FIFTY CONTEMPORARY CHOREOGRAPHERS Fifty Contemporary Choreographers is a unique and authoritative guide to the lives and work of today’s most prominent choreographers. Those included represent a wide range of dance genres, from ballet to postmodern. Among those whose work is discussed are Matthew Bourne, William Forsythe, Mark Morris and Twyla Tharp. The book locates each choreographer’s style in the context of contemporary dance theatre, and shows its influence upon modern dance. Each entry includes: • a critical essay • a short biography • a list of choreographic works • a detailed bibliography An introduction by Deborah Jowitt of The Village Voice provides a superb overview of the world of modern dance, making this an invaluable reference source for all students and critics, dancers and general readers. Martha Bremser is a freelance editor and writer, and edited the much praised International Dictionary of Ballet (St James Press, 1993). Routledge Key Guides Ancient History: Key Themes and Approaches Neville Morley Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts (Second Edition) Susan Hayward Eastern Philosophy: Key Readings Oliver Leaman Fifty Eastern Thinkers Diané Collinson, Kathryn Plant and Robert Wilkinson Fifty Contemporary Choreographers Edited by Martha Bremser Fifty Key Contemporary Thinkers John Lechte Fifty Key Jewish Thinkers Dan Cohn-Sherbok Fifty Key Thinkers on History Marnie Hughes-Warrington Fifty Key Thinkers in International Relations Martin Griffiths Fifty Major Philosophers Diané Collinson Key Concepts in Cultural Theory Andrew Edgar and Peter Sedgwick Key Concepts in Eastern Philosophy Oliver Leaman Key Concepts in Language and Linguistics R.L.Trask Key Concepts in the Philosophy of Education John Gingell and Christopher Winch Key Concepts in Popular Music Roy Shuker Post-Colonial Studies: The Key Concepts Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin Social and Cultural Anthropology: The Key Concepts Nigel Rapport and Joanna Overing FIFTY CONTEMPORARY CHOREOGRAPHERS Martha Bremser With an Introduction by Deborah Jowitt London and New York First published 1999 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada By Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “ To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/.” © 1999 Selection and editorial matter, Martha Bremser; individual contributions to their authors The right of Martha Bremser to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data has been applied for ISBN 0-203-97797-1 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-415-10363-0 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-10364-9 (pbk) CONTENTS CONTRIBUTORS viii EDITOR’S NOTE xiii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xv Introduction by Deborah Jowitt 1 Richard Alston 12 Lea Anderson 19 Karole Armitage 24 Pina Bausch 29 Laurie Booth 35 Matthew Bourne 42 Trisha Brown 46 Christoper Bruce 53 Jonathan Burrows 59 Rosemary Butcher 65 Carolyn Carlson 70 Lucinda Childs 75 Michael Clark 81 Robert Cohan 88 Merce Cunningham 93 Siobhan Davies 100 Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker 108 Laura Dean 114 Douglas Dunn 120 Eiko and Koma 126 Mats Ek 130 Garth Fagan 134 Eliot Feld 139 William Forsythe 144 Jean-Claude Gallotta 150 David Gordon 154 Bill T.Jones 161 James Kudelka 168 Jiří Kylián 175 Daniel Larrieu 182 Murray Louis 186 Lar Lubovitch 191 Maguy Marin 197 Susan Marshall 201 Bebe Miller 206 Meredith Monk 210 Mark Morris 216 Graeme Murphy 223 Lloyd Newson 228 Robert North 232 Kazuo Ohno 238 Steve Paxton 243 Stephen Petronio 249 Pilobolus 254 Ian Spink 259 Elizabeth Streb 266 Kei Takei 270 Paul Taylor 274 Glen Tetley 281 Twyla Tharp 288 Contributors Joan Acocella is the dance critic for The New Yorker. She is the author of Mark Morris (1993) and she has also edited André Levinson on Dance: Writings from Paris in the Twenties (with Lynn Garafola, 1991) and The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky (1999). Ann Cooper Albright is Associate Professor in the Theater and Dance Program of Oberlin College, Ohio. She has received several Ohio Arts Council awards in dance criticism, and is author of Choreographing Difference: The Body and Identity in Contemporary Dance (1997). Judy Burns is based in New York and has taught at Brooklyn College. She has written for Dance Research Journal, DCA News, and Women and Performance (for which she has also been an editor). Rachel Chamberlain Duerden is Senior Lecturer in Dance at Manchester Metropolitan University. She has written for several reference works on dance, including The International Dictionary of Ballet (1993). Virginia Christian is a professional editor and freelance writer on dance who has contributed to International Dictionary of Ballet (1993) and other works. Nicole Dekle Collins, based in New York, is a former associate editor of Dance Magazine, to which she also contributed many articles. She has also written for Dance View, The Village Voice and other publications. Anita Donaldson is Dean of the Elder Conservatorium, School of Performing Arts, at the University of Adelaide, Australia. Her writings on dance include contributions to Dance Australia and Brolga. George Dorris is a New York-based writer on dance and musical theatre. He has been co-editor of Dance Chronicle since 1977, contributed many ‘New York Newsletters’ to Dancing Times in London, and wrote the book Paoli Rolli and the Italian Circle in London 1715–1744 (1967). Sandra Genter is Professor of Dance at Barnard College (Columbia University), New York and also a choreographer. She has contributed articles to Ballet Review and Dance Research Journal. Marianne Goldberg is a writer and choreographer based in New York. She has written a number of articles on choreography for Contact Quarterly, Dance Research Journal, Dance Theatre Journal, The Drama Review, and notably Women & Performance. Nancy Goldner is a dance writer living in New York. She has been the dance critic for The Nation, The Christian Science Monitor, and Dance News, among other publications. Her books include Choreography by George Balanchine: A Catalogue of Works (edited, 1983), Coppélia: New York City Ballet (with Lincoln Kirstein, 1974), and The Stravinsky Festival of the New York City Ballet (1972). Malve Gradinger is a dance critic based in Munich. Her many writings have appeared in Ballett-Info, Ballett International, Tanz Affiche, Tanz International, Tanz Aktuell, and various reference works. Robert Greskovic is a dance critic and teacher living in New York. He is the author of Ballet 101 (1998), consulting editor of The Best Ever Book of Ballet (1996), and author of the Afterword to Balanchine Pointework by Suki Schorer (1995). He also writes about dance for The Wall Street Journal. Dale Harris was, until his death in 1996, a distinguished New York writer on music and dance, and professor of arts and humanities at Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York, and lastly at Cooper Union in New York City. He was dance critic for The Wall Street Journal and a music critic for The Washington Post. His other writings include contributions to Ballet News, Ballet Review, Dancing Times, Opera, Opera Canada, and a number of newspapers. Joanna Harris is a writer on dance and dance therapy, based in Berkeley, California. Her articles have appeared in American Journal of Dance Therapy, and Dance Research Journal, and she has compiled several editions of the Bibliography on Dance Therapy. Donald Hutera is a dance critic for London’s Time Out and The Times, as well as a contributor to Dance Europe, Dance Theatre Journal, Dance Now, and various reference works on dance. He is co-author (with Allen Robertson) of The Dance Handbook (1988). Stephanie Jordan is Professor of Dance Studies at Roehampton Institute London. She is author of Moving Music (due to be published in 1999) and Striding Out: Aspects of Contemporary and New Dance in Britain (1992). She has also written for a number of dance journals. Deborah Jowitt teaches at New York University, and has been principal dance critic for New York’s Village Voice since 1967. Her books include Dance Beat: Selected Views and Reviews 1967–1976 (1977), The Dance in Mind: Profiles and Reviews 1976–1983 (1985), Time and the Dancing Image (1988), and the anthology Meredith Monk (1997), which she edited. She has also contributed to a number of newspapers, magazines and journals. Angela Kane is Principal Lecturer in Dance at Roehampton Institute London, and a freelance dance critic. She has written for Dance Gazette, Dance Research, Dancing Times, Dance Theatre Journal, and several reference works and essay collections. Kathryn Kerby-Fulton is a freelance dance writer, as well as Professor of English at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, where she specializes in early English Literature. Josephine Leask is a London-based dance critic and lecturer. She has been a regular contributor to Ballett International and Dance Now, as well as writing for Dance Theatre Journal, Tanz Affiche, and several newspapers. Katy Matheson is a freelance dance critic and former Associate Editor of Dance Magazine, for which she has written regularly. Other publications include contributions to Dance Theatre Journal, articles for several reference books on dance, and a new chapter for the revised edition of Selma Jeanne Cohen’s Dance as a Theatre Art: Source Readings in Dance History from 1581 to the Present (1992).