Teaching Modern Dance

“Martha Graham’s Journey”

By Eric Bentley

And

“Somatics: A Tool for Empowering Modern Dance Teachers”

By Sylvie Fortin

Presented by

Natalie Bourcier and Andrew Elder

Edited By Laura Pratt and Dr. Kay Picart

Theater as seen by Havelock Ellis:

Pantomimic ~

Ecstatic ~

Realism ~

Discussion Questions:

Was Martha Graham successful in depicting the elements of ecstatic theater? What advantage did she have over her literary and musical counterparts? Would you classify Martha Graham’s works as “realistic”?

The Basics of a Somatics Study

Somatic –

Somatic –

 Pedagogy –

 Postpositivism –

The History of Technical Dance Teaching

Martha Graham

Jose Limon

Merce Cunningham

Alwin Nikolais

The Judson Dance Theater: “The rejection of elitism and hierarchies and the attempted democratization of dance’s processes, ingredients, and nature became the focal points-with one goal being to free the dancer from the tyranny of rules, ideals, and ‘technique,’ as it had come to be taught.” (62)

Instructional Techniques Alexander, Feldenkrais, Ideokinesis, Bartenieff Fundamentals, Laban Movement Analysis,

Body-Mind Centering

Glenna Bateson ~

Martha Eddy ~

Mary Williford ~

“Apprenticeship of Observation” Time spent as a student provides prospective teachers with images of

teaching that prove difficult to overcome because they tend to become

so ingrained.

Results in continuing line of teaching. “the tradition, the way things

are”. Glenna, Martha, and Mary did not follow this tendency.

Views on Traditional Instruction

Mary’s quote defines clearly what all three ladies thought:

“Historically what has happened is that you learn by imitation from your teacher, and you teach what you learned, period. Teaching dance is like storytelling except we do it with our whole body. Instead of speaking the stories with our mouth and remembering them, passing them down to the families, we do this with our bodies. So we tell stories with our bodies and we do not know why it happened or where it comes from or anything.” (54)

Fundamentool ~

Empowerment

“Today, ‘new dance’ choreographers work in an individualistic way…their challenge is to respond to the demand of new dance choreography, which requires highly skilled dancer without any rigid stylistic imprint in their bodies…to show dancers performing a wide range of movements from the pedestrian and natural to the highly athletic and gymnastic.” (62-63)

Institutional disempowering ~ The idea that when you teach for an institution no one will become 100%

fulfilled with the instructing, not the teacher, faculty, or student. However, altogether a consensus is formed in the end. The only way to achieve a higher

fulfillment is to teach on your own and people come to see you specifically for

your teaching technique.

Discussion Question:

“In time, the avant-garde practice often becomes part of the establishment, as was the case with so many first

generation modern dance choreographers such as Martha Graham.” (64)

Will somatic teaching styles continue to generate new approaches and perspectives?

Bibliography

Eric Bentley, "Martha Graham's Journey," What is Dance? Roger Copeland and Marshall Cohen, eds. Oxford University Press, 1983, pp. 197-202.

Sylvie Fortin, "Somatics: A Tool for Empowering Modern Dance Teachers," Dance, Power and Difference. Sherry B. Shapiro, ed. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 1998, pp. 49-74.

Merce Cunningham: A Lifetime of Dance. American Masters. Public Broadcasting Services, 2000.

Illustrations

Slides 5, 18 ~ Martha Graham. Chapter 3: The Modern Dancers. About, Inc. 2005.

http://womenshistory.about.com/

Slide 3 ~ Teachout, Terry. Martha Graham. The Time 100. June 1998. http://www.time.com

Slide 4 ~ Cave of the Heart. The Noguchi Museum. Isamu Noguchi Foundation,

Inc.: New York, NY, 1946. http://www.noguchi.org/dresscaveheart.htm.

Slide 17 ~ Anderson, Jay. Errand into the Maze. American Dance Festival. Duke

University: Durham, North Carolina, 1947. www.duke.edu/~saundra

Slide 6 ~ Farnsworth, Elizabeth. A Life of Dance. Online News hour. Public

Broadcasting Service, 1999. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/july- dec99/merce_8-24.html.

Slide 7 ~ Alwin Nikolais. American Masters. Public Broadcasting Service, 2005. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/nikolais_a.ht

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Slides 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16 ~ Dance Magazine Cover Art. Dance Magazine, 2005. http://www.dancemagazine.com/dance_magazine/gallery/.