Author: Deborah Jowitt
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 0374709149
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 312
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Book Description
From the legendary dance critic Deborah Jowitt, Errand into the Maze is the definitive biography of the visionary dancer and choreographer Martha Graham. “Deborah Jowitt chronicles a life passionately, artfully lived. An essential read about a true legend.” —Mikhail Baryshnikov In the pantheon of American modernists, few figures loom larger than Martha Graham. One of the greatest choreographers ever to live, Graham pioneered a revolutionary dance technique—primal, dynamic, and rooted in the emotional life of the body—that upended traditional vocabulary and shaped generations of dancers and choreographers across the globe. Over her sweeping career, she founded what is now the oldest dance company in the country and produced nearly two hundred ballets, many of them masterpieces. And along the way, she engaged with the major debates, events, and ideas of the twentieth century, creating works that cut to the core of the human experience. Time magazine’s “Dancer of the Century,” and the first dancer and choreographer to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Graham was a visionary artistic force and an international cultural figure: hers was the iconic face of what came to be known as modern dance. From the renowned dance writer and former longtime critic for The Village Voice Deborah Jowitt, Errand into the Maze draws on more than a decade of firsthand research to deliver the definitive portrait of this titan. Beginning with Graham’s childhood in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and her early studies at the Denishawn School; weaving in her offstage adventures, including her relationship with her dancer and muse Erick Hawkins; and chronicling her retirement from dancing at age seventy-five and her remarkably productive final years, this elegant, empathetic biography portrays the artist in all her passionate complexity. Most important, Jowitt places Graham’s creations at the heart of her story. Her works, brimming with raw intensity, are intimately linked with their creator, who played the heroine in almost all that she choreographed: Joan of Arc, Jocasta, Clytemnestra, and Judith, among others. In this volume, Graham is centerstage once more, and Jowitt casts a brilliant spotlight on her life and work.
Author: Marcia B. Siegel
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520042032
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 416
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Book Description
Author: Stuart Hodes
Publisher: University Press of Florida
ISBN: 0813065445
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 325
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Book Description
When World War II was over, a young bomber pilot with an itch for movement and action hung up his cap and learned another way to fly. Onstage with Martha Graham is the story of Stuart Hodes, a versatile and influential dancer who got his start with Martha Graham, an icon of modern dance. His memoir is a rare firsthand view of the dance world in the 1940s and through the end of the twentieth century. One of the few male dancers in Graham’s company—and in the New York dance scene at the time—Hodes offers a unique perspective and a one-of-a-kind narrative. He describes how he fell into the art by chance, happening to walk into Graham’s studio one day. He was soon hooked. He documents his experiences, travels, passions, and loves while learning from and performing with Graham, during which time he saw most of the United States, much of Europe, and some of Asia. Advancing quickly, he eventually danced as Graham’s partner in Appalachian Spring, Deaths and Entrances, Every Soul Is a Circus, and Errand into the Maze. In his portrait of Martha Graham, who was the center of his dancing world, Hodes recounts conversations, revelations, bouts of temper and creativity, the daily ritual of deeply physical dancing, and the never-ending search for artistic validity. Direct, often humorous, and always authentic, Hodes shares his delight in dance as both hard work and a fantastic adventure.
Author: Mike Kelley
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262611985
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 468
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Book Description
The second volume of writings by Los Angeles artist Mike Kelley, focusing on his own work. What John C. Welchman calls the "blazing network of focused conflations" from which Mike Kelley's styles are generated is on display in all its diversity in this second volume of the artist's writings. The first volume, Foul Perfection, contained thematic essays and writings about other artists; this collection concentrates on Kelley's own work, ranging from texts in "voices" that grew out of scripts for performance pieces to expository critical and autobiographical writings.Minor Histories organizes Kelley's writings into five sections. "Statements" consists of twenty pieces produced between 1984 and 2002 (most of which were written to accompany exhibitions), including "Ajax," which draws on Homer, Colgate- Palmolive, and Longinus to present its eponymous hero; "Some Aesthetic High Points," an exercise in autobiography that counters the standard artist bio included in catalogs and press releases; and a sequence of "creative writings" that use mass cultural tropes in concert with high art mannerisms—approximating in prose the visual styles that characterize Kelley's artwork. "Video Statements and Proposals" are introductions to videos made by Kelley and other artists, including Paul McCarthy and Bob Flanagan and Sheree Rose. "Image-Texts" offers writings that accompany or are part of artworks and installations. This section includes "A Stopgap Measure," Kelley's zestful millennial essay in social satire, and "Meet John Doe," a collage of appropriated texts. "Architecture" features an discussion of Kelley's Educational Complex (1995) and an interview in which he reflects on the role of architecture in his work. Finally, "Ufology" considers the aesthetics and sexuality of space as manifested by UFO sightings and abduction scenarios.
Author: Joan Cass
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786422319
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 247
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Book Description
In dance, the choreographer creates, the dancer performs and the viewer observes. This work is a handbook for the viewer. By presenting historical and artistic perspectives of dance, dance events are made more approachable and appreciation for the art form is heightened. The choreographic components of body language, content, structure, music, design and interpretation are included. Also discussed is the development of critical reaction over time. Examples are drawn from Western theatrical dance and worldwide cultural variations. Terms are explained throughout the text, and an extensive bibliography gives sources in print and on tape for further study. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.
Author: Agnes De Mille
Publisher: Arrow
ISBN: 9780091752194
Category : Choreographers
Languages : en
Pages : 509
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Book Description
Author: Mark Franko
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019936785X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 238
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Book Description
Often called the Picasso, Stravinksy, or Frank Lloyd Wright of the dance world, Martha Graham revolutionized ballet stages across the globe. Here, Franko reframes Graham's most famous creations by showing how she wove together strands of love, passion, politics, and myth to create an American school of choreography and dance.
Author: Alice Helpern
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136653066
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 93
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Book Description
Although much has been written about the dancer and prolific choreographer Martha Graham, no publication has specifically examined her radical period, the body of innovative work from the 1930s and 40s which culminated in the full-length Clytemnestra of 1958. This publication focuses on this highly creative time in of Graham's life, providing further insight into her extraordinary career and her many contributions to the field of modern dance. Scholars for years to come will find helpful and fascinating snippets from Graham's life within these pages.
Author: Bettina Vernon-Warren
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113442373X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 224
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Book Description
Born in Vienna in 1890, Gertrud Bodenwieser became a leading exponent of Ausdruckstanz (Expressionist Dance) during the 1920s and 1930s, developing a definitive personal style and a philosophy of dance that distinguished her from all her contemporaries. In 1938 she emigrated to Australia to start her career afresh with the remaining nucleus of her company from Nazi-occupied Austria. In this collection of writings (initially compiled by Bettina Vernon and posthumously completed by her husband Charles Warren) each contributor highlights Bodenwieser's achievements from a different perspective, with reminiscences from her pupils and company members, together with scholarly studies.
Author: Lois Oppenheim
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113584299X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 210
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Book Description
What can neuroscience contribute to the psychodynamic understanding of creativity and the imagination? A Curious Intimacy is an innovative study into the interrelation between art and neuro-psychoanalysis which significantly narrows the divide between the humanities and the sciences. Situating our grasp of the creative mind within the historical context of theories of sublimation, Lois Oppenheim proposes a change in paradigm for the study of the creative process, questioning the idea that creativity serves, above all, the reparation of early object relationships and the resolution of conflict. The book is divided into two parts. Part One, Art and the Brain, introduces the field of neuro-psychoanalysis and examines the contribution it can make to the discussion of gender and art. Part Two, A New Direction for Interdisciplinary Psychoanalysis, draws on the verbal and visual artistry of Samuel Beckett, Paul Klee and Martha Graham to put to the test the proposed new direction for applied psychoanalysis. Lois Oppenheim concludes by addressing the future of psychoanalysis as it becomes increasingly informed by neuroscience and raising questions about what the neurobiology of emotion and feeling has to tell us about the creative experience of an individual and what might constitute a 'neuro-psychoanalytic aesthetics'. A Curious Intimacy will have great appeal for all those interested in the study of imagination and creativity. It will also be of particular interest to students across the humanities and sciences and to psychotherapists and psychoanalysts wanting to explore the contribution that neuro-psychoanalysis can make to our understanding of the creative process.
