I Want to Be Ready: Improvised Dance as a Practice of Freedom

Introduction: The Land of the Free

i want to be ready Improvised Dance as a Practice of Freedom Danielle Goldman the university of michigan press ann arbor Copyright © 2010 by Danielle Goldman All rights reserved Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America c Printed on acid-free paper 2013 2012 2011 2010 4 3 2 1 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Goldman, Danielle. I want to be ready : improvised dance as a practice of freedom / Danielle Goldman. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-472-07084-8 (cloth : alk. paper) — isbn 978-0-472-05084-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Improvisation in dance. 2. Dance—Political aspects. I. Title. gv1781.2.g65 2010 302.4'846—dc22 2009038401 ISBN13 978-0-472-02661-6 (electronic) To Ellis and Nick Acknowledgments I Want to Be Ready began as a dissertation in the Performance Studies Department at New York University. The project would not have been possible without the guidance of my dissertation committee: André Lepecki, Fred Moten, José Muñoz, and Tavia Nyong’o. I am grateful to them all for reading my work with such care. A special thanks goes to Barbara Browning, my advisor, for her support throughout this project, always delivered with eloquence and political clarity. I hope she will remain my advisor, always. Alex Vázquez aided this project in countless ways, helping me to clarify my thoughts while feeling sane along the way. Her work continues to inspire me. Christine Balance also offered many thoughtful comments. Randy Martin generously read the manuscript twice as it made its way from dissertation to book, and I am grateful for his encouragement and very helpful suggestions. My editor, Alison MacKeen, provided much insightful feedback and ushered the book through its various stages with great patience and skill. Outside of NYU and the University of Michigan Press, many people have bolstered this project. Bob Green spent several late-night hours scanning and transcribing documents from Judith Dunn’s “archive.” Later, as I was revising this project, he welcomed me into his home in Vermont so I could look through the material in person. I am particularly grateful to Bill Dixon, who sent several photographs and later spent hours speaking with me about his eight-year collaboration with Judith Dunn. His work has a critical force that continues to be revelatory. Susan Sgorbati and Penny Campbell generously shared their experience working with Dunn and Dixon at Bennington, and Dianne McIntyre shared many wonderful stories of her work with musicians over the years. Taylor Ho Bynum read the manuscript from start to ‹nish and offered many helpful comments, especially regarding my discussion of relations between music and dance. My colleagues at The New School, in particular Stefania deKennessey, Jaime Santora, and Rebecca Stenn, as well as Jonathan Veitch, the dean of Eugene Lang College, have been a great source of support and have given me the opportunity to do work in which I truly believe. I have learned a great deal from my students at The New School, Barnard, and NYU, who have inspired and challenged me in complicated ways. My thinking owes a lot to Reginald Jackson and Noémie Solomon, who generously participated in my ‹rst graduate seminar and with whom I have had many wonderful conversations. I also would like to thank the editorial board of Women and Performance —Barbara Browning, Joshua Chambers-Letson, Patricia Clough, Pamela Cobrin, Debra Levine, Ann Pellegrini, and Jeanne Vacarro—as well as Robert Diaz, Beth Kurkjian, Alex Pittman, and Paul Scolieri. The journal invited me to edit an issue dedicated to gendered relations between music and dance, which helped me to expand upon the issues raised in chapter 2. While I was revising this project, the journal’s monthly meetings provided muchneeded camaraderie and allowed me to feel as though my work is part of a shared project. Thank you to Ann Dils and Dance Research Journal for publishing portions of chapters 3 and 4. I also want to thank the...