Merce Cunningham

The Modernizing of Modern Dance
1. Auflage 2004
ISBN: 978-0-415-96574-3
Verlag: Taylor & Francis

Buch, Englisch, 328 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 238 mm, Gewicht: 644 g

Merce Cunningham and the Modernizing of Modern Dance is a complete study of the life and work of this seminal choreographer/dancer. More than just a biography, Copeland explores Cunningham's life story against a backdrop of an entire century of developments in American art. Copeland traces his own experience of Cunningham's dances-from the turbulent late '60s through the experimental works of the '80s and '90s-showing how Cunningham moved dance away from the highly emotional, subjective work of Martha Graham to a return to a new kind of classicism. This book places Cunningham in the forefront of an artistic revolution, a revolution that has its parallels in music (John Cage, and the minimalist composers who followed him), painting (Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg), theater (the happenings of the '60s), and dance itself (the Judson School of dancers). An iconclastic and highly readable analysis, this book will be enjoyed by all those interested in the development of the American arts in the 20th century.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Copeland, Roger

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Kulturwissenschaften
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Tanz Ballett, Modern Dance
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Tanz Gesellschaftstänze, Volkstänze

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents Acknowledgments Introduction 1 From Graham to Cunningham: An Unsentimental Education 2 Portrait of the Artist as a Jung Man 3 Beyond the Ethos of Abstract Expressionism 4 The Limitations of Instinct 5 Contemporary Classicism: Re-Discovering Ballet 6 Primitive Mysteries 7 The Sound of Perceptual Freedom 8 Cunningham, Cage, and Collage 9 Dancing for the Digital Age 10 Re-Thinking the Thinking Body: The Gaze of Upright Posture 11 Modernism, Post-Modernism, and Cunningham 12 Fatal Abstraction: Merce Cunningham and The Politics of Perception 13 Dancing in the Aftermath of 9/11 Index

Über Autor(innen)

Roger Copeland is Professor of Theater and Dance at Oberlin College. He is coeditor of the widely used anthology What is Dance? His essays about dance, theater, and film have appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, The Village Voice, and many other publications including The Encyclopedia of Dance and Ballet.