• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

THE DEVELOPMENT OF A GENRE: PINA BAUSCH AND LATE TWENTIETH-CENTURY DANCE THEATRE by SHU-LAN MIRANDA NI, B.A., M.A. A DISSERTATION IN FINE ARTS Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved Co-Chairperson of the Committee Co-Chairperson of the Committee Accepted Dean of the Graduate School May, 2002 Copyright © 2002 by Shu-Ian Miranda Ni. All rights reserved. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this work expresses many people's assistance in various ways. I would like to begin by expressing my gratitude to my committee members who have been generous with their time and knowledge in guiding me to finish this dissertation. My co-chairpersons Dr. Jonathan Marks and Dr. Daniel Nathan have helped me tremendously in solidifying the content, the direction, and the goal of this project. My greatest thanks also go to them for their work on polishing my use of English. I would also like to thank Professor Peggy Willis-Aamio for shanng her forthcoming book with me in order to help me improve certain parts of this work. Dr. George Sorensen and Dr. Michael Stoune have also been helpful in sharing their expertise and showing their encouragement for this project. Many individuals have also been helpful to me in either shanng their interest in this project or providing resources: Dr. Aaron Meskin, Yi-jung Wu and her professor Ann Vachon at the Dance Department of Temple University, and Galena Panova, dance faculty at Texas Tech. I would also like to thank the staffs at the Dance Collection of the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts. My appreciation also goes to Bonnie Reed, librarian at the Texas Tech University, for her assistance in getting research materials for me. Several friends have also given me much support in encouraging me to complete this work: Joe and Karen Aranha, Kathy Barber, Li-lin Chan, kenna Chang, Yu-hsi Chuan, Susan Liu, Fr. Beda Liu of the Jesuits, Felix Moore, Michael and Helen Moore, Fr. Edward Murphy of the Jesuits, Katharine Perrault, Mei Yuk Tang, Jimmie Zeigler, and my friends at the Theatre of Chaos. My special thanks go to Tina Yin and John Chen for their generosity and kindness in accommodating me during my two research trips to New York. Finally, this work represents the profound influence of three of my teachers on me. My deepest appreciation goes to Dr. Daniel O. Nathan, whose intelligence and critical thinking have significantly shaped my own attitude to scholariy work and my role as a theatre artist. His classes challenged me to contemplate the value of art and humanity in general. I owe greatly to him my philosophy as a theatre practitioner: I want to help people become independent thinkers so they can make better judgment in their life, particularly concerning human values. In addition, he has been extremely generous in giving me time and guidance in the completion of this dissertation. Same gratitude also goes to Dr. Dean Wilcox, my previous professor of theatre criticism and theories at Texas Tech. I learned from him the humanistic value of postmodern art and how the study of it can be applied practically to other spheres of life, thereby bringing possible social change. I am also profoundly indebted to him for his unlimited support and encouragement when I was his student and his continuing concern and guidance on this project even though he has left Texas Tech. I am also deeply indebted to Ms. Diana Moore, my previous modem dance teacher at Texas Tech, for her unwavering encouragement on my continuation on learning dance. From her I deepened my appreciation of dance as art and learned useful knowledge, which I applied to this dissertation. Ill The influence of Dr. Nathan, Dr. Wilcox, and Ms. Moore on me will extend beyond this dissertation and will continue to impact on my future scholariy and creative work. IV DEDICATION This work is dedicated to my parents whose love and strengths have always been my main inspiration to reach for the highest goals in my life. My deepest gratitude also goes to my sister, my brother, and my sister-in-law who have been nothing but support and encouragement in these years. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT vii CHAPTER I. THE IMPORTANCE OF CATEGORIZATION 1 II. AN HISTORICAL AND THEORETICAL SURVEY OF THEATRICAL PROPERTIES 38 III. A SURVEY OF DANCE PROPERTIES 98 IV PINA BAUSCH AND THE GERMAN TANZTHEATER 150 V. STANDARD PROPERTIES OF POSTMODERN DANCE THEATRE 221 VI. CONCLUDING REMARKS 271 BIBLIOGRAPHY 287 VI ABSTRACT Dunng the nineteen eighties, a type of performing art called dance theatre started in Germany and gradually spread out its influence on other countries in Europe, America, and Asia. Ever since, dance theatre has aroused much controversy in terms of categorizing this artistic genre, a form that merges dance and theatrical elements. This study will evaluate all the pros and cons and find a way to define dance theatre by using interdisciplinary approaches that combine contemporary aesthetics, and theories of performing arts. Chapter I introduces the importance of categorization by using contemporary philosopher Kendall Walton's categorization criteria. Walton's concept will serve as an umbrella theory to give focus on the dance and theatre theories in terms of what standard properties are used to define dance and theatre. Chapter II traces theatre theories from Aristotle's Poetics to the present. The survey will be a reference point to judge whether contemporary dance theatre does maintain some standard properties of theatre. Chapter III examines the concept of dance through theories about ballet, modem dance, and postmodern dance. The survey will compare dance theatre in an historical context and judge if it does pertain to some standard properties of dance. Chapter IV has two focuses. First, it traces the beginning of German dance theatre from the twenties until now. Second, it analyzes the properties of Pina Bausch's dance theatre to examine if it does include standard properties from both genres. In chapter five, the properties of Pina Bausch's dance theater will be used as a paradigm to judge works of other dance theatre Vll by the following director/choreographers: Reinhild Hoffmann, Susanne Linke, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, and Martha Clarke. This comparison aims to clarify whether those works of dance theatre not only contain properties of dance and theatre, but also unique properties distinct from other performing arts, and should therefore be categorized as dance theatre in their own right. Vlll CHAPTER I THE IMPORTANCE OF CATEGORIZATION Introduction In the contemporary context (from the sixties to the present), the performing arts have produced many artworks that demonstrate the open and creative nature of artistic expression. Though many artworks are created according to established norms—for example, the norms of realistic theatre are still dominant in American theatre—there are many other kinds of artworks breaking away from established forms, making it difficult for interpretation and categorization. The conventional way of locating an artwork in a genre faces difficulties and challenges because mixing genres and crossing boundaries has increasingly become the norm. In the case of the performing arts, dance theatre is a good example. Although Pina Bausch herself has called her works "dance theatre," some critics have compared her works with those of postmodem theatre, such as Robert Wilson's theatre of images (Goldberg 205). These two labels-"dance theatre" or "the theatre of images"- emphasize different properties and will naturally lead to divergent interpretation and appreciation. The label of "dance theatre" indicates the equal importance of both dance and theatre elements in this type of work. On the other hand, the term "theatre of images" treats dance as part of the elements of the mise en scene, and it guides us to look at Bausch's work as theatre rather than as dance. In either case, it implies that categonzation in postmodem performing art has become more difficult now than in the past. I Nick Kaye's statement about this postmodem phenomenon in art might give us some insight on the difficulty in categorization: In so far as it critiques and upsets a 'modernist' striving toward foundation, the postmodem must occur as an anti-foundational disruption of precisely the move towards category and definition that a general or prescriptive account of the 'forms' and 'meanings' of postmodem art would produce.... Evidently, this notion of the postmodem cannot readily be identified with 'conventional' theatre and drama. (3) Kaye explains that the purpose of such resistance results from the attitude to disrupt "discourse and representation " and if that "postmodem event occurs as a breaking away, a disruption of what is "given,' then its forms cannot usefully be pinned down in any final or categorical way" (145). If we can put postmodernism against the background of modernism, it is not difficult to understand why postmodemism is featured by its tendency to break from and mix among genres. A goal of modernism in the arts is to seek the purity of a medium. Clement Greenberg in his influential article on modernism points out the goal of modernism:' The essence of Modemism lies, as I see it, in the use of characteristic methods of a discipline to criticize the discipline itself, not in order to subvert it but in order to entrench it more firmly in its areas of competence.... What had to be exhibited was not only that which was unique and irreducible in art in general, but also that which was unique and irreducible in each particular art. Each art had to determine, through its own operations and works, the effects exclusive to itself.

Load more

  310

Copy Link