DANZA POBRE: UNA REFLEXIÓN SOBRE EL SURGIMIENTO DE LA DANZA MODERNA EN LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS

Haciendo alusión a la obra clásica Hacia un Teatro Pobre de Jerzy Grotowski (2004) y su Laboratorio Teatral, este artículo considera el surgimiento de la danza moderna en los Estados Unidos como una forma de hacer danza pobre. Esto es así porque el movimiento de transformación impulsado por los creadores de este estilo dancístico ofrece increíbles similitudes con los principios que formularía después Grotowski para los actores. Así pues, el teatro pobre como la danza moderna, a pesar de haber surgido en diversos espacios y tiempos, son dos movimientos análogos que comparten, entre otras cosas, la forma de hacer y concebir el arte. Sus mayores similitudes se encuentran en los siguientes principios: 1) El arte como vía negativa; 2) El arte como pobreza; y 3) El arte como encuentro espiritual. Para llevar a cabo esta analogía se utilizará una perspectiva histórico-biográfica en dos niveles. Uno, el histórico, que sirve para ofrecer un panorama general del contexto social que favoreció esta nueva creación dancística. Dos, el biográfico, que aborda brevemente algunos momentos de la vida de tres de los principales creadores de la primera generación de la danza moderna, a saber, Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis y Ted Shawn. Palabras claveDanza Pobre. Danza Moderna. Teatro Pobre. Historia de la Danza.

India and the Translocal Modern Dance Scene, 1890s–1950s

At the end of the nineteenth century and during the first half of the twentieth, lead dancers from different countries became famous and toured internationally. These dancers—and the companies they created—transformed various dance forms into performances fit for the larger world of art music, ballet, and opera circuits. They adapted ballet to the variety-show formats and its audiences. Drawing on shared philosophical ideas—such as those manifest in the works of the Transcendentalists or in the writings of Nietzsche and Wagner—and from movement techniques, such as ballet codes, the Delsarte method, and, later on, Eurythmics (in fashion at the time), these lead dancers created new dance formats, choreographies, and styles, from which many of today’s classical, folk, and ballet schools emerged. In this essay, I look at how Rabindranath Tagore, Isadora Duncan, Anna Pavlova, Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn, Uday Shankar, Leila Roy Sokhey and Rumini Devi Arundale contributed to this translocal dance scene. Indian dance and spirituality, as well as famous Indian dancers, were an integral part of what at the time was known as the international modern dance scene. This transnational scene eventually coalesced into several separate schools, including what today is known as classical and modern Indian dance styles.

Overcoming and Denial: Disability and Modern Dance in the United States

Dancers and choreographers have always been navigating disability within an ableist representational form. This article questions the ableist histories of modern dance in the United States and seeks to redefine how disability is conceived of within the field of dance. The article explores five themes found within archival research, including overcoming narratives, symbiotic and inseparability of dance and disability, denial of disability, changing choreographic practices, and disability aesthetics. Examples of these themes are found in primary source documents about and by Martha Graham, Ted Shawn, and Doris Humphrey and contextualized throughout the article with dance and disability studies theorization.

Ted Shawn

This book is the first critical biography of Ted Shawn (1891–1972), the self-proclaimed “Father of American Dance.” Based on extensive archival research, it offers an in-depth examination of Shawn’s pioneering role in the formation of Denishawn (the first American modern dance company and school), Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers (the first all-male dance company), and Jacob’s Pillow (the internationally renowned dance festival and school located in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts). For many years and with great frustration, Shawn attempted to tell the story of his life’s work in terms of its social and artistic value, but struggled, owing to the fact that he was homosexual, something known only within his inner circle of friends. Though Shawn remained closeted, he scrupulously archived his journals, correspondence, programs, photographs, and motion pictures of his dances, anticipating that the full significance of his life, writing, and dances would reveal itself in time. By exploring these materials alongside Shawn’s relationship with contemporary thinkers who were leading a radical movement to depathologize homosexuality, such as the British eugenicist Havelock Ellis, writer Lucien Price, and sexologist Alfred C. Kinsey, this book tells the untold story of how Shawn’s homosexuality informed his extensive body of writings and choreography and, by extension, the history of dance in America.

Introduction: Firsts and Foremost

This chapter introduces the reader to Ted Shawn and to the reasons his life deserves a critical reappraisal. It examines how a narrative of his life was constructed over his more than fifty years in the public eye, including the compromising depictions of him in the biographies of his wife Ruth St. Denis and his most famous student Martha Graham. It also considers his many own attempts to write about his life, especially his memoir One Thousand and One Night Stands (1960). The chapter argues that homophobia (including Shawn’s own) clouded the narrative of Shawn’s life and obscured his place in dance history and thus proposes a reconsideration of his life, writings, and dances based on sources that had thus far not been given full consideration.

Seven Magic Years

This chapter focuses on the “seven magic years” of Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers (1933–40), the first all-male dance company that performed a repertory of hyper-masculine dances throughout the college and sorority circuits in the Depression-era United States. It elucidates the groundbreaking company’s history through details from the correspondence between Shawn and Lucien Price, an editor at the Boston Globe and one of the earliest and most vital supporters of Shawn’s all-male experiment. Price mentored Shawn in the codes of gay history, culture, and literature, all of which made their way into Shawn’s choreography. Based on details from Price’s private journals, the chapter reveals their shared vision and pursuits to liberate societal attitudes toward homosexuality. It also explores Shawn’s ongoing attempts to gain critical attention within the sphere of modern dance, especially from New York Times dance critic John Martin.

An Interesting Experiment in Eugenics

This chapter examines the formation and early years of Denishawn, the first American modern dance company and school. It argues that the newlywed Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn harnessed the cultural fascination with eugenics—the science of race betterment—to catapult their unique brand of theatrical dancing into public renown. A cultural phenomenon, Denishawn appeared in magazines from National Geographic to Vogue, fast becoming a sensation among Hollywood directors, vaudeville producers, and high society elites. Denishawn’s meteoric rise was curtailed by World War I and Shawn’s enlistment in the army as well as the interpersonal conflicts between St. Denis and Shawn, which led the couple to seek marriage counseling from Havelock Ellis, a pioneer of the British eugenics movement, while in London in 1922 with their company.

Introduction

As a historical context for La Meri’s work, this is a short discussion of Western cultural borrowings and fusions from the Renaissance to the 20th century. After considering the early developments, this chapter mentions Maud Allan and Loie Fuller—two early 20th century dance artists who presented themes from non-Western cultures in their performances—and the later creations of Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn, who also drew on international sources for their creative choreographies. It then briefly discusses how La Meri’s work gradually came to include the study and performance of authentic dances from various world cultures.