“Modern dance is retrograde. It sees the complex body/mind as a temple to be dwelt in, lived from, revered. It says that any possible spiritual progress must emerge from an unembarrassed body. Thus we are un-Christian. We are not afraid of the flesh. We are interested in its sexual potential and its urges toward pleasure and ecstasy as well as in its capacity for discipline and rigor. We aim to integrate all human vital energies, transforming even the lowest and meanest into radiant beauty and meaning.”
I found out about Douglas Dunn via Facebook. It’s where I find out about most items of interest these days. Friends that dance, study dance, perform dance, make dance shared an essay he wrote titled Why I Choreograph and said, “There!”
In the words of his essay, I found that startling element I often find in artists of all types, the ability to write out an experience in a way that makes it appear strikingly obvious, making my body leap because of the recognized co-experience. I also envy and applaud their bravery in stating the obvious unexamined themes that many of us lug around in the stories of our lives. I wonder why I cannot speak these truths that way, knowing full well that it’s my fear of offending and being wrong that keeps me from it. I admire that they are not kept from it and maybe someday I won’t either.
Here he is writing about much more mundane items and with no chastising self-consciousness. His list of “Difficult adjustments” makes me want to be there, particularly this observations:
“—living and working on a property dedicated solely to artistic pursuit, no sight-seers, no tourists, no shoppers”
Here is the trailer for the re-staging of Pulcinella. It was originally produced in 1980 for the Paris Opera Ballet. I enjoy the rounded, loose movements of the dancing in this short example.
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