Download Chapter 13-- 1960-1979

Chapter 13-- 1960-1979
I. The 1960s in America have been referred to as the Age of Aquarius and
proclaimed a time of peace, not way and the youth of America declared a revolution
against politics and this was reflected in art, fashion and etiquette. Dance was also
affected by this change of thought and dances in the sixties came and went and
chance and change became the standard.
A. At the end of the sixties, dances that were seen as avant-garde and the beginning
of the decade were commonplace and had lost the shock value or the distinction of
new and different.
1. During this time, instead of using literary themes for inspiration, choreographers
explored mathematical relationships, improvisations, everyday movements, tasks,
games and other structure.
2. Civic (or regional ballets) became the development for dancers training for
professional ballet companies.
3. In social dance, disco became popular and disc jockeys created long sequences
of music.
-1-
B. The National Endowment for the Arts funded Dance in America and the
advent of videotape recording in 1976 allowed teachers to bring dance
performances into the classroom.
C. Foreign policy and civil rights were forefront on the political scene in the
sixties and John F. Kennedy became the youngest president to be elected to the
United States. The cold war ended with the signing of a nuclear test-ban treaty.
The struggle for civil rights invoked violence and in 1964, the Civil Rights Act
passed. In the sixties, 200,000 troops were sent to Viet Nam. Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. was assibilated. Reform caused upheaval and in 1974 proceeding to
impeach President Richard Nixon resulted in his resignation and Gerald Ford
took office and his first act as President was to pardon Richard Nixon. First
Lady Betty Ford had danced with Martha Graham. When asked by the press if
Betty Ford could have had a career in dance, Martha Graham replied, that she
could not say since she had not danced with her for very long. For the first time,
women entered U.S. military schools. In 1977 Jimmy Carter was inaugurated as
President and he focused on controlling inflation, unemployment and energy
shortages.
-2-
D. During the sixties, there was support of civil rights and womens rights and
individual choices and protest of America’s involvement in the Viet Nam war.
College students committed acts of civil disobedience which sometimes erupted
into violence. The symbols of the decade were the peace sign, psychedelic
drugs and sexual liberty made more prevalent by the Federal Drug
Administration’s approval of the birth control pill. There was also a
conservative movement with a religious revival and African American society
sought stability. The decade ended with a celebration at Woodstock and Apollo
II landing on the moon.
E. Social Dance during the 60s included Chubby Checkers song and dance
titled “The Twist” which created a dance craze and revolution where people
could dance together or solo without body contact. The hippie movement of
free love and the sexual revolution had affected social dance as a way to meet
the opposite sex.
1. Rock music evolved from rock n roll and discotheques which later became
disco clubs created fad dancing and no touch partner dancing.
-3-
2. The seventies brought heavy metal and punk.
3. Swing dance was still popular but had moved to retro clubs.
4. The twist had launched the point for fad dances which included the mashed
potato, the frug, the swim, the jerk and others.
5. Latin influence resulted in the bossa nova (which means new dance) in
Portuguese, the boogalo and the hustle which was popular for 20 years.
F. In 1959 the distinction between ballet and modern dance began to blur when
George Balanchine invited Martha Graham to collaborate on a work called
“Episodes.” Paul Taylor danced in Balanchine’s section. The new fusion of the
two forms provided the basis for the next period of change.
G. Major Figures in Ballet. While George Balanchine was producing abstract
ballets for New York City Ballet, Jerome Robbins was choreographing
emotional ballets with a jazz influence. American Ballet Theatre continued with
the staging of classics and also contemporary ballets. These two major
American ballet companies provided the roots for a new generation of dancers
and choreographers.
-4-
1. Arthur Mitchell (1934- ) was the first African American principal dancers in
a major ballet company. After attending the School of American Ballet, he
joined New York City Ballet in 1955. At the height of his dancing career, he
left the company in 1968 and returned to Harlem to teach all kinds of dance to
young children and teenagers in the basement of a church. Within one year, he
founded his company, Dance Theatre of Harlem which included classic works
by Balanchine and original choreography of his own.
2. Robert Joffrey is mentioned again as far as the perspective of the time as well
as Gerald Arpino who was both co-director of the Joffrey Ballet and
choreographer.
3. Suzanne Farrell (1945- ) was born in Cincinnati as Roberta Sue Flicker and
attended the School of American Ballet and joined New York City Ballet in
1961 when she was sixteen. She became one of Balanchines muses and was
mentioned before in our discussion of Balanchine. Her marriage to another
dancer in the NYCB created tension between her and Balanchine and she and
her new husband both quit the company and danced in Europe. Eventually she
returned to NYCB and the started her own company, The Suzanne Farrell Ballet.
4. Gelsey Kirkland (1952- ) was born in Pennsylvania and attended the School
-5of American Ballet and joined NYCB in 1968. She created many roles in
works by both Balanchine and Robbins. In 1974 she joined American Ballet
Theatre where she was Mikhail Bayshnikov’s partner. She has written two
autobiographies Dancing on My Grave and The Shape of Love which discuss
the pressures she experienced as a soloist and principal dancer that led to her
problems with addiction. During the writing of her first book, she had left ABT
and was coaching dancers. In 1984 she returned to the stage to perform as a
guest artist with The Royal Ballet.
5. Rudolph Nureyev (1938-1993) was one of the foremost male dancers of the
20th century and was from the Soviet Republic. He began studying ballet in his
teen years and auditioned for the Bolshoi Ballet, but instead joined the
Maryinsky (Kirov) Ballet where he became a soloist in 1958. He defected from
the Soviet Union in 1961 while on tour in Paris. Previous to his defection, he
had been confined to only performing in the Soviet Union because while on tour
in Vienna, he had socialized with foreigners and this was discouraged by his
country. He was one of the foremost dancers for the Kirov at this time. While
in Paris on another tour, Nureyev once again broke the rules and he was told by
the directors of the Kirov that he was not going to be allowed to go to
-6-
London, but was to return to the Soviet Union for a special performance in the
Kremlin. Because he had been being investigated, he was afraid that if he
returned to the U.S.S.R. that he would be imprisoned, so he defected. He had
subsequently petitioned the Soviet Government to allow him to return to the
Soviet Union to visit his family but was not allowed to do so until 1989 when
his mother was dying at which point, permission was granted for him to visit by
Mikhail Gorbachev. During his visit he performed as a guest with the Kirov
Ballet. Nureyev joined the Royal Ballet in Britain in 1962 and formed a long
lasting dance partnership with Margot Fonteyn which they maintained after he
left the company in 1970. They performed together until 1988 and their last
performance was 50 years old and Fonteyn was 69. He played Rudolph
Valentino in the movie Valentino but decided against an acting career and
branched into modern dance with the Dutch National Ballet.
In 1982, he became a naturalized Austrian and in 1983, he was appointed
the director of the Paris Opera Ballet where he was director and chief
choreographer until 1989. He continued to work tirelessly to the end of his
career and life and was known for being a considerate partner and maintained
long lasting friendships both within the dance world and out of the dance
-7-
world. He was friends with Mick Jagger and Andy Worhal and Jacqueline
Kennedy Onassis.
Nureyev is known for changing the role of the male dancers in dance. In
his productions, the males received more choreography. He also was an
important influence in crossing the line between ballet and modern dance and
although this is considered commonplace today, during the height of his career,
it was not.
6. Mikhail Baryshnikov (1948- ) was mentioned in the previous lecture but is
again mentioned here as reference to chronology.
7. Natalia Makarova (1940- ) graduate from the Vaganova Ballet Academy in
Leningrad in 1959 and joined the Kirov Ballet. Her signature role was as
Giselle and in ten years after appearing in London, she defected to the United
States to join the American Ballet Theatre. She danced the final performance of
her career in 1989 with the Kirov in Leningrad.
H. Dance literature at this time expanded in different directions to include
-8-
books which became textbook classics for the study of dance and dance history
as well as the expansion of dance technique books.
I. The result of this era of chance and change was to create a time when dance
forms were blended to create contemporary ballet.
I. While the previous generation of modern dancers had sought to have the
venues of theaters equipped with theatrical elements, the generation of new
modern dancers were seeking open spaces and staging dances in the street and
experimenting with other elements of presenting dance. The themes of modern
dance were new subject and not the literary themes of the older generation and
dances became non-literate, abstract dances focusing primarily on movement.
Many of the choreographers were considered to be too avant-garde to be
included in the established summer school of dance at Connecticut College in
the early sixties.
A. Alvin Ailey (1931-1989) is known as the first chronicler of the black
experience. He was born in Texas and moved to Los Angeles where he studied
and performed with Lester Horton and continued as the companys director
-9-
after the death of Horton and when the company disbanded, Ailey moved to
New York to study modern technique with Martha Graham and Afro-Haitian
with Katherine Dunham. In 1958 he founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance
Theatre and used Horton technique as the basis for his choreography with
African overtones and jazz influence.
B. Alwin Nikolais (1910-1993) was born in Connecticut and was a professional
musician with an interest in theater and painting who played for silent movies
and accompanied dance classes. He studied with Mary Wigman and he was the
choreographer for the Federal Theatre Project in Harford in 1930. He later
studied with Hanya Holm. After serving in World War II, he became Holms
assistant and in the 1950's he started his own school and company creating new
works and writing electronic scores. He collaborated with Murray Lewis, a
former dancer who formed his own dance company and they worked together
forty years. The intent of Nikolais was to allow the audience to interpret his
choreography for themselves and in many of his works; the dances wore masks
and used props as well as black lights and designing the lights himself. His
abstract choreography was a response to the literary interpretations of the artistic
generation before.
-10-
C. Merce Cunningham (1919- ) was born in Washington and started dancing at
the age of 12 and also studied acting. In 1940, he joined the Martha Graham
Company as a soloist and for the next five years created many leading male
roles. In 1942 Cunningham began choreographing and presenting concerts with
musician John Cage. He formed his own company in 1953 and in 1964, he
started staging what he called “events.” By the year 1999, he had created 500 of
them. The events were based upon structured improvisation where the dancers
did not know what they were going to perform that day. They knew the dances,
or part of the dances, but not the sequence in which they were going to be
performed. Cunningham choreographs and rehearses his dances without music
and the first time the dancers hear the music is when they perform the dance.
His concept of “chance dances” provide choices within movement sequences
without the artist conveying an idea. His technique is based in ballet and his
dancers are highly technically skilled. All of the supporting elements of dance;
sound, props, scenery, costumes, coexist but remain separate elements of the
final performance of the dance.
D. Paul Taylor (1930- ) was born in Pittsburg and grew up in Washington D.C.
He studied art in college but later changed his focus to dance and studied at
-11-
Julliard. He formed his own company in 1954 before joining Martha Grahams
company with whom he danced for seven years and in 1960, the Paul Taylor
Dance Company toured internationally. Taylor retired from dancing in 1960 but
continues to choreograph and direct his company. Taylors technique is unique
with both balletic and Graham influence.
E. Anna Halprin (1920- ) studied dance at the University of Wisconsin and with
Graham, Humphrey and Weidman in New York. In the 1950's she moved to
San Francisco and founded the Dancer’s Workshop for dances to explore
movement with other artists. Her works included the audience as participants in
the dance and then moved into body/movement therapies with dance as a healing
art. She influenced many postmodern dancers.
F. Yvonne Rainer (1934- ) was born in San Francisco and studied with Graham
and Cunningham in New York City and in the 1950s with Halprin. In 1960, she
became a founding member of New York Judsons Theater. Rainer wanted to
produce dance without technique or theatricality. She wanted natural and
unaffected movement and her interaction between the audience and the
performers. Her works evolved into collages with props and disguises and
-12-
then into films of which she has created seven full length films with her
signature piece being Trio.
G. Meredith Monk (1943-)studied dance and music and began to compose
music in her teens. She studied with Graham and Cunningham and then began
to create original works in which she often used her own music or voice. She
has received several award for her original works.
H. Twyla Tharp (1941- ) was born in Indiana and studied music, languages,
baton, acrobatics and dance. She attended Pomona College but transferred to
Barnard, graduating with a degree in art history in 1963. She trained at
American Ballet Theatre and studied with Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham
and Alwin Nikolais and Eugene “Luigi” Facciuto. She danced with Paul
Taylor’s company for two years and then started her own company in 1965. Her
company changed from and became known as the Twyla Tharp Foundation and
in 1996 it was a twelve member ensemble. She currently does not have a
permanent company. Tharp reached her peak of artistic acceptance in the
mainstream of dance in the 1970s when she first choreographed Deuce Coupe
for the Joffrey Ballet. Her huge success was Push Comes to Shove in 1976
-13-
with Baryshnikov as the lead dancer. In the 80s she tried new directions in
choreographing for films including “White Knights.” In 1982 she
choreographed Nine Sinatra Songs. She is an internationally known artist and
her approach to her work was unique and different for the time. She used one
method of choreographing to the “Beach Boys” a popular sixties pop musical
group and then changing the music to a classical selection. Her work is athletic
and full of surprises and has an intensity mixed with detachment.
I. Kei Takei (1946-) was born in Japan and studied dance at the Sakaki Bara
Childrens Dance School as well as traditional Japanese dance. She received a
Fulbright Fellowship to Julliard in the 60s and in New York, trained in ballet
and modern dance with Cunningham, Nikolais, Trisha Brown and Anna Halprin.
She has worked on one choreographic series, Light since 1967 and has
produced more than 30 parts of the series. In the 1980s she founded a company
named “Moving Earth” which means the ability to expand and contract and later
renamed it Moving Earth Orient Sphere. Her dances use earthy everyday
movements and have said to be mesmerizing. She has been awarded the National
Endowment of the Arts Choreographic award four times as well as many other
awards and fellowships.
-14-
J. People who contributed to the development of modern dance.
1. John Cage 1912-1992) was born in Los Angeles and studied atonal
composition. In the thirties, he moved to Seattle where he worked as an
accompanist and met Merce Cunningham. They collaborated, created works and
taught until his death. Cage’s approach and contribution to dance was
groundbreaking in allowing the movement to come from the dancers instead of
the music being the source of interpretation.
2. Robert and Judith Dunn were a married couple who taught dance
composition workshops that led to the emergence of the Judson Dance Theater.
Judith was a former Cunningham dancer and Robert was a musician and
composer who had studied with Cage and accompanied classes for Graham and
Cunningham. The composition involved using new structures to explore
movement and solve choreographic problems and to examine the process while
doing so.
J. Modern Dance Companies and Schools during this time
-15-