analysing the Constitution

• With the vocabulary we have looked at so far,
  you are able to describe and analyse spatial and
  dynamic aspects of physical action.
• Doing a Performance Analyse, you dont catalogue
  each and every spatial and dynamic aspect, but
  you focus on the significant and characteristic
  aspects of a choreography (diachronic/summaritive
  perspective).
• Always ask Which aspects are most significant
  and contribute to the meaning?

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Analysing the Dramaturgy

• At this stage, you will therefore be able to
  identify the basic dramaturgic principle of any
  dance piece whether it has a narrative plotline
  or not!
• What the piece is about may well be aspects of
  spatial or dynamic movement qualities, and their
  specific concatenation.

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DR635 Dance Discourse - Autumn Term 2007
Post-Modern Dance
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Post-Modern Dance

• Merce Cunningham
• Judson Dance Grand Union, Yvonne Rainer

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Merce Cunningham (1919)
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Merce Cunningham (1919)

• Untitled Event at Black Mountain College, 1953,
  with John Cage and Robert Rauschenberg
• Events
• Software LifeForms
• How To Pass, Kick, Fall, and Run (1965)
• Summerspace (1958)
• Our Example Points In Space, a dance film for
  the BBC (1986)

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Merce Cunningham (1919)
Cunningham challenges the expressionism of
modern dance, and its rhetoric of the
natural. He stresses the arbitrary nature of
form and meaning (signifier and signified).
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Merce Cunningham (1919)

• Recommended Further Reading
• Deborah Jowitt, Illusion of Choice Acceptance
  of Chance, in Time and the Dancing Image, 1988
  275-302
• Torse There are no fixed Points in Space
  Interview with Jacqueline Lesschaeve, in Carter
  ed. 1998 29-34
• Roger Copeland, Merce Cunningham The Modernizing
  of Modern Dance. 2004.
• (all in Further Reading/Bibliography)
• Videos (in the library)
• Changing Steps
• Beach Birds for Camera
• Commedia

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Post-Modern Dance

• 6 July 1962, Judson Memorial Church, Greenwich
  Village, NY
• Robert Dunn Yvonne Rainer, Steve Paxton, David
  Gordon, Deborah Hay

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Post-Modern Dance

• Rainer refers to Graham (not Cunningham) as her
  main influence
• the task of the body is no longer to interpret or
  illustrate
• the mode of presentation is task-oriented,
  factual and reflective, stripping the movements
  of expressive qualities
• Post-Modern Dance does not present perfected,
  ideal bodies, unified forms, or codified
  technique, but stresses the bone, muscle and
  flesh as facts in themselves.
• an attitude of quotation is prevailing (quoting
  everyday action, quoting references from other
  dance styles, etc.) found movement
• the performance of physical action itself is the
  dance

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Judson Dance Theatre

• Steve Paxton (1939)
• Contact Improvisation

Yvonne Rainer (1934) Trio A, The Mind is A
Muscle (1966) No Manifesto (1965)
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Grand Union

• collective of NY dancers, artists, painters
  1970s
• Rainer, Trisha Brown, Meredith Monk, Lucinda
  Childs Sol LeWit, Robert Rauschenberg
• Probably their most famous show Einstein On The
  Beach, 1976, chor. Childs, design LeWit, music
  Philip Glass, dir. Robert Wilson

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Post-Modern Dance

• Recommended Further Reading
• Deborah Jowitt, Everday Bodies, in Time and
  the Dancing Image, 1988 303-337
• Sally Banes, Terpsichore in Sneakers Postmodern
  Dance. 1980 1987.
• Ramsay Burt, Judson Dance Theatre Performative
  Traces. 2006.
• (all in Bibliography)

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Preview...

• Next week, we will see how new influences of
  Modern Dance, Postmodern Dance, and even
  Performance Arts have also reshaped Ballet in the
  20th Century.

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...another Preview...

• The DanceDiscourse Basic Performance Checklist

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...and an Exercise

• Using the Dance Discourse Checklist (below),
  use the given questions to review your notes and
  structure your analysis. Then attempt to write a
  brief performance analysis (500 words, one page).
  Bring two copies to class so that you can present
  your writing in next Tuesdays seminar.
•  
• You can chose to do this exercise either on
  Merce Cunninghams Points in Space, or on Jiri
  Kyliáns Symphony in D.

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Jiri Kylián (b. 1947)

• Nederlands Dans Theater, 1977-1999
• Symphony in D (1976)
• Music by Joseph Haydn