On Dance

...So-no Osato ladiates an impetuousness be-witchingly at odds with the composure 01 hei exotic features Plates like these are nevertheless exceptions, not the rule Anthony's primal v intoiest thioughout luscaieei lias been lo catch stai quality rathei than a daiicci 'siudividtialitv A significant ptoMARTHA GRAHAM IN portion of the photographs in Danceis to Remember are head shots—some admittedly very fancy Luboc Rostova, an unknown identified as "a soloist of the Ballets Russes who took over roles in the Presages and Choieartium for Mas-sine," is framed in a triangle of flames before a candelabrum, a pretty female Hamlet The shadows that lower over a good half of the page are typical of Anthony's strategy for gussying up empty spaces He evokes decor with projections, now in light, now in shadow, of gothic windows, crosses, curtains, lanterns, stars, palms, archways, pagodas, carousels—anything that provides atmosphere Elsew here he uses front lighting to cast a dark halo from a brilliant headdress Yet despite his fussing, he often loses control over his peripheral ettects In the study ot Patricia Bowman as a VVatei Nymph, her foreshortened hand iliiows a black shadow like a Happing claw In the malionlv portiait ol Cclu FiaiicjastheQueeiiol theW ills, hei little wing tuts Ironi hei back like the kev on a «iikl-up to'LETTER TO THE WORLD" " """"" ' " This last blooper is especially peculiar in view of Anthony's somewhat airy approach to photographic truth His appendix, "Dancers and the Camera," features a list of the seven "most important points" to watch for when retouching, including such universals as arms, collar bones, bulges caused by elastics, toe shoes (square toes to be rounded otf), calf muscles, and all creases in dresses and tights No wonder e\ er\ one looks a little hazy' An attentiv e ev e w ill have no trouble spotting numerous signs of retouching Anthony classifies his work into three categories the commercial, the pictorial and the pureK decorative The distinctions are specious His whole collection might bechaiaderi/cd bv those three terms Barbara Morgan s meditations reveal what Manila Ciiaham s dancing was like ev en it vou never saw her, at best, lor v leweis w hoi/o icmem-bci, Goidcin xnlhonv s photographs niav have a musiv nostalgia like laded posu.iids Bui il vouweien'i theiewhen he was taking the purines vou 11 have trouble iccogni/ing anv legends...

...OnDance BALLET THROUGH THE CAMERAS EYE BY M ANATOLE GUREWITSCH G iven half a chance, dance photographers will explain at length how difficult their work is Not unexpectedly, therefore, in the text of Martha Graham Sixteen Dances in Photo-graphs (Morgan and Morgan, 168 pp , $35 00) Barbara Morgan writes about problems of the craft, and in Dancers to Remember The Photographic Art of Got don Anthony (Rizzoli International, 149 pp , $27 50), the British practitioner does the same Beyond technical matters, however, they have almost nothing in common Morgan's stated aim is to capture the "essential emotion" of Graham's dances Although Anthony does not articulate his objective with any clarity or passion, apparently it is the taking of a pretty picture And these photographers' words reflect their images with remarkable faithfulness Martha Graham is revered as the quintessential "legend in her own time " For those born too late to have witnessed her in her peak performing years (or, indeed, in her decline), the reputation can seem fairly mysterious Her touring company in the early '70s was a sorry bunch, dedicated yet dreary Their slack renditions of her mythic investigations were pallid illustrations of the inimitably pretentious program notes, so one tended to dismiss the movements and fasten on the "ideas " But if Graham really was the artist in the '40s and '50s her adulators say she was, those ideas could have been no more for her than a point of departure Unfortunately, after she stopped dancing one could no longer see where she had taken them Even with the far more proficient technicians available to her today, her dances more often than not fail to catch fire I can remember only a single split second from the Graham repertoire that conj ured up the primal power Barbara Morgan has captured on film It was the very beginning of Clytemnes-tra on Public Television's "Dance in America" series, when to the thunderclap of a drum an arm and a staff bolted onto the empty screen in a sudden, commanding gesture that seemed to spring open the gates of hell, where the action of the piece is situated Once past that threshold, alas, the energy quickly lost itself in miasmatic ramblings The triumph of Morgan's photographs, first published in this same collection 40 years ago ('), is that they make immediate Graham's brilliantly focused, astounding strength of body and mind Not that she is present in every picture The series on Frontier starts with a shot of the rope that forms the "widening horizon" against which the pioneer woman later enacts "her strength, and tenderness, her determination and jubilation at overcoming the hazards of a new land, as well as her love for the land " It is hard to pinpoint the precise quality that is evident in a subsequent frame of Graham, supported on her right leg, arms stretched above her head, torso and left leg suspended parallel to the floor Whether tenderness or determination, it is infinitely more compelling than the prose Throughout Martha Graham, Morgan deftly chooses the eloquent moment when movement is subsumable in stillness and enhances it by means of compositions, tones and textures that are at once sensual and ascetic In the Frontier picture just described, for example, the line of the dancer's dress from nbcage to airborne ankle is etched against deep blackness with sharp, smooth clarity, the falling hem traces its diagonal way toward the floor, partly absorbed into the inky ground, the simple surface of the outspread fabric evokes the plasticity and torsion of the underlying body in motion In recent years Graham has taken a great shine to Halston, who has designed costumes for her dances as well as items for her personal wardrobe, thus her fascination with hieratic fashions, impressively documented in Morgan's book, ought not come as a surprise The photographer shares this fascination and has a startling ability to make a gown stand in for an entire dance Some of her pictures are details of folds (Imperial Gesture), of unfurling (Frontier), of stretched knits (Ekstasis), with the dancer's body merely implied These arresting studies are most useful in instructing us how to look at the full-body figures in Morgan's finest pages the desolation in Deep Song, the swirling disorientation m Letter to the World, the self-mockery of Every Soul is a Circus If the group pictures (featuring Merce Cunningham and Enck Hawkins, among other notables) are on the whole perhaps a cut below the ones of Graham alone, it is because most of them have the documentary look of conventional theatrical photography Many are superior examples of the genre (well lit, well cropped), but they lack the originality that so thnllingly distinguishes Morgan's records of Martha herself In those bold compositions, Barbara Morgan presents a wholly convincing case for Martha Graham's importance in the world of ballet, it is more than her troupe today manages to do with an entire repertoire 0 f the dancers Gordon Anthony would have us remember, all save a dozen or so have already been forgotten by everyone except the most encyclopedically inclined ballet fanciers The sad fact is that a highly respectable career in the dance (or in any other profession, come to think of it) is no guarantee of lasting influence, let alone immortality The artist does nobly who can please the contemporary public If we open Anthony's souvenir volume at random, chances are 10-1 we will find a dancer whose achievement has vanished without a trace Perhaps worse, the names we do know are coupled with pictures that say nothing, as in the case of Alicia Markova Every caption and every picture seems chched Well, not quite We see the elegant South African Pearl Argyle (in much too small a reproduction) as Venus in Frederick Ashton's The Judgment of Pans, descending enraptured from a grand jete, her kicked-back dress revealing a thigh of voluptuous perfection The magnificent AlexandraDani-lova clings to Roman Jasinsky in an impassioned embrace from David Lichine's Francesco da Rimmi Margot Fonteyn and Michael Somes are caught in a moment of propulsiveabandon from Ashton's Dante Sonata And through an asymmetrical stance in a folk dance from Michel Fokine's Le Coq D 'Oi...