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25 Choreographic Methods of the Judson Dance Theater The Judson Dance Theater, the legendary amalgamation of avantgarde choreographers in Greenwich Village in the early 1960s, represents a turning point in dance history for many reasons. Its cooperative nature as an alternative-producing institution was a conscious assault on the hierarchical nature not only of academic ballet but also, more directly, of the American modern dance community as it had evolved by the late 1950s. The youthfulness ofJudson's original members signified a changing ofthe guard in terms of generations and, emblematic of the Kennedy era, a cultural shift in authority from the wisdom and experience of age to the energy and creativity- the modernity - ofyouth. Aesthetic questions about the nature and meaning of dance and of movement were raised in the workshop and in the concerts, among them - fundamentally - the identity of a dance work, the definition of dance, and the nature oftechnique. The cooperative workshop was a training ground for most of the key choreographers of the next two decades.l But perhaps the most important legacy the Judson Dance Theater bequeathed to the history ofdance was its intensive exploration and expansion ofpossibilities for choreographic method. In their relentless search for the new, coupled with an intelligently analytic approach to the process of dancemaking, in repudiating their elders' cherished compositional formulae , the members ofthe Judson Dance Theater experimented with so many different kinds of choreographic structures and devices that for the generations that have followed their message was clear: not only any movement or any body, but also any method is permitted. Choreography: Principles and Practice, Janet Adshead, ed. (University of Surrey: National Resource Centre for Dance, Guildford, Surrey, 1987). Reprinted with permission. 211 212 Pos.modern Dance Robert Dunn's Choreography Class The open spirit that animated the group had its roots in the sensibilities of the composition class taught by Robert Dunn out of which the Judson Dance Theater blossomed. Dunn's aspirations as a dance composition teacher were informed byseveral sources (he himselfwas, ofcourse, trained as a composer, not as a dancer or choreographer). Most crucially, he translated ideas from John Cage's experimental music class, especially chance techniques, into the dance milieu; Cage's class, in which Dunn had been a student, already originated in an expanded view of music that encompassed theater and performance in a more general sense. Not only Cage's methods, but also his attitude that "anything goes," was an inspiration that carried over into Dunn's class. Certainly this permissive atmosphere was reinforced by the inclinations of the students, who were all engaged in various ways and to various degrees in the groundbreaking artistic scene in the Village, from the Living Theater to pop art to happenings to Fluxus, and some of whom studied as well with Ann Halprin, the West Coast experimentalist. But beyond this generative urge toward license , Dunn and his students consciously disavowed the compositional approaches taught in the modern dance "academy." Dunn remembers that he had watched Louis Horst and Doris Humphrey teach their choreography classes and was determined to find another pedagogical method; he found them too rigid and the dances by their students too theatrical. The original class had started out with only five members - Paulus Berenson, Marni Mahaffay, Simone (Forti) Morris, Steve Paxton, and Yvonne Rainer. By the end of the second year, the participants included Judith Dunn (whose status as student sometimes seemed to blend with that of teacher), Trisha Brown, Ruth Emerson, Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Fred Herko, Al Kurchin, Dick Levine, »retchen MacLane, John Herbert McDowell, Joseph Schlichter, Carol Scothorn, and Elaine Summers. Valda Setterfield and David Gordon attended occasionally; Robert Rauschenberg , Jill Johnston, and Gene Friedman were "regular visitors," and Remy Charlip, David Vaughan, Robert Morris, Ray Johnson, and Peter Schumann, among others, came from time to time to observe. The composition of this population alone - it included visual artists, musicians, writers, a theater director, and filmmakers as well as dancers - made for an interdisciplinary brew. The basis of Dunn's approach at first was to find time structures, taken from musical compositions by contemporary composers (Cage, Stockhausen, Boulez, and others), that dance could share. The principle technique was chance scores, but others included more wide-ranging methods of indeterminacy and various kinds of rules. Students were assigned to use a graphic chance score along the lines ofthat which Cage had made for his Fontana Mix. AnQther assignment involved using number [3.139.107.241] Project MUSE (2024-04...

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