The Dancer's Environment
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Space Dance by Jacques Schnier THE DANCER'S ENVIRONMENT E-wm• nnual of Contemporary Dance 1967 t mi X55- h(,1 Editor: Marian Van Tuyl Editorial Board: Doris Dennison, Joanna Gewertz, Eleanor Lauer, Rhoda Slanger, Gretchen Schneider, Crystal Miller, Bernice Peterson, Sidney Peterson, Adele Wenig, Dorrill Shad well, Rebecca Puller, Nik Krevitsky, Ann Halprin, Elizabeth Harris, Dorothy Weston Design: Lilly Weil Jaffe ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Cover: SPACE DANCE — bronze — by Jacques Schneir, 1966 Owner: Mrs. Bernard Kaplan Diagram executed by David Lauer 33 Excerpts from MARY WIGMAN by Rudolf von Delius 7, 8 courtesy of Martha Hill, Juilliard School of Music, New York Excerpts from lecture by Mary Wigman 8, 9 courtesy of Joan Woodbury, University of Utah Repertory Dance Theatre, Salt Lake City, Utah Photographs by courtesy of: Lyn Smith, Los Angeles 6 Herve Gloaguen, Hamburg, Germany 15 K'o Si Chi, Taiwan 24, 25, 26 Christopher, San Mateo, California 29 Unless otherwise noted, photographs, charts and drawings are included by courtesy of the authors. Published by Impulse Publications, Inc. , 160 Palo Alto Avenue, San Francisco, California 94114. $3.00 per copy (California residents add 15£ state tax per copy). Make checks payable to Impulse Publications, Inc. Printed by Chapman Press, San Francisco. No part of the material herein may be reproduced without the consent of Impulse Publications, Inc., with the exception of short quotations used for reviews. Copyright 1967 by Impulse Publications, Inc. Contents / THE KINESTHETIC ENVIRONMENT 3 'Allegra Fuller Snyder )S MARY WIGMAN - Five Excerpts 7 Rudolf von Delius SPEAKS ABOUT THE GERMAN MODERN DANCE 8 Mary Wigman THE DANCER'S SPACE 10 Thomas S. Watson FOUR SOUND ENVIRONMENTS FOR MODERN_DAN< 12 Gordon Mumma IODERN I A SCULPTOR TALKS ABOUT DANCE 16 Shozo Sato MUSIC FOR DANCE 18 Norma Dalby Reynolds VIDEO - TAPE: A Medium for the Teaching of Dance 21 Ruth Hatfield A NATURAL PLACE 23 Al Huang A REGIONAL BALLET DIRECTOR SPEAKS 27 Richard Gibson Interview by Gretchen Schneider NOTES FROM ABROAD Dorothy Madden DARTINGTON: THE GREEN CLIMATE 30 Drid Williams THE DANCER'S ENVIRONMENT IN GHANA 32 Myra Rigor THE DANCER'S ENVIRONMENT IN CEYLON 37 Renee Renouf AFTERNOON AT YANG JU 44 COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS FOR MODERN DANCE 47 Eleanor Wakefield SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA - 1934-1967 48 Sue Ettlinger REPORT FROM CHICAGO 51 Dorothy Mozen. I'VE PLAYED THAT GAME BEFORE 51 Barbara R. Ginsberg HAPPENINGS ARE 54 CONVERSATION IN MANHATTAN 57 with Jean Erdman and Trisha Brown > YOUNG DANCERS IN SAN FRANCISCO 64 Introductory Note by Bernice Peterson 630508 Preface "What do we mean by 'environment'?" As we worked Gordon Mumma's clear description of differentiated on this issue, we realized that our concern was with sound environments for the choreography of Merce "the individual-as-a-whole-in-the-environment-as- Cunningham; and Norma Dalby Reynolds's discus a-whole" — a large order, but it gave freedom to sion of the interrelationships between music and accept a broad range of material. dance. Ruth Hatfield, in her consideration of the uses of video-tape, points out a new possibility It is often easier to describe something by saying of objectivity in dance training: a dancer can really what it is not than by what it is. The economic "see" himself. Al Huang describes his way of com problems of the dancer have not been considered. ing to terms with the theatrical proscenium environ These have been presented factually and in some ment by bringing his past life experiences to bear what discouraging terms in PERFORMING ARTS: on the present choreographic intent. Barbara 1 The Economic Dilemma by Baumol and Bowen, Ginsberg relates happenings to "the continuing although on the positive side there is an increasing development of expressive art." number of unions and organizations working to im prove the situation of dancers, choreographers and their companies. Another area of the dancer's Once again, we have essays from other countries: environment which is not included in this issue is Dorothy Madden writing about the idyllic and world- the relation of the dancer to formal education, al renowned Dartington in England; Drid Williams though in various essays the important part that describing the dancer's world from earliest child education does play in the development of the art hood in Ghana (everyone dances in Ghana); Myra is indicated. A study of Dance in Formal Education Rigor discussing dance and some of the changes will soon be published in a special issue of IMPULSE taking place in Ceylon; and Renee Renouf giving us — The Report of the Developmental Conferences on a vignette of old dances in the countryside near Dance sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health, Seoul, Korea. Education and Welfare. Within a regional framework, Richard Gibson pre The observations, convictions, attitudes and per sents a picture of a ballet school and company with suasions of thirty-two individuals are presented in his plans and hopes for its development. Eleanor this issue. It is fascinating to realize that even in Wakefield outlines the history of modern dance or the most "objective" descriptions, the observer is, ganizations in San Francisco which undoubtedly indeed, inseparable from the environment-as-a- could be paralleled in other communities. The whole. The "milieu interieur" of a person projects major significance of this compilation lies in the re outward to relationships with places and other alization that community organizations for modern people, in his own time and historically, and is dance may best achieve their aims through collab affected by these interrelationships, constructing oration with recreational facilities and educational a total environment. institutions. After a brief note on dance activities in Chicago by Sue Ettlinger, Dorothy Mozen dis In IMPULSE 1967 primary attention is paid to the cusses the problems of such organizations from her here and now. An exception is the excerpts from own experience. MARY WIGMAN by Rudolf von Delius, written in A portion of the book is devoted to the internal 1925, in which he speaks in glowing, romantic environment. Allegra Fuller Snyder, with a terms which are strange and fascinating to the background in both dance and film, stresses the present generation of dancers. Short statements importance of becoming aware of the kinesthetic from her lecture to a woman's club in Berlin in environment in our world today. She feels that 1955 give indication of Mary Wigman's intense there must be a turning inward to a deeper real dedication to dance. ization of what fundamentally constitutes dance. The essays cover a wide range of interests and in IMPULSE 1967 concludes with two discussions by volvements. The "attendant arts," about which young dancers: one in New York by experienced Shozo Sato speaks in his discussion of sculpture for performers and choreographers; the other in San dance, are the subject of several articles: Thomas Francisco by several who are just starting their Watson's exhortation to the dancer to become knowl professional careers. edgeable in the use of the theatrical environment; 1 William J. Baumol and William G. Bowen, PERFORMING We are grateful to our contributors, each of whom ARTS: The Economic Dilemma (New York: The Twentieth is well qualified to address himself to the subject Century Fund, Inc., 1966). of the dancer's environment. MVT The Kinesthetic Environment ALLEGRA FULLER SNYDER What is today's environment? We are aware, as we If we allow the full implications of today to per participate in this moment of history, of a number meate our concepts of dance, then dance, in its of violent and rapid changes taking place. Society current dependency on theatre, will change. The is violent and rapid. Transformations which used full potential of the new environment requires the to take place over years or centuries now happen reorganization of our visual perception so that we overnight. There is not time for evolution, our ap see not "things" in space but the relatedness of proach must be more like revolution. We must be events in time-space. This means, not the dancer aware of and anticipate changes in order to be able in the defined space of the stage, but our involve to make them meaningfully a part of us. ment with space. (Involvement is a time-space word.) Dance is already going in this direction in Dance, as a living and vital art, must respond to its participation in "happenings" or "total theatre." this new environment. What is this environment These are forms which could only emerge in a in relation to dance, in relation to life? For the relativistic society. environment, affecting life as a whole, must affect dance. It is dominated by major factors, at first Theatre has become a two-dimensional frame, not remote from dance, which bring about changes both an omni-directional experience. In a theatre, the through insight and reaction. New insights arise space has become static. The space of the stage is from Einstein's concepts which lead us to under circumscribed as well as the spatial relation of the stand each moment as relative and dynamic, not audience to the dance which is unalterably fixed. fixed and constant, which puts time and space in The spectator cannot leave his seat. Stage space is the forefront of our thinking and gives us an aware defined and the audience is outside of that space. ness of time-space as one entity, at the same time making all experiences multiple and omni-direc But does stage space really belong to dance ? Is tional—a relativistic concept of society. Reactions dance inherently to be observed? Is this a new con set in from the continuous and progressively-wider cept or an old? Perhaps this new era is bringing removal of man from his own physical participation us back to another? in the events of his life.