Dance:
McDonagh, Don
Dance DANCE & POLITICS THREE CONTRASTING COMPANIES DURING THE THIRTIES, when politics influenced the work of writers, dramatists, painters, and musicians, it also found its way into the output of...
...The group uses music, words, elements of ballet and modern dance, comedy, and "signing...
...By their use of such expanded theatrical techniques the politically committed have an affinity with the overtly non-political choreographers of the sixties but share little if anything of their formal concerns...
...One of the immediately striking aspects about all of the groups is the unselfconscious use of black comedy and the acceptance of mixed-media theatrical techniques to convey the message...
...Rosler's hour-long presentation is more in the nature of a personal crusade by a visual artist who has drifted over into the performance art area...
...Trail of Tears" joined narration and signing again to recount the expectations and experiences of Native Americans being driven from traditional lands as the country expanded westward...
...have teen fantasies (Jimmy Dean: "I see a frightened little boy...
...Martha Rosier uses video, slides of newspaper headlines, stories and images from popular culture as the basis for her observations...
...Like the others, the company produces its own material but consists of female performer-choreographers only...
...They were earnest, dutiful, sincere, and lacking in any creative bite...
...The United Mime Workers' concerns are with the place of the individual in an increasingly trivialized society...
...DON McDONAGH...
...DON McDONAGH...
...Charles Weidman's "Lynchtown" was one of the few pieces on the subject tried by a white choreographer...
...For a few other choreographers as well, politics continued to command their creative energies...
...Wallflower Order, by contrast, is fresh, innovative, and at times profoundly moving...
...The five women of the group-Suchi Branfman, Nina Fichter, Pamela Gray, Krissy Keefer, and Lyn Neeley-work collectively on their pieces and mix various styles of gesture and dance confidently and skillfully...
...They all stumble over the difference between the American dream and the American actuality...
...Aside from black choreographers though, political protest faded from the foreground of white choreographers' attention until the Vietnam war re-ignited some of the fire of previous stressful times...
...With that war's conclusion politics was once again largely relegated to the columns of newspapers and magazines, leaving only black choreographers who continued to draw attention to racial injustices...
...In "Tower," which almost seems like the finale of "Mothers" since it is presented right after it, they chant and sign a poem about self-possession and acting in self-interest...
...or Marlon Brando: "He stands up for his principles") and in turn try careers and motherhood...
...The New York Street Theater Caravan relies on the music, song, and dance ambience of regular cabaret to deliver its message...
...The "kids" of course grow up...
...The final group, Wallflower Order, is not a conventional dance company either but shares the belief that movement is essential to frame the message...
...The media are not the message but are the means by which the message is transmitted...
...To a great extent their routines do not break any new ground, but some involving "bag ladies" and hard-hats are witty...
...Dance DANCE & POLITICS THREE CONTRASTING COMPANIES DURING THE THIRTIES, when politics influenced the work of writers, dramatists, painters, and musicians, it also found its way into the output of various modern dance choreographers...
...Perhaps the impact owes something to the special view of the world as seen through women's eyes but the imaginative blending of theatrical elements is effective in its own right...
...The targets are sexual stereotypes-woman as passive recipient of male aggression, the machismo associated with the late John Wayne-business indifference to workers' rights, and an aggressive United States presence in those indistinguishable Latin American countries...
...physical movement is precisely controlled...
...The feelings of anger and sympathy are real enough, but the recounting adds little to the stark facts...
...or an exasperated "What did I do to deserve kids like you...
...and as long as they explore themes that lie within their immediate experience, they are strongly convincing...
...Music is accepted as it issues from a popular radio or television station...
...The appropriation of the visual language of the deaf is not unique to this group, but their imaginative use of it is...
...Protests over injustice and affirmations of solidarity with the oppressed appeared on a fairly regular basis, reflecting the economic suffering of the Depression, fascist outrages, and the profound crisis of conscience caused by the Spanish Civil War...
...The visual show is accompanied by verbal commentary or drawn images or designs over the projections...
...The numbers that deal with revolutionary activity in Latin America are so blatantly black-and-white in their characterizations that they become reduced to an almost cartoon level...
...Words find their way into three of the four pieces on their program but do so tangentially - people do not really speak to one another but instead launch thoughts past one another, using disconnected and irrelevant phrases like illogical javelins...
...The use of video, slides, innovative lighting designs, along with the mixing of various styles of dance and gesture, were all pioneered in the sixties but here have been appropriated for political ends...
...Immigration" was a moving delineation of the experiences of workers from Eastern Europe making their way in turn-of-the-century America...
...The most powerfully realized pieces were "Mothers" and "Tower" and the least effective were "Hay Canto" and "Maripose...
...The signing is very beautifully handled as a round in which all join for the unison conclusion...
...Well, not quite...
...The five "mothers" were believably human, muttering through clenched teeth like a drill instructor, "Tonight we are going to have a nice dinner...
...The difference in impact derived from the immediacy of the former as subjects close to home, full of precisely observed detail contrasted with the relative remoteness of the pieces based on revolutionary activity in Latin America...
...The New York Street Theater Caravan uses the skit, song, and musical format that is easily connected with traditional cabaret...
...and this autumn David White of the enterprising Dance Theater Workshop produced a series of three groups and one solo artist who associate artistic expression with political attitudes in a variety of meaningful ways...
...The presentations of the United Mime Workers barely rose above the level that one might encounter in a dance composition class...
...The group was founded as a "woman's dance collective" and views the world through the eyes of the feminist movement...
...Their performing brio is winning...
...The eight members of the group all play one or another instrument, are racially integrated, and write their own material...
...The quality of the work is about as varied as one might experience in a random selection of any four off-Broadway groups ranging from tolerable to imaginatively innovative...
...During the forties, anxiety about the nuclear age was expressed and black choreographers excoriated racist attitudes...
Vol. 110 • March 1983 • No. 5
