The Shapes of Change: Images of American Dance"What is strikingly new about Miss Siegel's achievement is that she goes beyond the usual kind of historical reassessment. . . . She performs on behalf of this most evanescent of the arts an act of significant recovery. By tracking down--often in rare stage revivals, on film or on videotape--as many of the works by major creators of the last half century as survive, and by describing them . . . in a manner that combines accuracy and imagination, she has enriched our knowledge of the past and added immeasurably, to our resent stock of critical resources."--Dale Harris, New York Times Book Review "Siegel has a gut feeling for dance and a razor-sharp intelligence about it. It's an irresistible combination."--Margaret Pierpont, Dance Magazine "After you've seen and felt dance this deeply--even vicariously--your way of looking at dance will never be the same."--William Albright, Houston Post She sees, acutely, with her muscles as well as her eyes. She thinks about dance as much as she experiences it. . . . This is dance choreography reconstituted. Dances leap off the page. . . . The ability to do that is extraordinary."--Jean Bunke, Des Moines Sunday Register "The sections in which she describes the dances themselves make up the bulk of the book and they are profoundly illuminating. . . . These descriptions represent an amazing literary, as well as critical, accomplishment, for they are both accurate and resonant, both objective and enlightening, both formal and personal."--Laura Shapiro, The Real Paper "Siegel draws on her years of experience as a working dance critic, a profession she has helped to shape, and brings to a range of American dance a sense of honesty and a mind that wants to understand the antecedents of what is currently in vogue as the dance explosion."--Iris M. Fanger, The Christian Science Monitor |
Contents
REHEARSAL | 1 |
THE DENISHAWN SUCCESSION | 11 |
Egypta St Denis 1910 | 15 |
BEGINNINGS | 23 |
Air for the G String Doris Humphrey 1928 | 26 |
Life of the Bee Humphrey 1929 | 36 |
Jericho from Negro Spirituals Helen Tamiris 1928 | 45 |
RITUAL | 49 |
Errand into the Maze Graham 1947 | 200 |
Night Journey Graham 1947 | 206 |
BALANCHINES AMERICA | 210 |
The Four Temperaments Balanchine 1946 | 220 |
Agon | 227 |
Agon Balanchine 1957 | 233 |
Episodes | 235 |
Episodes Balanchine 1959 | 241 |
Primitive Mysteries Graham 1931 | 53 |
The Shakers Humphrey 1931 | 62 |
NEOCLASSICISM I | 68 |
Serenade George Balanchine 1935 | 69 |
New Dance Humphrey 1935 | 85 |
Passacaglia Humphrey 1938 | 94 |
Concerto Barocco Balanchine 1941 | 103 |
AMERICANA BALLET | 108 |
Frankie and Johnny Ruth Page and Bentley Stone | 109 |
Billy the Kid Eugene Loring 1938 | 122 |
Fancy Free Jerome Robbins 1944 | 134 |
CRYSTALLIZATION I | 138 |
Frontier Graham 1935 | 142 |
Pillar of Fire Antony Tudor 1942 | 157 |
Day on Earth Humphrey 1947 | 165 |
THE EPIC GRAHAM | 175 |
Letter to the World Graham 1940 | 179 |
Deaths and Entrances Graham 1943 | 185 |
Dark Meadow Graham 1946 | 194 |
ADOLESCENTS | 243 |
Interplay Robbins 1945 | 249 |
Moves Robbins 1959 | 259 |
CRYSTALLIZATION II | 271 |
Afternoon of a Faun Robbins 1953 | 273 |
Revelations Alvin Ailey 1960 | 289 |
Summerspace Merce Cunningham 1958 | 295 |
MEN DANCING | 305 |
Ted Shawns men dancers | 308 |
Angels of the Inmost Heaven Erick Hawkins 1972 | 319 |
NEOCLASSICISM II | 324 |
Septet Cunningham 1953 | 331 |
Harbinger Eliot Feld 1967 | 346 |
As Time Goes By Tharp 1973 | 356 |
Push Comes to Shove Tharp 1976 | 362 |
CHRONOLOGY | 367 |
| 375 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Ailey American Ballet American dance Anna Sokolow Appalachian Spring arms artists audience Balanchine Balanchine's Ballet Theater begins Billy character choreographers chorus circle clasped classical corps costumes couple created Cunningham dancers Denishawn Deuce Coupe deux Doris Humphrey duet energy ensemble face feel Feld film George Balanchine gesture girl Hagar hands Humphrey's idea jazz Joffrey José Limón jumps Kirstein later lifts Limón look male Martha Graham Martha Swope ment Merce Cunningham modern dance motion move movement partners pas de deux performance perhaps Photo play pose position Primitive Mysteries pulls repertory rhythm Robbins role runs Ruth St seems sequence sexual shape Shawn shoulders side Sokolow solo soloists space stage standing steps straight style takes Tamiris Taylor Tharp themes things tion torso Tudor turns Twyla Tharp unison upper body walk whole woman women York York City Ballet