scholarly journals Inevitable Designs: Embodied Ideology in Anna Sokolow's Proletarian Dances

2013 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Kosstrin
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Case History ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Modern Dance ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Martha Graham ◽  
Dance Movement ◽  
Going Public

Anna Sokolow (1910–2000), an American Jewish choreographer known for her social statements, led the workers dance movement and performed as a soloist with Martha Graham. She imbued her dancesStrange American Funeral(1935) andCase History No.—(1937) with proletarian ideology that spoke to 1930s working- and middle-class audiences aligned with values of revolutionary and modern dance. These choreographies spoke to a political atmosphere focused on social justice while they appealed to a broad dance-going public. Sokolow's Graham training engendered a modernist aesthetic in her choreography that led critics to consider her work universal instead of marked as coming from a working-class left-wing Jewish dancer. This article argues that while narratives about Sokolow's work downplay her Communist affiliations, these ideals played a critical role in her choreography and in her navigation of international Communist circles. As Sokolow's choreography reinforced her politics, so too did her affiliations support her dance work.

Dudley, Jane (1912–2001)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Phillips Geduld
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Modern Dance ◽  
The United States ◽  
London School ◽  
Contemporary Dance ◽  
Martha Graham ◽  
Dance Movement ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Works

Jane Dudley, a key figure in the radical dance movement of the 1930s, was a choreographer who developed her own distinctive voice within the modern dance idiom and an educator who trained numerous dancers both in the United States and in England. An early member of the New Dance Group (NDG), she oversaw the creation of group works such as Strike (1934), while choreographing solos such as Time is Money (1934), in which she used the modern dance idiom to embody a worker’s oppression on the assembly line. A striking performer, Dudley joined the Martha Graham Company in the mid-1930s. At the same time, she continued to develop her own repertoire, in part through the Dudley–Maslow–Bales Trio, whose founders—Sophie Maslow, William Bales, and herself—remained committed to the social ideals of the 1930s long after they had abandoned the making of overtly political works. Dudley’s loyalty to NDG extended over several decades during which it became a major New York training venue, offering inexpensive classes and professional training to promising students, including many African Americans. From 1970 to 2000, Dudley directed the London School of Contemporary Dance, transforming it into one of Europe’s leading modern dance institutions.

scholarly journals The Dancing Body: Hopping Anyone?'

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Evadne Kelly
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
South African ◽  
Modern Dance ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
The Body ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Dance Movement ◽  
History And Memory ◽  
Body Memory ◽  
Trade Area

How can the body which is constantly changing inspire understanding about life and about knowledge? I am inspired by memories of seeing and participating in dance that felt inclusive. These memories remind me that dance can be a gift, to both the participant and the observer, of a sense of freedom, agency and collective. The left wing modern dance movement in New York, toyi-toyi from the South African anti-apartheid movement, and radical cheerleading at a protest of the Free Trade Area of the Americas are all examples of this. I want to draw from this understanding of dance in order to allow for feelings of abundance, empowerment and agency in my writing about the dancing body and hope. I am filled with a sense of the possibilities for history and memory in subverting hegemony through the dancing body. I can see how history or memory also embodies the on-going creation of the landscapes of the present. It is not just the constructed narratives that those with the power to do so produce about themselves and others' pasts. I want to bring some of life's patchiness into my own attempt to tell a story based on a different writing structure so that I might play with structure in a way that breaks with modern ideas of progress and knowledge production. The story itself has something to do with the body, memory and dance. Part of my goal is to adopt a writing style that mimics this story.

Responses and Ramifications

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica McCrory Calarco
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Working Class Students ◽  
Problem Solving Strategies ◽  
Unequal Opportunities ◽  
Do So

Chapter 6 reveals the critical role teachers play in translating class-based problem-solving strategies into unequal opportunities in school. Teachers almost always rewarded middle-class students’ strategies of influence. They did so by granting requests for assistance, accommodations, and attention and by creating conditions in which middle-class students (but not working-class students) felt comfortable making requests. That privileging of middle-class students, however, did not seem intentional. Teachers tried to support working-class students, but time and accountability pressures made it difficult for them to recognize students’ tacit struggles, forcing teachers to rely on students to voice their own needs. Teachers also relented in granting middle-class students’ requests, even when they seemed reluctant to do so. In those moments, teachers gave in because they wanted their students to feel supported and, more problematically, because it was often easier and less time-consuming to say “yes” and much riskier to say “no.”

scholarly journals The struggle for Singapore’s Chinese heartland: The People’s Action Party versus the Workers’ Party versus the Singapore Democratic Party, 1998–2013

2021 ◽  
pp. 205789112098806
Author(s):  
Kieran James
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Political Force ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
The 1950S

Singapore’s political struggles of the 1950s and 1960s, between a Chinese-educated, working-class left wing and a middle-class, English-educated faction, have not been completely eradicated but continue to cast a shadow over modern political developments. The moderate, English-educated faction achieved an important victory when it took over control of the People’s Action Party (PAP) in the early 1960s. However, the surprise ascendancy of the Workers’ Party (WP), under Low Thia Khiang, has seen a long-marginalized section of the Chinese-educated galvanize around a district, Hougang and Aljunied, and a Teochew-speaking charismatic but low-key individual in Mr Low. The WP’s ability to develop an enduring ‘brand’ over the 2006–2013 period surprised many commentators. By 2013 it had become Singapore’s second-strongest political force.

scholarly journals Danseterapeutiske spor - fra rituel dans til globale netværk og postmoderne udfordringer

2008 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Helle Winther
Keyword(s):  
Dance Therapy ◽  
Body Movement ◽  
Modern Dance ◽  
Large Degree ◽  
Research Field ◽  
The Body ◽  
Martha Graham ◽  
Dance Movement ◽  
Global Networks ◽  
Long Time

Artiklen tager afsæt i om der eksisterer et uudnyttet potentiale i at inddrage krop og bevægelse i terapeutiske sammenhæng i forhold til både almen og personlig udvikling og psykiatriske behandlinger. Artiklen afdækker også hvordan danse- og bevægelsesterapier begyndte at arbejde med sammenhæng mellem krop psyke og samfund, samt de hastigt udviklende europæiske tiltag og postmoderne forskningsmæssige tendenser indenfor det danse- og bevægelsesterapeutiske fælt. Helle Winther: Dance Therapeutic Traces – from Ritual Dance to Global Networks and Postmodern Challenges While dance movement therapy (DMT) is a relatively new and unknown field in Denmark, it is a well-known profession used in both psychiatry and private practices in many other countries. In spite of many different theoretical views, today there is a large degree of agreement that the body and psyche, as well as one’s relationship to the surrounding world must be regarded as a cohesive dynamic and organic unit. The fundamental question of the article is, whether there is an unused potential in using body and movement in therapeutic settings and whether body, movement and dance can touch people when words are not enough. The text enlightens the historical roots and traces of DMT through a long time pe185 riod stretching from original ritual dances to the early modern dance personified in Mary Wigman, Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham. These three dancers inspired the next generation and the six pioneers of dance therapy – in the text portrayed through Marian Chace and Mary Whitehouse. The works of these pioneers have worldwide traces today, and these traces are shortly described. After that an actual dance therapy form Dansergia is introduced and finally the postmodern tendencies within the current international research field of DMT are mirrored in the past, the present and the possibilities for steps in the future.

The Decline of Class Revisited: Class and Party in England, 1964–1979

1985 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 719-737 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Kelley ◽  
Ian McAllister ◽  
Anthony Mughan
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Industrial Society ◽  
Left Wing

Class has long been the preeminent source of political conflict in industrial society, but its electoral influence has declined in recent years. The sources of the decline are not yet firmly established, and moreover the implications for political parties remain unclear. The decline-of-class hypothesis states that parties on the left will decline as the working class becomes more affluent and adopts middle-class styles of conduct. By contrast, the party-appeals hypothesis suggests that as the electorate becomes more middle class, parties of the left will alter their appeals to encompass the growing middle class and so offset the shrinkage of their traditional working-class constituency. This article applies multivariate anaysis to survey data collected in England between 1964 and 1979 to test four specific hypotheses derived from the two scenarios. The results support the decline-of-class theory's prediction that economic development erodes the working-class bases of left-wing parties, but not its claim that the left-wing party's vote declines proportionately. Rather, the results suggest that parties are apparently able to change their appeals to reduce their losses, as argued by the party-appeals theory, but not to eliminate them. It seems that there are restraints on parties' ability to change their appeals, limitations not envisioned by the party appeals theory.

Southern Cinematic Slumming

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zackary Vernon
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Lower Class ◽  
Slumdog Millionaire ◽  
Upper Middle Class ◽  
Cultural Homogenization

In this essay, the author argues that individuals both in and outside of the region are increasingly drawn to narratives about the “Rough South.” Such narratives tend to portray lower-class southerners from an insider perspective that appears tantalizingly “authentic” to educated, upper-middle-class, urban and suburban audiences. Based on a survey of recent southern films, Vernon contends that contemporary southerners are often so desperate to disavowal cultural homogenization that they participate in the filmic fetishization and commodification of a working-class South that seems to have retained a sense of cultural distinctiveness. Building upon the “poverty porn” debates that emerged in the wake of films like Slumdog Millionaire, Vernon asserts that if films unrealistically depict people in need as leading aesthetically satisfying lives, then they may ultimately run the risk of detracting from social justice efforts.

Middle-Class Victorian Street Arabs: Modern Re-creations of the Baker Street Irregulars

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic Cheetham
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Children's Literature ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Street Children ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sherlock Holmes ◽  
Upward Shift

In three of Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories there are brief appearances of the Baker Street Irregulars, a group of ‘street Arabs’ who help Holmes with his investigations. These children have been re-imagined in modern children's literature in at least twenty-seven texts in a variety of media and with writers from both Britain and the United States. All these modern stories show a marked upward shift in the class of the Irregulars away from the lower working class of Conan-Doyle's originals. The shift occurs through attributing middle-class origins to the leaders of the Irregulars, through raising the class of the Irregulars in general, and through giving the children life environments more comfortable, safe, and financially secure than would have been possible for late-Victorian street children. Because of the variety in texts and writers, it is argued that this shift is not a result of the conscious political or ideological positions of individual writers, but rather reflects common unconscious narrative choices. The class-shift is examined in relation to the various pressures of conventions in children's literature, concepts of audience, and common concepts of class in society.

The public's view of public health in mid-Victorian Britain

Urban History ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Sigsworth ◽  
Michael Worboys
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Health Reform ◽  
Great Majority ◽  
Personal Hygiene ◽  
The Public ◽  
Victorian Britain ◽  
Physical Conditions ◽  
Public Health Reform

What did the public think about public health reform in mid-Victorian Britain? Historians have had a lot to say about the sanitary mentality and actions of the middle class, yet have been strangely silent about the ideas and behaviour of the working class, who were the great majority of the public and the group whose health was mainly in question. Perhaps there is nothing to say. The working class were commonly referred to as ‘the Great Unwashed’, purportedly ignorant and indifferent on matters of personal hygiene, environmental sanitation and hence health. Indeed, the writings of reformers imply that the working class simply did not have a sanitary mentality. However, the views of sanitary campaigners should not be taken at face value. Often propaganda and always one class's perception of another, in the context of the social apartheid in Britain's cities in the mid-nineteenth century, sanitary campaigners' views probably reveal more about middle-class anxieties than the actual social and physical conditions of the poor. None the less many historians still use such material to portray working-class life, but few have gone on to ask how public health reform was seen and experienced ‘from below’. Historians of public health have tended to portray the urban working class as passive victims who were rescued by enlightened middle-class reformers. This seems to be borne out at the political level where, unlike with other popular movements of the 1840s and after, there is little evidence of working-class participation in, or support for, the public health movement.

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