Robert Moses Speaking Ill Of The Dead

Robert Louis Fosse Developed his own form of Jazz style in American Broadway and musical theatre throughout the course of the 50’s 60’s and 70’s. He was the choreography behind ‘All that Jazz’, ‘Chicago’ and ‘Sweet charity’. Elements of Fosse’s work can be seen to this day and common characteristics include Soft Boiled Egg cupped hands, the Charleston step, angled joints, the drape and the Fosse walk. For this project, I am studying this unit as a choreographer

After giving a brief introduction to her subject, Desmond quickly begins her analysis on the piece Radha choreographed by Ruth St. Denis. She states that St. Denis was one of the mothers of modern dance in America despite how her works are not as well remembered as others including Martha Graham’s. She depicts Radha by describing the dancing quality, patterns in choreography, lighting, set, and costume in detail. Desmond also recounts the social issues that are reflected in the piece including gender roles and race. The author’s main point in writing “Dancing Out the Difference: Cultural Imperialism and Ruth St. Denis’s Radha of 1906” was to introduce St. Denis and share her detailed analysis of St. Denis’ Radha.

On November 18, 2016, I attended an evening performance in Irmo, South Carolina by Parsons Dance Company at Harbison Theatre at 7:30 p.m. This New York City modern based dance company hosted six commissioning works at the Midland Technical College that were all choreographed by the artistic director David Parsons. The created six works were “Finding Center,” “Hand Dance,” Swing Shift,” Kind of Blue,” “Caught,” and “Nascimento.” Each of David Parsons works showed a distinction of athletic, energized, ensemble works that revealed the style of his choreography. Parsons Dance is renowned for creating and performing contemporary American dance that is accessible and enriching to diverse audiences.

“Stripping the Emperor: The Africanist Presence in American Concert Dance”, and excerpt from Moving History/Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader, was written by Brenda Dixon Gottschild. Gottschild is a well-known author, dance historian, performer, and choreographer as well as a professor of dance studies at Temple University. She has also written multiple books including The Black Dancer Body, Waltzing in the Dark, and Digging. In her article “Stripping the Emperor: The Africanist Presence in American Concert Dance”, Gottschild explores the similarities and differences in the characteristics of Africanist and European technique, and how they draw from each other.

‘For me, it is important that the work I make finds connection … but at the same time… calls into question our conversations of what dance is’ (Garry Stewart, 2010). Garry Stewart, the Artistic Director of Australian Dance Theatre (ADT) since 1999, began his dance training at the age of twenty, after leaving university studying social work. Through his explosive, energetic and electrifying style, his unique dance pushes drives boundaries empowering his works, which are technically demanding, frightful and exhausting, creating an intriguing performance. In his pieces ‘Birdbrain’ and ‘G’ a combination of classical ballet, contemporary dance and gymnastics is utilized throughout to create a fascinating performance. Stewart’s productions have toured

Watching a video of a dance piece called “The Moroccan Project,” choreographed by Alonzo King was quite impressive. Living in San Francisco and taking dance classes brought me to Lines Ballet which is King’s dance studio. I have seen a great deal of different types of dance at the studio waiting for my Ballet classes and there are some great dancers. It comes as no surprise that Alonzo would have such great dancers. It appears that Alonzo King is exploring different cultures in dance in Contemporary Ballet. His near-perfect choreography is articulate, passionate, and graceful- he brings diversity in dance to San Francisco and other parts of the world. This piece articulates the expression of the two dancers coming together yet dancing apart at times- it is a fusion of several different types of dances into one using video editing to create a story about the coming together of two individuals.

This week's reading's, lectures, along with the live dance session has helped further the little prior knowledge I had on the details and components that are necessary to create a dance performance. In particular, DeFrantz does a great job listing the aspects behind Alvin Ailey's dance performances. The foundation of these performances was predetermined in Ailey's notebook of thematic sketches, descriptions of each individual character, sketches of desired settings and costumes, along with an outline of the counts to the music (DeFrantz 2). Together all of these details help make a dance that reflects a story or message or that allows the audience to formulate their own interpretation based on what they saw. Besides the actual choreography/

Who: One choreographer that draw my attention is Martha Graham. Particularly, when I watched her dance ‘HERETIC’, I was emotional.

4. Kealiinohomoku. “An Anthropologist Looks at Ballet as a Form of Ethnic Dance” Pg 533

Dance is defined by Webster as “moving rhythmically to music, typically following a set sequence of steps”. However, it can also be used to sway an audience’s judgment or exhibit feelings and emotions that cannot be conveyed by the usage of verbal language. When watching a show, I would like to be able to get something out of it and with this it brought childhood memories and rung my old tomboy ways and made me realize not only is it okay to sometimes still have those tomboyish habits but also to see you don’t always have to be an adult and take everything in life seriously. During this performance two of my favorite pieces were 909 Lamentations and On the surface. I felt as if these were two of the strongest pieces throughout the whole performance.

Throughout history, Modern Dance has been pioneered by inspirational choreographers such as Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham. Martha Graham in particular, revolutionised the dance industry with her numerous choreographed works. By experimenting with foreign movements and establishing the fundamental technique in Modern Dance, Martha Graham clearly expressed this dramatic dance style as a new form of life. Her style, created from raw emotion, challenges the technical barriers of traditional ballet and has evolved into today’s contemporary dance form.

I decided to do the choreography track for this assignment. I chose to interview one of my favorite undergraduate professor. Dr. Dale Gunn is a professor of both history and psychology. The walls of his office are filled with multiple degrees. He is a US Veteran, and has had many interesting careers such as a diver for Jacques Cousteau, IBM computer programmer, FBI analyst, Police Psychologist, Criminal Psychologist, as well as a college professor. After emailing Dr. Gunn he agreed to answer my questions for this assignment. I called and ask “If your discipline (or your job), were a dance, what kind of dance would it be?”. His response was immediate and precise. As expected, Dr. Gunn began with a brief history of his family. He said, “my ancestors

On Friday Novemeber 18,, 2016, I came across the opportunity to see Parsons Dance Company perform in Harbison Theater at Midlands Technical College. Parsons Dance Company, founded by David Parson, is a modern based company resided in New York City. This company is very well known for creating and performing contemporary American Dance and enjoys reaching out to diverse audiences. Parsons Dance Company was founded in 1985 after being known for its energized, athletic, and ensemble work. In addition to David Parson’s artistic choice, the company has collaborated with a variety of iconic artists such as Billy Taylor, Donna Karan, and Alex Katz. Aside the background of the company, Parsons Dance offers summer workshops that last for four weeks along with open rehearsals, studio showcases, and open company classes. Within the performance of Friday night, there were six pieces of art performed known as “Finding Center”, “Hand Dance”, “Swing Shift”, “Kind of Blue”, “Caught”, and “Nascimento” that involved partner work, lighting, props, and costume changes.

In the essay by Cohen Bull, he explores several points of contact improvisation and how the movements are often reflective of our cultural values. At the time contact improvisation began it was an expression of a spontaneous way of life, a reflection of the “ideal” lifestyle during this time period. This was a genre of dance often learned in a social setting and could be performed by anybody.

The Robert Moses’ Kin company reinforced the idea that it is to learn from your mistakes and to make movement have its own originality. The dancers in the performance did two different pieces from their earlier works called Speaking Ill of the Dead and Never an End for Peace. These pieces displayed technique visuals that were being discussed in class and brought to the performance with the company. Overall, the way that they described their movements can give me a further understanding with how I can further my dance technique.