Rethinking Of The Choreographic Past

Improved Essays
Domm, Daniela Perazzo. “Traces of History: Jonathan Burrows’ Rethinking of the Choreographic past.” Contemporary Theatre Review, vol. 20, no. 3, Aug. 2010, pp. 267-282. EBSCOhost.
Scope: Contemporary Theatre Review, Vol. 20, No. 3 (2010), pp. 267-282 Published by Routledge Oxforshire U.K.
Topic: This article uses delves into choreographer Jonathan Burrow and his view on how choreography has evolved throughout history. He looks at the process of creating works, what each work is supposed to accomplish, if anything and how movement relationship has changed over the years.
Thesis: This article addresses choreographer Jonathan Burrows ways of approaching movement and choreography. He explains how his wide variety of training has influenced how he creates movement and what he creates. Burrow also sheds light on the past particularly within ballet and the hierarchy within who was choreographing and what was being choreographed. Burrow also goes into present day choreography and explains that a shift has occurred within what movement is and how it can be
…show more content…
It will also be a good springboard article for introducing the male and female binary within ballet and partnering. This article will also be useful in my conclusion by demonstrating how other forms of dance have changed their approaches to choreography also addressing the questions of who is allowed to choreograph and what is allowed to be choreographed.

Fisher, Jennifer. “Make It Maverick: Rethinking the “Make It Macho” Strategy for Men in Ballet.” Dance Chronicle, vol. 30, no. 1, Apr. 2007, pp. 45-66. EBSCOhost.
Scope: Dance Chronicle, Vol. 30, No. 1 (2007), pp. 45-66 Published by Routledge Oxforshire U.K.
Topic: This article delves into the “strategies” men adopt in ballet in order to make the art form seem more masculine and

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    4. Reflect on the significance of Dame Peggy van Praagh on the development of Australian dance in general and the Australian Ballet in particular. English born, Dame Peggy van Praagh, The Australian Ballet Company’s premiere Artistic Director presented Australian dancers and audiences with a development of classical ballet in Australia; taking initiative to build a dance company that revitalized the Ballet of the nation, advancing their standard and “defining the face of ballet in our country.” Their debut performance of Swan Lake, in 1962, demonstrated the resilience of “rich tradition” of ballet to their audiences and emphasized the dedication and commitment the choreographers and dancers apply to their art form. Van Praagh was educated at King Alfred School, which had a significant impact on developing a career of artistic creativity and a future of dance.…

    • 731 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Vaslav Nijinsky, the choreographer, was told by audience members that his choreography did not embody what ballet actually was. The audience did not understand Nijinsky’s choreography. He was trying to embody the awkward movements that may have came from a primitive society. The jumping, stomping, and shaking was to show the terror the people of the society felt about the sacrifice. Some of the dancers claimed that the choreography felt unnatural to perform.…

    • 1416 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dance Chapter 3 Summary

    • 974 Words
    • 4 Pages

    “Training as the medium through which”, chapter 3, written by Melanie Bales is a chapter that is written on the theme of self-discovery and how as dancers we could apply the ideas to ourselves. Melanie Bales is a professor at Ohio State where she graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy. Bales also studied at the Joffrey School and was a Harkness Ballet Trainee. Throughout this article, I experienced different things for myself when going through and reading each section. A lot of references that were stated in the book allowed me to see dance through a whole new perspective.…

    • 974 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Bassetti explains that there are certain stereotypes that are placed on man dancers. His article examines, how can the idea of males dancing be socially normalized. During his 3 yearlong study, Bassetti takes various dance classes, performs, and observers dance, to understand the culture of male dance. Through antidotes, he explains how dance must be viewed in order for male in dancing to be more acceptable. This article is beneficial to the paper because it not only states some of the negative body image issue males have, but also gives insight on how the negative stigmas of male dancing can be changed.…

    • 1298 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Twyla Tharp Essay

    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages

    On July 1, 1941, Twyla Tharp was born in the Portland, Indiana. She spent her early childhood in Indiana but later moved to California in 1963 and completed her degree in Art history in New York. Compared to other dancers, at a young age, she learnt quite a number of genres in the arts like ballet, tap, jazz, modern and music. When she was just a year and a half old she was already given piano lessons. Her first dance lesson was at the Vera Lynn School of Dance.…

    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Her significant contribution to feminism was to have helped free women from the tyranny of the corset. More precisely, Duncan advocated naturalness; her dances were characterized by simplicity and economy of means, qualities that applied not only to her choreography but to her themes, scenery, and costumes (Au 89). In an age still dominated by the dictates of conventions, Duncan used a backdrop of simple grey-blue or blue curtain on stage and dared to dance uncorseted (Au 90). Dressed in a loose-fitting, Greek tunic, she rejected not only the ballerina’s tutu, pointe shoes, and corset per se, but also everything it symbolized: the physical and psychological constraints imposed upon women by the society and culture. She wanted to free the body and reveal its movement.…

    • 1405 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There are various factors which have the ability to either positively and/or negatively influence a dancer by shaping their outlook on circumstances relating to the dance industry. Environment, society, person's and culture all play important roles in defining who a dancer is and this chapter will explore how influential characters and forms of media affect dancers by incorporating the impacts of these four fundamental concepts throughout. In order to thoroughly examine who and what influences a dancer, I will be referring back to the results obtained in my questionnaire.…

    • 1445 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Martha Graham was and still is a renowned modern Dance pioneer of her time, a woman who made a remarkable impact on dance. She was a visionary for dance in the 1900’s challenging the world of classical ballet with its gracefully structured moves and its fairy tale performances. To Graham ballet did not represent the world she lived in so she created her own style and technique known as “the Graham technique.” She dedicated her life to this new modern style of dance which she herself performed into her seventy’s. By many Graham is considered to be the 20th century’s most important dancer.…

    • 886 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Annotated Bibliography

    • 1677 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Annotated Bibliography Altonji, Chris. "Is Dance a Sport? Opposing Perspectives from Dancer and Football Player." The Oracle. FLEXWordPress, 1 Feb. 2013. Web.…

    • 1677 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Evolution and Commercialization of Irish Dance Since Riverdance Since Riverdance hit the world stage in 1995, the culture of Irish Dance has evolved and grown. However, experts within the dance community disagree whether and to what extent Riverdance has played a role in these changes. The scholarly articles, dissertations, and books examined in this literature review examine different aspects of the art and sport: changes in costumes, technique and demographic of the dancers. Most rely on first-hand interviews, but each study differs in the group of people they interview about the subject.…

    • 1947 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Giselle And Gender Roles

    • 1000 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The ballet, Giselle, supports the statements made in Dance, Gender and Culture by Cynthia Novack and Tulle as Tool by Jennifer Fisher by presenting a woman who embodies the presumption…

    • 1000 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In dance, it is imperative that dancers use expression and acting. A dance should tell a story and evoke feelings in the audience without a script, just movement. It is often paired with music to enhance the dramatic aspect of dancing. Countless choreographers such as George Balanchine and Martha Graham are known for being artistic and dramatic in their movements (“Martha Graham: The Mother of Modern Dance”). Dance originated as a performance for an audience, not being judged at competitions.…

    • 1137 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Tragedy In Manon

    • 2000 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Kenneth Macmillan’s ballet Manon (1974) holds this same tragic element as its raison d’être (Haby); regardless of intention something always goes wrong. Set in the avaricious French Regency, the story of the eponymous courtesan and penniless Des Grieux details his faithful love despite her fascination with material riches. As opposed to fairy-tale Imperial ballets, Manon is both Macmillan’s vice-abundant inquiry into darker themes including manipulation, and his stretching of classical ballet to emotional extremes. As a dance student interested in how choreographers revolutionize…

    • 2000 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Forsythe and Balanchine looked for the mathematical shapes of classical ballet to extend the movements to create longer lines of the human body, similar to architectural renderings. Architecture shaped Balanchine and Forsythe’s work. Associating with different architects, Forsythe educated himself on spatiality and structure to construct the dancers’ bodies. Although Balanchine’s movement applied math to elongate the dancer’s body, Forsythe constructs movements based on researching physics. In a recorded conversation, Forsythe explains how he creates his movements by, “drawing imaginary shapes in the air, and then running his limbs through his complicated and invisible geometry.”…

    • 523 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Over the centuries, theatre conventions evolved from the highly presentational performances of the Greeks to the extravagance of Elizabethan productions and eventually conglomerated to produce contemporary theatre. The University Playhouse’s performance of Acting: The First Six Lessons expressed this conglomeration of Greek and Elizabethan conventions through elements of presentational theatre, a non-localized set, and a supporting cast that functioned similar to a chorus or ensemble. This performance also altered conventions through the addition of female actors, use of representational aspects, adaption of the functions of the chorus or ensemble, and lack of a raised stage. In the following sections, I will discuss the adoption and adaptation…

    • 905 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays