The Influence of Dalcroze Eurhythmics in the Contemporary Theatre
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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1966 The nflueI nce of Dalcroze Eurhythmics in the Contemporary Theatre. Clark Mccormack Rogers Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Rogers, Clark Mccormack, "The nflueI nce of Dalcroze Eurhythmics in the Contemporary Theatre." (1966). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 1216. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/1216 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This dissertation has been microfilmed exactly as received 67-1183 ROGERS, C lark McCormack, 1938- THE INFLUENCE OF DALCROZE EURHYTHMICS IN THE CONTEMPORARY THEATRE. Louisiana State U niversity and A g ricu ltu ra l and Mechanical College, Ph.D., 1966 Speech-Theater University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. THE INFLUENCE OF DALCROZE EURHYTHMICS IN THE CONTEMPORARY THEATRE A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Speech by Clark McCoznack Rogers B.A., Howard College, 19^0 M.A., The Ifeiversity of Tennessee, I96I August, 1966 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWiaDŒŒNT The author wishes to express his gratitude to Dr. ClaWe L. Shaver for his valuable guidance in the preparation of this study and to the other members of his committee for their helpful sug gestions. He is also indebted to Dr. Waldo W« Braden for his advice ar encouragement during those years of graduate training. ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TASLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNCWLEDQIENT......................................... ii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS................................. iv ABSTRACT .............................................. v INTRCDÜCTION........................................... 1 CHAPTER I. ORIGIN OF DALCROZE EURHYTHMICS......... 12 II. EURHYTHMICS AND «'LIVING AR T " ..................... 41 ni. EURHYTHMICS FOR THE A C T O R ....................... 80 IV. EURHYTHMICS COMPARED WITH OTHER ACTING SYSTEMS .... 113 V. EURHYTHMICS AND THE EUROPEAN ART THEATRE............ 133 VI. EURHYTHMICS IN THE AMERICAN THEATRE .............. 1?4 CONCLUSION............................................... 199 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................... 20? VITA .................................................... 219 iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. The Note Values of 2 to 9 Beats ............... 21 2. Leg Movements for the Whole Note in Quadruple Time . 23 3. A m Movements for Quadruple T i m e ................. 2k k. The Eight Horizontal Directions ............ 92 5. Six Different Ways of Skipping................... 93 IV Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT Ebile Jaquos-Dalcroze (1865-1950) originated and promoted eurhythmies, a system of education in the arts based on rJiythm» musical theoiy and gymnastics. As a professor of harmony at the Geneva Conservatory, this Swiss musician and composer criticized the conventional method of beginning musical instruction with an instrument and theoretical explanation. What was needed, said Dalcroze, was a study of music through physical participation so that the student's mind, ear, and body were simultaneously involved in the music. To that end, he began a series of experiments, eventually devising special gymnastics which enabled his students to transform music into bodily movement. Dalcroze spoke of the system as a means to art rather than an art form in itself, and he advocated a broad application of his ideas in all the arts. This study deals specifically with the influences of Dalcroze eurhythmies on theorists and practitioners of the theatre. Since Dalcroze was particularly emphatic when he spoke of the need for eurlythmics in the actor's art, comparison is made between his system and those of Constant Coquelin, François Delsarte and Constantin Stanislavsky. Dalcroze's major books. Rhythm. Music and Education and Eurhythmies. Art and Education, contain the nucleus of his theory of acting. Briefly stated, his idea was V Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. this: (l) the first and most important task of the would-be actor is learning to control his bodily movement, and (2) eurhyth- mic training, which coordinates the mind, body, and soul of the actor, is the most efficient means of achieving such control. After witnessing a demonstration of eurhythmies in 1906, the Swiss scene designer Adolphe Appia wrote that eurhythmies provided a practical means of achieving his goal of unity, through musict in theatrical production. For ten years Appia and Dalcroze collaborated in staging rhythmic spectacles, and they designed and built a theatre together at Dalcroze's school in Hellerau, Germany, where Appia was listed as a member of the staff. The system of eurhythmies subsequently became an integral part of Appia's theories of production, as expressed in his Work of Living Art, Important theatrical practitioners in the European and American theatres adopted the Dalcroze idea, Jacques Copeau at his Théâtre du Vieux Colombier, Max Reinhardt at the Deutsches Theatre, nnd Constantin Stanislavsky at the Moscow Art Theatre used the Dalcroze system to teach their actors flexibility and control. In America, Richard Boleslavsky, founder of the Laboratory Theatre, Dr, Ernst Ferand, who taught in the Dramatic Workshop of the New School for Social Research, and other teachers of theatrical art included eurhythmies in their instruction. At the Chicago Little Theatre, Maurice Browne applied eurhythmies to the training of his amateur actors after discussing his venture with Dalcroze at Hellerau, However, partly due to a lack of vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. authorized teachers and partly due to the commercial approach to theatre which discouraged the development of repertory groups, the Dalcroze system never achieved the same extensive use in the American theatre that it enjoyed in Europe. vii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION Ebile Jaques-Dalcroze developed eurhythmies with one goal in mini: to make it possible for an individual to transform music into bodily actions. The method did not aim directly at an aesthetic result, like the dance technique of Isadora Duncan;^ nor did it seek physical development as a primary end, like Rudolf Bode’s "Expression-Gymnastics. The basis of eurhythmies could, in Dalcroze's view, be reduced to coordination; the key to this method which differentiated it frwi methods of similar aim was its coordination of movement and music. Percy Ingham, head of the Dalcroze Society of Great Britain and Ireland, claimed that the method gave "the body a training so detailed as to make it sensitive to every rhythmic impulse and able to lose itself in music.Dalcroze himself spoke of the human body as "un orchestre dans lequels les divers instruments, muscles, nerfs, oreilles et ^Francis Gadan, Robert Maillard and Selma Jeanne Cohen (eds.), Dictionary of M o d e m Ballet (New York: Tudor Publishing Company, 1959)* 131-132. ^Rudolf Bode, Ebcpression-Gymnastics« trans. Sonya Forthal and Elizabeth Waterman (New York: A. S. Bames, 1931 )* 3Bmile Jaques-Dalcroze, The Eurhythmies of Jaques-Dalcroze (Boston: Small, Maynard, 1913), P* 33* Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibitedpermission. without yeux, sont diriges simultanément par deux chefs: l'âne et le cerveau." Dalcroze's fundamental pedagogical tenet--that the mind could more easily grasp the rhythm of a piece of music or of a spoken line if the body reproduced the time, intervals and hamonic modulations in movement— was a much disputed point in the music world of his day. Composer Claude Debussy wrote to a friend in June, 1913f that Nijinsky's choreography for Jeux, with music by Debussy, was "... vilaint C‘est même dalerozien. car je considère Monsieur Dalcroze comme un des pires ennmnis de la musique*" Serg Diaghilev, on the other hand, believed that eurhythmies, with its simultaneous employment of mind and senses, led the student to a high degree of self control, and he adopted it as a method for training members of the Russian Ballet.-^ Although his name was often associated with theatrical dance, Dalcroze flatly denied that he taught dancing technique. He claimed that his students learned more about music than they did about dancing and ths.t his system was perhaps even more valuable for musicians and actors than it was for dancers. Training for the eurhythmist proceeded, he maintained, in an entirely different direction