The intricacies of Being Israeli and Yemenite. An Ethnographic Study of Yemenite “Ethnic” Dance Companies in Israel

Focusing on the work of Yemenite “ethnic” dance companies in Israel, this article aims to understand how issues such as a shift in collective representations come to be invested into dance practices. In other words, it discusses how artistic creation and identity reconfigurations happen to associate in a dance form, and how an ethnographic study of dance practices and their contexts of performance may be a valuable way of accessing the dynamics of self-positioning of a group within the surrounding society. Linking together “classical” ethnography, analysis of dance products, and socio-political contextualisation, the present analysis shows that the articulation of two apparently contradictory ways of building these companies’ repertoire allows Yemenite dancers, choreographers, and also internal audience, to assume in one single dance form a sense of “being Yemenite” whilst not giving up the national dimension of their Israeli identity.

Spread of contemporary dance in Ukraine

The purpose of the article is to discover the peculiarities of the spread of contemporary dance in Ukraine. Methodology. The research was carried out using historical-chronological and biographical methods, as well as the method of stylistic analysis. Scientific novelty. For the first time, information about contemporary dance in Ukraine has been systematized and the features of its distribution have been identified. Conclusions. Contemporary dance is today recognized all over the world as a research tool for understanding a person and expanding his consciousness, which performs not only recreational, relaxation, communicative, and other functions, but is also used to solve human problems at the physical and mental levels, as well as to form cultural values. Having originated in Europe and America, the contemporary dance spread in Ukraine, gaining significant popularity in recent years. Among the specialist choreographers who contributed to its popularization in Ukraine from the end of the twentieth century. until now – M. Lymar, O. Budnytska, L. Venedyktova, L. Mova, R. Baranov, Kh. Shyshkarova, A. Ovchinnikov, A. Safonov, O. Ruban. In Ukraine, dance companies Buchok ART Family, Total Dance Group, N'Era Dance Company and others have been created, engaged in research contemporary dance, which demonstrate performances on small stages in different cities of Ukraine and at international contemporary dance festivals. Contemporary dance festivals "Zelyonka Fest", "Dance Space" and others, held in Ukraine, also contribute to the popularization of contemporary dance. The dissemination of information about contemporary dance occurs through platforms, laboratories, residences under the guidance of Western specialists, as well as thanks to domestic choreographers who attend master classes, seminars, lectures, intensives, etc. such specialists in Ukraine and abroad, and in turn pass on experience to students. Key words: contemporary dance, Ukrainian culture, modern culture, choreograph, modern dance.

Dancing in the Darkroom

Russian émigré Alexey Brodovitch, best known for leading a radical shift in magazine design in the United States during his twenty-four-year tenure (1934–58) as art director of Harper’s Bazaar, also pursued innovative practices in other fields of art, design, and education. His ballet photography, made during rehearsals and performances of touring dance companies in New York City from 1935 to 1938, explored unusual methods of capturing dancers in motion. Brodovitch’s images would eventually come to be celebrated for their unconventional approach, but at the time, Brodovitch was not sure of his direction. Recent archival discoveries suggest that Brodovitch reframed this graphic “problem” into curriculum for his classes at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art, inspiring students to delve into a number of experimental photographic techniques and pioneering the teaching of such practices in American classrooms.

Staging the Folk: Choreographic Issues of National Representation

This article looks at the multiple ways that folk dance has been staged in both the nineteenth century when character or national (the two terms were used interchangeably) dance was widely used in classical ballet, and the twentieth in which Igor Moiseyev created a new genre of dance related to it. The ballet masters that created character dance for ballet often created ballroom dances based on folk origin, but that would be suitable for the urban population. This popularity of national dance was the result of the burgeoning of romantic nationalism that swept Europe after the French Revolution. Beginning in the 1930s with Igor Moiseyev founding the first professional ‘folk dance’ company for the Soviet Union, nation states across the world established large, state-supported folk dance companies for purposes of national and ethnic representation that dominated the stages of the world for the second half of the twentieth century. These staged versions of folk dance, were, I argue an extension of nineteenth century national/character dance because their founding directors, like Igor Moiseyev, came from the era when ballet dancers were trained in that genre.

Audience Development in Thai Contemporary Theatre and Dance: A Study of the Barriers to Audience-Building

This research article examines the current situation of audiences in Thailand who attend non-mainstream contemporary theatre and dance, focusing on the barriers to building audiences for this type of performance. Mixed methods were used to collect data from various target groups, including qualitative methods like in-depth interviews, and focus groups for contemporary theatre and dance companies and arts spaces, and quantitative data gathered from audience questionnaires and surveys. The study revealed that many theatre and dance companies or groups run by artists often put more emphasis on their performance-making than on their organization or management. Such a production-centered emphasis often neglects the importance of two-way interaction between artists and audiences and shows insufficient appreciation of audiences in developing their performances and programs. The inattention of many performance companies or groups to their current and potential audiences and to techniques to build and develop them is widespread, but not universal. However, a few groups have worked to create and manage their performances based on audiences’ perspectives, thus both removing barriers to performance participation as much as possible and motivating transactional relations with audiences. Audience responses from these companies has led to greater audience engagement and improved audience appreciation.

“Ballet” is a Dirty Word

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.

Alonzo King Lines Ballet

San Francisco–based choreographer Alonzo King has long been a visionary in the formation of contemporary ballet in the United States. Supported by his classically trained company, colloquially known as LINES, King makes ballets that are anything but. This chapter uses his 2015 ballet, The Propelled Heart, which featured dancers in communication with singer Lisa Fischer, as a case study to suggest new positions for agency among performers. In so doing, “lines” of interaction, boundary, hegemony, relationship, race, and technique are challenged, and ballet and its dancers are given a “voice.” King implores his dancers to express vulnerability, disrupt ballet’s histories, and ultimately reimagine the form. Organizationally similar to modern dance companies, in that there are no ranks of ascension and an emphasis on creation, Alonzo King LINES Ballet frequently works collaboratively to present ballets that centralize the process of connecting to subject, self, and community. This chapter takes the interactions offered in The Propelled Heart as indicative of King’s choreographic philosophy that ballets are thought structures and therefore ultimately engendered to communicate.