Download or read book The Bennington School of the Dance written by Elizabeth McPherson and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2013-06-14 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of this groundbreaking summer dance program is told through the voices of staff, faculty, and students. Administrative director Mary Josephine Shelly's previously unpublished writings form a key summary of eight of the nine summer sessions. The Bennington School of the Dance held classes from 1934 through 1942 at Bennington College in Vermont, with one summer spent at Mills College in California. Its effects were far-reaching in the development and dissemination of modern dance as an original American art form. The school produced unique choreographic works by teachers in residence: Martha Graham, Hanya Holm, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman. Leading choreographers of the later 20th century such as Merce Cunningham, Anna Halprin, Jose Limon, Alwin Nikolais and Anna Sokolow participated at the school. The largest portion of students were high school and college level teachers who would spread modern dance across the country and abroad.
Download or read book The Bennington School of the Dance written by Elizabeth McPherson and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2013-06-13 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of this groundbreaking summer dance program is told through the voices of staff, faculty, and students. Administrative director Mary Josephine Shelly's previously unpublished writings form a key summary of eight of the nine summer sessions. The Bennington School of the Dance held classes from 1934 through 1942 at Bennington College in Vermont, with one summer spent at Mills College in California. Its effects were far-reaching in the development and dissemination of modern dance as an original American art form. The school produced unique choreographic works by teachers in residence: Martha Graham, Hanya Holm, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman. Leading choreographers of the later 20th century such as Merce Cunningham, Anna Halprin, Jose Limon, Alwin Nikolais and Anna Sokolow participated at the school. The largest portion of students were high school and college level teachers who would spread modern dance across the country and abroad.
Download or read book Martha Hill and the Making of American Dance written by Janet Mansfield Soares and published by Wesleyan University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-21 with total page 455 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A lively and intimate portrait of an unsung heroine in American dance Martha Hill (1900–1995) was one of the most influential figures of twentieth century American dance. Her vision and leadership helped to establish dance as a serious area of study at the university level and solidify its position as a legitimate art form. Setting Hill's story in the context of American postwar culture and women's changing status, this riveting biography shows us how Hill led her colleagues in the development of American contemporary dance from the Kellogg School of Physical Education to Bennington College and the American Dance Festival to the Juilliard School at Lincoln Center. She created pivotal opportunities for Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, Hanya Holm, José Limón, Merce Cunningham, and many others. The book provides an intimate look at the struggles and achievements of a woman dedicated to taking dance out of the college gymnasium and into the theatre, drawing on primary sources that were previously unavailable. It is lavishly illustrated with period photographs.
Download or read book American Dance written by Margaret Fuhrer and published by Voyageur Press. This book was released on 2015-11-30 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most comprehensive, beautiful book ever to be published on dance in America. "We look at the dance to impart the sensation of living in an affirmation of life, to energize the spectator into keener awareness of the vigor, the mystery, the humor, the variety, and the wonder of life. This is the function of the American dance." Groundbreaking choreographer Martha Graham deeply understood the power and complexity of dance--particularly as it evolved in her home country. American Dance, by critic and journalist Margaret Fuhrer, traces that richly complex evolution. From Native American dance rituals to dance in the digital age, American Dance explores centuries of innovation, individual genius and collaborative exploration. Some of its stories - such as Fred Astaire dancing on the ceiling or Alvin Ailey founding the trailblazing company that bears his name - will be familiar to anyone who loves dance. The complex origins of tap, for instance, or the Puritan outrage against "profane and promiscuous dancing" during the early years of the United States, are as full of mystery and humor as Graham describes. These various developments have never before been presented in a single book, making American Dance the most comprehensive work on the subject to date. Breakdancing, musical-theater dance, disco, ballet, jazz, ballroom, modern, hula, the Charleston, the Texas two-step, swing--these are just some of the forms celebrated in this riveting volume Hundreds of photographs accompany the text, making American Dance as visually captivating as the works it depicts.
Download or read book Legacies of Twentieth Century Dance written by Lynn Garafola and published by Wesleyan University Press. This book was released on 2005-01-28 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Selected writings illuminate a century of international dance.
Download or read book Moving Lessons written by Janice Ross and published by University of Wisconsin Pres. This book was released on 2012-11 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Moving Lessons is an insightful and sophisticated look at the origins and influence of dance in American universities, focusing on Margaret H'Doubler, who established the first university courses and the first degree program in dance (at the University of Wisconsin). Dance educator and historian Janice Ross shows that H'Doubler (1889–1982) was both emblematic of her time and an innovator who made deep imprints in American culture. An authentic "New Woman," H'Doubler emerged from a sheltered female Victorian world to take action in the public sphere. She changed the way Americans thought, not just about female physicality but also about higher education for women. Ross brings together many discourses—from dance history, pedagogical theory, women's history, feminist theory, American history, and the history of the body—in intelligent, exciting, and illuminating ways and adds a new chapter to each of them. She shows how H'Doubler, like Isadora Duncan and other modern dancers, helped to raise dance in the eyes of the middle class from its despised status as lower-class entertainment and "dangerous" social interaction to a serious enterprise. Taking a nuanced critical approach to the history of women's bodies and their representations, Moving Lessons fills a very large gap in the history of dance education.
Download or read book The American Dance Festival written by Jack Anderson and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 1987 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The American Dance Festival has been a magnet drawing together diverse artists, styles, theories, and dance training methods; from this creative mix the ADF has emerged as the sponsor of performances by some of the greatest choreographers and dance companies of our time. Jack Anderson traces the development of ADF from its beginnings in New England to its seasons at Duke University. He displays the ADF for the multidimensional creature it is—a center for performances, a school for the best young dancers in the country, and a provider of community and professional services.
Download or read book Errand into the Maze written by Deborah Jowitt and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2024-01-30 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the legendary dance critic Deborah Jowitt, Errand into the Maze is the definitive biography of the visionary dancer and choreographer Martha Graham. “Deborah Jowitt chronicles a life passionately, artfully lived. An essential read about a true legend.” —Mikhail Baryshnikov In the pantheon of American modernists, few figures loom larger than Martha Graham. One of the greatest choreographers ever to live, Graham pioneered a revolutionary dance technique—primal, dynamic, and rooted in the emotional life of the body—that upended traditional vocabulary and shaped generations of dancers and choreographers across the globe. Over her sweeping career, she founded what is now the oldest dance company in the country and produced nearly two hundred ballets, many of them masterpieces. And along the way, she engaged with the major debates, events, and ideas of the twentieth century, creating works that cut to the core of the human experience. Time magazine’s “Dancer of the Century,” and the first dancer and choreographer to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Graham was a visionary artistic force and an international cultural figure: hers was the iconic face of what came to be known as modern dance. From the renowned dance writer and former longtime critic for The Village Voice Deborah Jowitt, Errand into the Maze draws on more than a decade of firsthand research to deliver the definitive portrait of this titan. Beginning with Graham’s childhood in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and her early studies at the Denishawn School; weaving in her offstage adventures, including her relationship with her dancer and muse Erick Hawkins; and chronicling her retirement from dancing at age seventy-five and her remarkably productive final years, this elegant, empathetic biography portrays the artist in all her passionate complexity. Most important, Jowitt places Graham’s creations at the heart of her story. Her works, brimming with raw intensity, are intimately linked with their creator, who played the heroine in almost all that she choreographed: Joan of Arc, Jocasta, Clytemnestra, and Judith, among others. In this volume, Graham is centerstage once more, and Jowitt casts a brilliant spotlight on her life and work.
Download or read book Dance Modernity and Culture written by Helen Thomas and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003-09-02 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By examining the development of modern dance in the USA in the inter-war period, Thomas develops a framework for analysing dance from a sociological perspective. She applies her approach to, among others, St Denis, Ted Shawn, and Martha Graham.
Download or read book History of Dance written by Gayle Kassing and published by Human Kinetics. This book was released on 2007 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: History of Dance: An Interactive Arts Approachprovides an in-depth look at dance from the dawn of time through the 20th century. Using an investigative approach, this book presents the who, what, when, where, why, and how of dance history in relation to other arts and to historical, political, and social events. In so doing, this text provides a number of ways to create, perceive, and respond to the history of dance through integrated arts and technology. This study of dancers, dances, and dance works within an interactive arts, culture, and technology environment is supported by the National Standards in dance, arts education, social studies, and technology education. History of Dance: An Interactive Arts Approachhas four parts. Part Iexplains the tools used to capture dance from the past. Part IIbegins a chronological study of dance, beginning with its origins and moving through ancient civilizations and the Middle Ages through the Renaissance. Part IIIcovers dance from the 17th to the 20th century, including dance at court, dance from court to theater, romantic to classical ballet, and dance in the United States. Part IVfocuses on 20th-century American dance, highlighting influences on American ballet and modern dance as it emerged, matured, and evolved during that century. History of Dance: An Interactive Arts Approachincludes the following features: -Chapter outlines that present topics covered in each chapter -Opening scenarios to set the scene and introduce each time period -Explorations of dancers, choreographers, and other personalities -Explorations of the dances and significant choreography and dance literature of each time period -History Highlight boxes containing unusual facts, events, and details to bring history to life -History Trivia, providing insights into how dance relates to the history, art, and society of the time period -Web sites to encourage further exploration -Developing a Deeper Perspective sections that encourage students to use visual or aesthetic scanning, learn and perform period dances, observe and write performance reports, develop research projects and WebQuests (Internet-based research projects), and participate in other learning activities -Vocabulary terms at the end of each chapter Each chapter in parts II through IV provides an overview of the time period, including a time capsule and a historical and societal overview. Each chapter focuses on major dancers, choreographers, and personalities; dances of the period, including dance forms, dance designs, accompaniment, costuming, and performing spaces; and significant dance works and dance literature. The chapters also feature a series of eight experiential learning activities that help students dig deeper into the history of dance, dancers, and significant dance works and literature. These activities are presented as reproducible templates that include perceiving, creating, performing, writing, and presenting oral activities infused with technology. Teachers can use these activities as optional chapter assignments or as extended projects to help apply the information and to use technology and other integrated arts sources to make the history of dance more meaningful. History of Danceis an indispensable text for dance students who want to learn the history of dance and its relationship to other arts of the times using today's interactive technology.
Download or read book Frontiers written by Karen Bell-Kanner and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-13 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The daily life of Bonnie Bird, as an American modern dancer in the 1930s, is uniquely revealed in this book. Karen Bell-Kanner shares with the reader her fascinating interviews with Bonnie Bird and the intimate letters that Bonnie Bird wrote to her family in Seattle from New York when she was working with Martha Graham between 1931 and 1937. On her return to the Cornish School of Fine Arts in Seattle as dancer-teacher- choreographer, she had the then novice dancer Merce Cunningham among her students and the young John Cage as her accompanist. In New York again, she developed the popular dance entertainment for children, the Merry-Go-Rounders, in the 1950s. Bonnie Bird's applications of psychology led her to pioneer new concepts and techniques in dance education that have influenced generations of contemporary dance teachers. Her last twenty years were spent at London's Laban Centre for Movement and Dance, where the accomplishments of a lifetime were gathered together to expand the frontiers of
Download or read book Modern Dance in Germany and the United States written by Isa Partsch-Bergsohn and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First Published in 1995. In Modern Dance in Germany and the United States: Crosscurrents and Influences Isa PartschBergsohn discusses the phenomenon of the modem dance movement between 1902 and 1986 in an international context, focussing on its beginnings in Europe and its philosophy as formulated by the pioneers Dalcroze, Laban, Wigman and Jooss. The author traces the effects the Third Reich had on these artists, and shows the influence these key choreographers had on the developing American modem dance movement through the postwar years, concentrating in particular on Kurt Jooss and his Tanztheater. When America took the lead in modem dance innovation during the sixties, artists such as Martha Graham, Jose Limon, Paul Taylor, Alvin Ailey and Alwin Nikolais overwhelmed European audiences. Subsequently, the artists of the New German Tanztheater revitalized German theatre traditions by blending new content with some of the American contemporary dance techniques. Although the history of modem dance in these two countries is closely linked, the author describes how each country has kept its own unique and distinctive style.
Download or read book Where the Heart Beats written by Kay Larson and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2013-07-30 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “heroic” biography of John Cage and his “awakening through Zen Buddhism”—“a kind of love story” about a brilliant American pioneer of the creative arts who transformed himself and his culture (The New York Times) Composer John Cage sought the silence of a mind at peace with itself—and found it in Zen Buddhism, a spiritual path that changed both his music and his view of the universe. “Remarkably researched, exquisitely written,” Where the Heart Beats weaves together “a great many threads of cultural history” (Maria Popova, Brain Pickings) to illuminate Cage’s struggle to accept himself and his relationship with choreographer Merce Cunningham. Freed to be his own man, Cage originated exciting experiments that set him at the epicenter of a new avant-garde forming in the 1950s. Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, Allan Kaprow, Morton Feldman, and Leo Castelli were among those influenced by his ‘teaching’ and ‘preaching.’ Where the Heart Beats shows the blossoming of Zen in the very heart of American culture.
Download or read book History of Dance 2E written by Kassing, Gayle and published by Human Kinetics. This book was released on 2017-05-17 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: History of Dance, Second Edition, examines dance from prehistoric times to today. It focuses on the dancers and choreographers, dances, and significant dance works from each time period and offers an instructor guide, test bank, PowerPoint presentation package, and student web resource to reinforce learning.
Download or read book Anna Halprin written by Janice Ross and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2009-05-06 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive biography examines Halprin's fascinating life in the context of American culture - in particular popular culture and the West Coast as a center of artistic experimentation from the Beats through the Hippies to the present.
Download or read book Dance for Export written by Naima Prevots and published by Wesleyan University Press. This book was released on 2012-12-20 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the height of the Cold War in 1954, President Eisenhower inaugurated a program of cultural exchange that sent American dancers and other artists to political "hot spots" overseas. This peacetime gambit by a warrior hero was a resounding success. Among the artists chosen for international duty were José Limón, who led his company on the first government-sponsored tour of South America; Martha Graham, whose famed ensemble crisscrossed southeast Asia; Alvin Ailey, whose company brought audiences to their feet throughout the South Pacific; and George Balanchine, whose New York City Ballet crowned its triumphant visits to Western Europe and Japan with an epoch-making tour of the Soviet Union in 1962. The success of Eisenhower's program of cultural export led directly to the creation of the National Endowment for the Arts and Washington's Kennedy Center. Naima Prevots draws on an array of previously unexamined sources, including formerly classified State Department documents, congressional committee hearings, and the minutes of the Dance Panel, to reveal the inner workings of "Eisenhower's Program," the complex set of political, fiscal, and artistic interests that shaped it, and the ever-uneasy relationship between government and the arts in the US. CONTRIBUTORS: Eric Foner.
Download or read book The American Dancer written by and published by . This book was released on 1940 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: