In Modern Dance Print Media: Loïe Fuller, Isadora Duncan, Maud Allan
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“FEELING” IN MODERN DANCE PRINT MEDIA: LOÏE FULLER, ISADORA DUNCAN, MAUD ALLAN by Emma Doran, Master of Arts A dissertation presented to Ryerson University and York University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Program of Communication and Culture Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2014 ©(Emma Doran) 2014 ii AUTHOR'S DECLARATION FOR ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION OF A DISSERTATION I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this dissertation. This is a true copy of the dissertation, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I authorize Ryerson University to lend this dissertation to other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I further authorize Ryerson University to reproduce this dissertation by photocopying or by other means, in total or in part, at the request of other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I understand that my dissertation may be made electronically available to the public. iii iv “Feeling” in Modern Dance Print Media: Loïe Fuller, Isadora Duncan, Maud Allan Emma Doran Doctor of Philosophy, Communication and Culture Program Ryerson University, June 2014 Abstract Between 1890 and 1920, modern dancers such as Isadora Duncan, Loïe Fuller, and Maud Allan presented a new performative aesthetic in dance. Breaking from the narrative storytelling that dominated nineteenth-century vaudeville and ballet, these dancers advanced non-narrative movement, thereby encouraging a new aesthetic engagement from the audience, namely, one that was rooted in notions of corporeal sensation rather than narrative telos or (melo)dramatic pathos. These new responses, this dissertation argues, are reflected in the new tactics for writing the dancing body, which at once render problematic the putative objectivity of journalistic criticism and reveal the limits of traditional dance criticism’s focus on intricate technique and plot line. This dissertation pursues its argument by studying over 300 print reviews of dances performed by Fuller, Duncan, and Allan between 1890 and 1920 culled from North-American archives and representing a spectrum of print media—from mainstream national media, such as The New York Times, to regional newspapers, to more specialized theatre magazines—to reveal compelling insight into hermeneutic entanglements of language and movement. Informed by the work of recent performance studies (e.g. Phelan; Schneider; Taylor), this dissertation approaches this body of dance reviews from an inverse perspective from that represented by traditional dance history scholarship. That is, instead of reading reviews as documentation in order to understand these dances, the study explores how reviewers perform criticism, thus framing our understanding of modern dance in specific ways. v This dissertation engages with the correlation between media and performance as either documentary or performative, arguing that writing performance offers promises for both types of engagement with the live event. Collectively, these reviews reveal that dance criticism involved a metacritical reflection on the significance of the critical writing act itself, and advanced a style of synesthetic metaphor to describe novel kinesthetic experiences of spectatorship. Ultimately, the new tactics to modern dance criticism not only revealed a crisis in articulation but prompted a performative style of writing dance criticism that went in tandem with the development of the dance review genre itself, whose placement in popular print media was mounting to become a regular feature by the 1930s. vi Acknowledgements This dissertation was inspired by my own experience as a dancer and a dance reviewer; it was also fuelled by my passion for scholarship. I am immensely grateful to the scholars who have mentored me in this journey. First and foremost, I offer my heartfelt gratitude to my dissertation supervisor, Dr. Irene Gammel, for going above and beyond in her expert guidance, her unwavering positivity, and her generosity in providing me a “room of my own” in which to write within a community of kindred spirits. She welcomed my ideas in ways that I never thought possible and gave me space to dream. I am grateful to Dr. Danielle Robinson for her wealth of knowledge, her committed presence throughout my doctoral degree, and her outstanding supportive spirit. Dr. Kym Maclaren offered keen philosophical insight, clarity, and depth in engaging with my ideas, for which I am thankful. I extend my warmest appreciation to the other members of my defense committee: Dr. Paul Moore, who has taught me much about communication and culture methodologies, when I was his research assistant, and thereby helped shape my thinking and work; and Dr. Marlis Schweitzer, who has helped deepen my knowledge of performance theory and celebrity culture. I am extremely grateful to my external examiner, Dr. Carol Simpson Stern (Northwestern University), whose ideas about the relationship between performance and literature have been inspirational, and whose comments will continue to resonate. This page would not be complete without a mention of my appreciation to Professor Emerita Dr. Selma Odom, who generously loaned me her collection of Loïe Fuller reviews and articles, which she collected from the United States and Europe. Her generosity throughout my years of graduate studies continues to inform my writing and teaching in more ways than I can express. vii I am indebted to the Jeffrey family for granting me the Liss Jeffrey fellowship and for offering encouragement and support; it is a true privilege to be included in this distinguished lineage of scholars. I am grateful to the Communication and Culture Program for generous support throughout my doctoral studies. In the Faculty of Arts, the Modern Literature and Culture Research Centre (MLC) generously provided funds to purchase archival images used in my dissertation, as well as supporting my conference travels. The staff and students at the MLC have been a collegial community throughout the writing of this dissertation, as has been PUBZ: The MLC Writing and Publishing Zone. In addition, I am grateful to the archives I consulted, notably Dance Collection Danse (DCD) archives in Toronto, which presented a vital resource for this study; my thanks go to archivists Amy Bowring and Miriam Adams for facilitating the research of the Maud Allan archival materials. Finally, heartfelt thanks go to my study friends and colleagues Aleksandra Bida and Niomi Cherney, and to my pep-talking esprit fort Dr. Laurie Bertram. My most deeply felt thank you goes to my partner Robbie Harman, not only for his unfailing computer expertise throughout the writing of this dissertation, and his remarkable patience, but for his unstinting and inspirational support in all my endeavors. I dedicate this dissertation to my parents, Melva Widdicombe and Harold Doran, who have fuelled my desire for education and learning. viii Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... vii Contents ........................................................................................................................................ ix List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. xii Introduction - Print Media, Modernity, and the Dancing Body .............................................. 1 I.1 Modern Dance Reviews: Corpus and Theoretical Context ................................................... 3 I.2 The Subjects: Loïe Fuller, Isadora Duncan, and Maud Allan ............................................... 8 I.3 Description of Chapters ....................................................................................................... 14 Part One - Toward a Theory of the Dance Review .................................................................. 19 1.1 The Review as Genre .......................................................................................................... 20 1.2 Publics, Modernity, and Criticism ...................................................................................... 25 1.3 The Critic’s Body ................................................................................................................ 37 1.4 Other Key Terms ................................................................................................................ 49 Part Two - Surveying “Feeling”: The Body as Frame ............................................................. 55 2.1 Between Nostalgia and Anticipation .................................................................................. 60 2.2 Temporality and Emotion ................................................................................................... 75 2.3 Gender and Physical Practice .............................................................................................. 89 2.4 “Feeling Without Effort” .................................................................................................. 103 ix Part Three - At a Loss for Words: Authenticity, Imitation, Metacriticism ........................ 121 3.1 The Performative Pause ...................................................................................................