The Modern Dance: Seven Statements of Belief

THE ACT OF THEATRE

Donald McKayle THE ACT OF THEATRE i DANCE is my medium and theatre is my home. It is here that I find excitement and fulfillment. Anything so close and so immediate must bear the personal stamp of the creator if it is to reach out to the viewer in its ultimate role, which is communication. This is the key factor: the communication between artist and audience. This is what creates that indefinable electricity, which is essential to theatre. Theatre is not architecture or tradition or effects — it is an act. It is done in concert and demands collaboration all along the way from the conception to the final moment ofunveiling. Good work may be found in all forms of dancing, for in reality there are only two kinds — that which is well done and that which is not. And while the finest dance can be found in the so-called concert field and the most banal in the commercial field, the words "concert " and "commercial" are not synonymouswith "good" and "bad." Some of the dances done in the commercial theatre far surpassmany of the things seen on the concert stage; some of the latter should never have been presented at all. I believe that people come to the theatre to be moved or entertained. They do not come to be lectured, perplexed by perversity, or bored by tedious obscurities, no matter how sincerely felt. The final act of theatre is that sharing with the audience — the collaboration that I call participation. If this can be accomplished only with a small coterie of well-versed followers, the chances are that the artist has failed. My thoughts are dedicated to those artists who are in the creative act of theatre, rather than to those who are engaged in preservDonald McKayle (photo: Jack Mitchell) 53 ing and perfectingtradition.The creators include artists inmanyforms —• modern, ballet, and the so-called ethnic idioms. The dance theatre of today has many fine practitioners of divergent schools or points of view — but each with that personal stamp which makes for greatness . Martha Graham, Alwin Nikolais, Jerome Robbins are a few. All these people are modern (if one must find a cubbyhole to put artists into), not because they share technical devices, but because their outlook is contemporary. The need to categorize I consider a point of contention. To me, one's allianceis determined by the manner of one's work. Is it the act of creation, or preservation? Is its aim realization or anticipation? If one must make niches, let them be based on artistic value. Classification according to arbitrary, ethnic groups is ridiculous and misleading . Some critics have discussed the work of most dance artists along the lines of their basic artistic allegiances, and then — quite separately — they have discussed the Negro dance. Yet certainly such dancers as Carmen de Lavallade and Janet Collins have much in common with Melissa Hayden and Pauline Koner. Opposition to casting dancers according to ability, talent, and dance quality rather than coloring has been defended with the argument of theatrical verisimilitude — that is, if the artist concerned is a Negro. No question is raised of Jose Limon's essaying the role of the Moor Othello, or of Helen Tamiris's dancing Negro spirituals, or of Hadassah's excursions into the Hindu dance. Prevailing prejudices have led any number of fine Negro ballet dancers such as Billie Wilson, Sylvester Campbell, Ronnie Aul, and Ronald Frazier to seek positions in Europe . There they have been quickly employed in ballet companies, where there are no extra-dance barriers to obscure the vision of their real abilities — such as the most recent nonsense concerning the Negro physique or that fallacious old bromide about Negro rhythm. One's cultural heritage serves to flavor one's work, and the groups that are segregated socially, politically, and economically from the body of society tend to keep their cultural identity strongly intact, most often giving the national culture its mark of uniqueness 54 — witness the music, dance, and crafts of the Yemenite Jew in Israel; the song and dance of the gypsy in Spain; the tremendous contribution of the Negro to American music. One cannot help but be moved by these forces, no matter what one's birthright,and they become national and international treasures, for art knows no boundaries . They become the property of mankind, and the ability to perform within them is limited only...