The Beginning of Dance Studies in Greece (1900–1974)

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 15-20
Author(s):  
Vasso Barboussi
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Educational System ◽  
Modern Dance ◽  
German Culture ◽  
Dance Studies ◽  
Greek Tradition ◽  
Professional Dance ◽  
German System

The educational system introduced in Greece during the liberation, a period known as the Bavarian Regency (1833–1862), had been, more or less, a copy of the corresponding German system of this period. Koula Pratsika (1899–1984), who established modern dance and professional dance studies in the country, participated in the Delphic festival in 1927 and was influenced by Eva Palmer. She also had been influenced by the 1930s Hellenistic ideology writers and artists. Pratsika was trying to find and develop a dance reflecting Greek tradition, revitalized and encouraged by the ancient spirit. She was inspired by Duncan regarding ancient dance as well as by many aesthetic movements, including German modern dance and the Dalcroze School where she studied. Pratsika invited German dancers to give seminars and performances in Athens. This paper will examine the birth of Greek modern dance since the beginning of the twentieth century and the influence of German culture and dance.

Short Reviews

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-130
Author(s):  
Susan Teneriello
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Visual Arts ◽  
English Language ◽  
Modern Dance ◽  
Symbolic System ◽  
Dance Studies ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Body Imagery ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approaches ◽  
Critical Dance Studies

Gabriele Brandstetter's Poetics of Dance has remained unavailable to English-language readers until now. Widely considered a landmark book of dance scholarship when it first appeared in Germany in 1995, this provocative analysis of the early twentieth-century avant-garde in Europe is sure to continue to influence a new audience. The book's initial publication advanced the application of critical theory and interdisciplinary approaches to dance that now constitute the field of critical dance studies. Caringly translated by Elena Polzer with Oxford Studies in Dance Theory series editor Mark Franko, this work remains a unique analysis of modernity that illuminates dance as an “act of transmission,” a bridge through theatre, literature, and visual arts altering relationships to how movement is reproduced and how space is conceptualized. Brandstetter's central premise expands through reading body imagery as a historically specific context from which the iconography of pictorial patterns open up perceptual concepts. The interdependency between new models and vocabularies of modern dance and literature appearing at the turn-of-the-twentieth century brace the argument that avant-garde aesthetic debates and concerns moved through body imagery and figurations in space. The poetics of free dance (and later forms of Expressionist dance appearing in Germany) as it took shape in Europe foregrounds the dancer's movement as a transformative language and symbolic system of cultural deconstruction and renewal.

The State of Dance Studies in Greece

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 401-407
Author(s):  
Maria Tsouvala
Keyword(s):  
Educational System ◽  
Modern Dance ◽  
Historical Review ◽  
The State ◽  
Economic Situation ◽  
Joint Conference ◽  
Dance Studies ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
Current Economic Situation ◽  
The Aesthetic

The present paper was part of the opening plenary panel entitled “The State of Dance Studies in Greece” in the joint conference of the Society of Dance History Scholars and the Congress on Research in Dance, held in Athens, June 4–7, 2015. It starts with the writer's perception of the current economic situation in Greece, which impedes progressive changes in the field of dance. Then it moves on to underline, through a brief historical review, the aesthetic origins of modern dance in Greece, the recent reforms in the educational system, and the distinctiveness of the artistic scene from the 1980s until today. The paper concludes with a reflection on new approaches that have emerged in the local dance scene within the context of the crisis.

Italian Minor Theatre, 2000–14: the Development of ‘Short Forms’ and the Politics of the Stage

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (03) ◽  
pp. 195-208
Author(s):  
Silvia Mei
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Visual Arts ◽  
Modern Dance ◽  
Minor Literature ◽  
Philosophical Concept ◽  
Short Forms ◽  
Research Fellow ◽  
History Of ◽  
Expressive Dimension ◽  
The University

Brevity in experimental Italian theatre is not merely an expressive dimension of scenic creation, but a forma mentis, a conceptual vocation of young companies. The 2000s produced a minor theatre in Italy – first because of the reduced stage size, and second because of the brevity of works such as installation pieces. Moving from the linguistic disintegration of the historical avant-gardes of the twentieth century, this theatre is especially inspired by the visual arts, even though its historical roots remain fragmented and art is still seen in the synthetic language of modern dance and Futurist variety. Short forms actually become a tool for crossing artistic genres and languages. Starting from Deleuze’s and Guattari’s philosophical concept of minor literature, in this article Silvia Mei explores and analyzes work by such Italian contemporary companies as gruppo nanou, Città di Ebla, Anagoor, Opera, ErosAntEros, and Teatro Sotterraneo – all representative of what can be called installation theatre, a new theatrical wave that crosses the boundaries and specificities of artistic language, leading to the deterritorialization of theatre itself, a rethinking of the artistic work as well as its relationship with the audience. Silvia Mei is Adjunct Professor of the History of Theatre Directing and Theatre Iconography at the University of Bologna, having been a Research Fellow at the University of Turin. Her recent publications include ‘La terza avanguardia: ortografie dell’ultima scena italiana’, in Culture Teatrali, No. 14 (2015), and Displace Altofest (Valletta: Malta 2018 Foundation).

Political Autobiography and the Art of the Plausible: R. A. Butler at the Foreign Office, 1938–1939

1985 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 901-922 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Stafford
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Educational System ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
British Politics ◽  
Suez Crisis ◽  
Foreign Office ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Times ◽  
The Right ◽  
Enoch Powell

R. A. Butler has been one of the outstanding figures in twentieth-century British politics. After his death The Times described him as ‘the creator of the modern educational system, the key-figure in the revival of post-war Conservatism, arguably the most successful chancellor since the war and un-questionably a Home Secretary of reforming zeal’. His record of achievement was unequalled by his rivals in the contests for the party leadership in 1957 and in 1963, but on both occasions the leadership eluded him. How and why this happened was understandably of the greatest interest to those who reviewed Rab's memoirs, The art of the possible, which were published in 1971. These memoirs won unanimous praise for their literary excellence, but otherwise met with a rather mixed reception. Enoch Powell, one of Rab's supporters in 1963, described them as ‘a work of astonishing self-revelation [belonging] with the classic Confessions. Augustine and Rousseau were not more unsparing of themselves than Rab…’ The ‘large episodes’ of Rab's career, Powell went on, ‘are treated with a generous vision (including, it need not be added, a generosity to Rab) which leaves the reader with improved understanding and perspective’. Powell's comments were echoed by others on the Right, but the Left was more critical. Anthony Howard noted that ‘what tend…to get wholly left out are the mistakes and blunders’ – the now infamous Villacoublay meeting during the Suez crisis; and Rab's astonishing admission to the journalist George Gale during the 1964 campaign that the election was slipping Labour's way. Harold Wilson, who had offered Rab the mastership of Trinity, was perhaps the least charitable of all. He found The art of the possible disappointing because, he claimed, Rab underwrote the great occasions. Rab's reticence about Suez, however, upset Wilson less than the description of his tribulations at the hands of Labour MPs as government spokesman for the policy of non-intervention during the Spanish Civil War. Here was an issue which could excite the older soldiers of the British Left, and if Wilson was alone among Rab's reviewers in making more than passing reference to Rab's association with appeasement this was why.

APPLICATION OF AZERBAIJANI FOLK DANCE IN KHOREOGRAPHICAL COMPOSITION

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (12) ◽  
pp. 218-226
Author(s):  
Terane MURADOVA
Keyword(s):  
Modern Dance ◽  
Stage Structure ◽  
Musical Instrument ◽  
Folk Dance ◽  
Main Condition ◽  
Successful Work ◽  
Professional Dance ◽  
Classical Traditions ◽  
Dance Groups ◽  
Different Parts

Login: The article is dedicated to the embodiment of Azerbaijani folk dances on the professional stage. The main condition for the stage embodiment of folk dances is to take into account the laws of composition and stage criteria. When talking about the stage structure of folk dance, a number of important factors need to be clarified. The composition consists of several parts. These parts consist of dance combinations. For this, dance must express the parts of the composition as exposition, binding, development and complementary. Development: Angle factor is very important in stage arrangement of folk dances. The choreographer must take into account that the audience can see the artist from ane direction. Therefore, this fact should not be ignored during the making of the composition. One of the lyrical compositions of Azerbaijani folk dances is based on the “Uzundere” dance. The character of the dance,its lyrical and melodic melody make it possible to perform it as a bridal dance. “Uzundere” dance is ona of the solo dances. However,duet performances are also observed. It should not be forgotten that this danse is performed not only by women but also by men, and each performance has its own dance elements. The most common and professional version of the dance “Uzundere” is a also composition by a female dancer. One of the dances we have analyzed is the “Gaval dance”. The place of this musical instrument in national art is also reflected in dance. The musical content of the “Gaval dance” consists of two different parts. It includes both a slow-paced lyrics and a fast-paced section. These parts change during the dance. This sequence may be repeated several times, depending on the structural properties of the composition. The choreographic content of the dance has been preserved both as a solo and as a collective expression. Result: Based on our analysis and research, the main features of modern dance art can be characterized by the following provisions. As a result of the establishment and successful work of professional dance groups, the development of national dances has reached a new stage, and this process has been reflected in both folk dances and compositions based on the composer’s music. She based the stage arrangement criteria of folk dances on the professional synthesis of world classical traditions and Azerbaijani traditions with Azerbaijani choreography and national dance traditions.

“Ballet” is a Dirty Word

2021 ◽  
pp. 373-388
Author(s):  
Henrique Rochelle
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
Strong Influence ◽  
Modern Dance ◽  
Sao Paulo ◽  
São Paulo ◽  
The Past ◽  
Dance Training ◽  
Professional Dance ◽  
Dance Companies ◽  
The City

Professional dancing in São Paulo, Brazil, developed from the 1950s on, with a constant and strong influence from modern dance. As modernism looked disapprovingly at ballet, seeing it as something from the past, prejudice grew in the city toward the form. Directors and choreographers of dance companies currently speak about ballet and contemporary ballet as something that is done, but always by others, never themselves. Even the word “ballet” is avoided, since it seems to diminish the works being discussed, as it became something strictly associated with dance training, and not professional dance. This chapter investigates the roots of ballet in São Paulo, discussing both its origins and the origins of its rejection, while pointing to the recent indications of its newfound public interest.

Introduction

Forms of Life ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-74
Author(s):  
Andreas Gailus
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Dynamic Process ◽  
Human Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
German Culture ◽  
Temporal Specificity ◽  
Late Eighteenth

The introduction situates the book within the context of contemporary debates about life, spells out the relevance of Ludwig Wittgenstein's later thought to the argument, and explains how literature provides access to the political interiority of human life unavailable to contemporary theories of biopolitics. It also motivates the geographical and temporal specificity of the book, arguing that German culture from the late eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century developed an expanded conception of life as the dynamic drive toward form. It suggests that this dynamic process of formation was seen by many in the German tradition as fundamental not merely to metabolic and bodily life, but equally to the vital processes of aesthetic, psychic, and socio-political phenomena.

Burrowes, Leslie (1908–1985)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larraine Nicholas
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Teacher Training ◽  
Modern Dance ◽  
Aesthetic Education ◽  
Original Dance ◽  
Dance Training ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Teacher Training Colleges ◽  
British Teacher

Dancer, choreographer, and teacher Leslie Burrowes was the first British recipient of the full certification of Mary Wigman’s Dresden School, which licenced her to teach Wigman’s modern dance technique to amateurs and professionals. Before beginning her training with Wigman in 1930, Burrowes had studied and performed with Margaret Morris, whose "free dance" method belonged to the Hellenic and Duncanesque nonballetic dance techniques of early twentieth-century Britain. Burrowes rejected her original dance training in favor of Wigman’s expressionism, returning to London in 1931 to proselytize on its behalf and to serve as Wigman’s official British representative. Burrowes’ attempts to establish Wigman’s dance in Britain were largely unsuccessful, caught in the squeeze between the better-established ballet and Hellenic dance. However, she is an important figure in the development of modern dance in Britain, providing a thorough aesthetic education to some of the teachers and lecturers who, from the 1940s, were instrumental in establishing Laban-based modern dance in British teacher training colleges and schools.

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