How Should the Craft of Choreography Be Learned?
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HOW SHOULD THE CRAFT OF CHOREOGRAPHY BE LEARNED? Jack Anderson/February 5, 1984/NY Times Can choreography be taught? ''Of course not!'' some dance lovers may scoff. ''How can creativity be taught?'' The creative process is indeed mysterious and masterpieces cannot be willed into being. Nevertheless, conservatories teach musical composition and art schools teach painting. In fact, in most art forms, creative artists are expected to have some sort of training in how to go about doing what they do. Choreography remains an exception, for the idea of classes in choreography (or ''dance composition,'' as such classes are usually called) is by no means universally accepted. It is as if dancers believed that choreographers spring magically to life with the blessing of Terpsichore. That notion was dismissed back in the 30's by Louis Horst, the musical adviser to Martha Graham and many other modern dancers of the period. Worried because much of the choreography he saw was unstructured emoting, Horst - who was born 100 years ago and who died 20 years ago this year - became a pioneer in the teaching of choreography and devised his own system of composition exercises. Among his notable pupils were Anna Sokolow, Pearl Lang, Jane Dudley and Jean Erdman, all of whom spoke at a recent program at the Juilliard School in memory of Horst. A curmudgeon with a keen eye and a sharp tongue, Horst based assignments on such musical forms as A-B- A, rondo and theme and variations; on the structure (but not the actual steps) of the strictly- patterned court dances that flourished from the 15th to the 17th centuries, and on his own interpretation of trends in modern art. To this day, some composition teachers still utilize his exercises. Yet Horst also had critics who called his esthetic categories arbitrary and charged that, because he himself was not a dancer or choreographer, his method was unduly cerebral. Other choreographers and teachers developed their own composition courses. Those of the late Doris Humphrey emphasized expressive gesture. The courses of Hanya Holm, Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis explore principles of space, time, shape and motion. Many teachers have stressed the importance of patient revision. Yet some introduce composition to beginners through structured improvisation. Dianne Markham, who teaches at the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, finds that improvisation gives students a sense of ''instant performance'' that automatically removes composition assignments from the realm of pure theory. Most composition classes are given by modern dancers for modern-dance students, which is not surprising since modern dance has always prized creativity. Ballet schools have been cautious about introducing such classes, and colleges that offer separate ballet and modern-dance majors often require modern dancers to take composition, whereas composition is optional for ballet majors. In contrast, at Juilliard, where Martha Hill heads the dance division, all students study both ballet and modern dance and composition is a requirement for everyone. ''It may be folly for young ballet students to attempt choreography because they are still trying to master a traditional technical vocabulary and so will just fill their dances with classroom steps assembled without imagination.'' That theory was tentatively advanced by Bessie Sch"onberg, a successful composition teacher who retired from Sarah Lawrence College in 1975 after teaching there for 38 years. At present, she is investigating the possibilities of composition classes for ballet students in a workshop at Dance Theater of Harlem. Whether ballet and modern-dance students should receive the same composition classes remains a much-discussed question. There are those teachers who, along with Miss Hill, maintain that ''dance is dance and form is form'' and present all students with the same basic material. Realizing that the production costs of professional ballet companies may prohibit experimentation, some composition teachers urge ballet students to be as unconventional as they wish in class. Yet it could be argued that because classical ballet, though always growing and developing, has as its core a specific technique, a work based entirely upon that technique could be a valid response to a composition assignment. Pat Catterson, who teaches composition at Sarah Lawrence, wonders, ''Perhaps too many composition classes have a modern-dance bias. Why not a ballet composition class? For that matter, why not a tap composition class?'' An organization very much concerned with ballet composition classes is the National Association for Regional Ballet, which since 1961 has offered summer ''Craft of Choreography'' conferences at which participants attend workshops in composition, technique and music. This year's director of choreography will be Phyllis Lamhut. No composition teacher believes that courses alone will make geniuses out of dullards. ''But,'' says Miss Sch"onberg, ''you can teach craft, and teachers and students can explore craft together.'' Provided no one expects miracles, composition classes may be useful in several ways. For instance, they can acquaint students with various strategies for constructing dances. If it is charged that such strategies merely reflect the esthetic conventions of the day, one can reply that, since great artists often transcend conventions, the sooner young choreographers understand the prevailing conventions, the sooner they will be able to challenge them, should they so wish. Though all choreography involves self-expression, merely flapping soulfully about while repeating one's three favorite steps is unlikely to constitute a satisfactory dance. A composition class can help students organize and analyze material and avoid succumbing to force of habit. In this respect, the rigidity of Horst's assignments may have been beneficial by forcing students to explore unfamiliar types of movement. Through composition assignments, students may be made aware of the kinds of movements they prefer and the kinds of movements they tend to avoid. They may not change their preferences. But at least they will be conscious of them. Compositional problem solving may lead to the widening of students' artistic horizons. Doris Hering, executive director of the National Association for Regional Ballet, points out that George Balanchine rarely gave lessons in composition (although he did so at the 1963 Craft of Choreography conference), yet he often asked young choreographers at the New York City Ballet to stage ballets to specific musical scores, including scores they had never heard before. Like the structural assignments of Horst, Balanchine's musical recommendations could be viewed as impositions. But they can also be viewed as challenges. By showing composition assignments to fellow students, choreographers may discover whether or not they are making their intentions clear. Even seasoned choreographers can have wonderful ideas for dances that they are never able to express kinetically. A revealing assignment that Miss Catterson likes to give requires the student to devise a solo containing 25 movements that will look distinctively different on stage. Time and again, students are amazed to find that movements they consider radically ''different'' seem just ''more of the same'' to their audiences. According to Miss Hill, composition classes help develop ''taste, discrimination and critical judgment.'' If that is so, then such classes can be heartily recommended to all dance students in this time when an emphasis upon technique alone is beginning to bother sensitive teachers of ballet and modern dance alike. Miss Markham fears that ''the passion of modern dance is turning into mere facility.'' Miss Sch"onberg agrees. ''A dance that is based on technique alone ultimately becomes boring,'' she says. ''And that's the one thing dance should never be.'' Therefore composition classes may be of inestimable value by serving as reminders that dance is an art for the head and the heart, as well as for the muscles. A blog for dancers, dance teachers and others interested in dance What Makes A Dance? The Brain As Choreographer, Dancer And Spectator Judith Lynne Hanna, PhD/JULY 5, 2016/4DANCERS At times during their careers, dancers may want to explain what dance is about to family, friends, students, schools, spectators, and the media. After all, knowledge about dance is new and limited compared to the other arts. My journey toward understanding dance began as a child in 1946, and the odyssey hasn’t stopped. A pediatrician told my parents that ballet would make my feet strong. So I studied ballet. Dancing didn’t do much for my feet, but dancing has made me stronger physically and mentally. Alicia Markova’s experience with flat feet was different than mine. Critic Clement Crisp reports, “The sublime artist Alicia Markova was taken to ballet as a child because her flat little feet left sad imprints in the sand during a seaside holiday. Ballet, said a doctor, would cure that. And it did. She grew into an astounding artist whose ‘intelligent’ feet and legs were the envy of the ballet world.” Fascination with dance led me beyond ballet to explore other dance genres (e.g., modern, Afro- Caribbean, Latin American, African, flamenco, Middle East, jazz, hip-hop, swing, ballroom, and folk). Curiosity led me to conduct dance research in villages and cities in Africa and then in theaters, school playgrounds and classrooms, and cabarets in the United States. As an applied anthropologist I study human behavior, including many forms of dance and culture, past and present, and draw upon the work of different disciplines. I was surprised that at the 2008 annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting, more than 6,800 attendees paid rapt attention to renowned choreographer Mark Morris as he answered questions about the relationship between creativity and dance. Neuroscientists interested in dance? I wanted to know why. The Attraction of Dance Scientists are turning to dance because it is a multifaceted activity that can help them demystify how the brain coordinates the body to perform complex, precise movements that express emotion and convey meaning.