Overview

For over twenty years Jack Anderson has been writing about dance performances. His essays and reviews have appeared in daily newspapers, specialist monthlies, and critical quarterlies. For the last ten years he has been a dance critic for the New York Times. In Choreography Observed, Jack Anderson has selected writings that focus most directly on choreographers and choreography in order to illuminate the delights and problems of dance and to reveal the nature of this nonverbal but intensely expressive art form. His essays and reviews deal with individual choreographers from Bournonville, Petipa, and Fokine to Balanchine, Paul Taylor, Meredith Monk, and Pina Bausch; individual works are also discussed in detail, such as Nijinsky's Afternoon of a Faun,Antony Tudor's Pillar of Fire, Alvin Ailey's Flowers, and Kei Takei's Light. Other pieces focus on the Baroque dance revival, contemporary multimedia dance theatre, choreography for men, the complex relationship between ballet and modern dance, and how—and how not—to revive the classics. No other book—especially no other selection from the work of a single critic—has dealt with choreography in such an original and focused way. Anderson brings his trained eye and wide experience in the arts to bear on dance while stressing the primacy of the choreographer as auteur. By refusing to get bogged down in highly technical terminology, he makes his insights available to a wide range of readers interested in expanding their understanding of this ever more popular art form.

Full Product Details

Author:   Jack Anderson
Publisher:   University of Iowa Press
Imprint:   University of Iowa Press
Dimensions:   Width: 14.60cm , Height: 1.80cm , Length: 22.20cm
Weight:   0.376kg
ISBN:  

9780877455936

ISBN 10:   0877455937
Pages:   304
Publication Date:   01 March 1997
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock  
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Table of Contents

Introduction and Acknowledgments One Thinking about Choreography Confessions of a Choreography-Watcher Will Choreography Ever Be Respected as an Art Form? Idealists, Materialists, and the Thirty-Two Fouettes Why Doesn't the Prince Stay to Watch Aurora Dance? Two Out of the Past The World of Eighteenth-Century Dance Comes Back to Life Staging the Classics Is Not So Simple as It Seems The Great World and the Small: Refletions on the Bournonville Festival Fokine The Undervalued Revolutionary Legends in the Flesh Joffrey Brings Back Its Faune Massine's Parade Nijinska's Les Noces Annabelle Gamson as Isadora When Ballroom Dances Take to the Stage Three Some Contemporary Masters The Glorious Unpredictability of George Balanchine By Any Name, It's Still an Imperial Ballet Balanchine's Schumann The View from the House Opposite: Some Aspects of Tudor Party Manners and Fredrick Ashton A Month in the Country Robbins's New Ballet May Mean Many Things Some Personal Grumbles about Martha Graham A Heady Season Dances about Everything and Dances about Some Things Moments Called Now Four Ballet Makers Grigorovich and the Bolshoi Talking to Myself about Eliot Feld Neumeier in Hamburg Kylian and Netherlands Dance Theatre Five The Ever-Modern Paul Taylor: Surface and Substance Taylor's Rites Ailey's Flowers Judson Revivals: A Festival Benefit Yvonne Rainer: The Puritan as Hedonist Steve Paxton's Improvisations The Changing Faces of Twyla Tharp Trisha Brown's Minimalism New Dances That Made Audiences Think Patterns and Spinning Are Only Part of It How Not to Get Trapped in a Choreographic Rut Some of Her Choreographic Brainchildren Are Real Brats Dana Reitz Performs Six Images in Action Parades and Changes Initiations and Transformations Monk's Inimitable Images Lazarus, a Multimedia Event Phoebe Neville's Enigmas Three Views of Orpheus Plotless Dance-Drama That Deals in Emotions Pina Bausch's Hippo Kei Takei Eiko and Koma Control Time How Avant-Garde Works Resemble Romantic Classics Seven Problems and Prospects Classics Comics The Rise of the Male Ensemble Is Ballet Diluting Modern Dance? Balanchine's Choreographic Influence: Pluses and Minuses New Is Not Always Better An Essay on Dance Criticism Index

Reviews

"""...Anderson here reveals the beating heart of dance: well done.""--Kirkus Reviews ""In a series of sharply perceived essays that served originally as dance reviews, Anderson comments astutely on the art of choreography. This is not only a useful way to organize a book of dance criticism, it is also fascinating. Here a critic obviously passionate about the creation of dance as well as the execution of the art form arranges his dance criticism over the years by types of choreography....Anderson is clearly interested in the psychological and historical aspects of successful choreography but, beyond that, is sometimes mesmerized by the beauty of the dance. These essays, like good dancing, do not date and should be read by anyone interested in the performing arts.""--Choice"

...Anderson here reveals the beating heart of dance: well done.""—Kirkus Reviews ""In a series of sharply perceived essays that served originally as dance reviews, Anderson comments astutely on the art of choreography. This is not only a useful way to organize a book of dance criticism, it is also fascinating. Here a critic obviously passionate about the creation of dance as well as the execution of the art form arranges his dance criticism over the years by types of choreography....Anderson is clearly interested in the psychological and historical aspects of successful choreography but, beyond that, is sometimes mesmerized by the beauty of the dance. These essays, like good dancing, do not date and should be read by anyone interested in the performing arts.""—Choice

The primacy of choreographer as auteur threads together this two-decades bundle of reviews and essays from N. K Times dance critic Anderson. Four general pieces about choreography proper (one, Confessions of a Choreography Watcher, written for this book) precede pieces clustered around six areas of concern: revivals of classic ballets; contemporary masters of choreography (Balanchine, Robbins, Cunningham, etc.); the balletic heritage; modern dance; imagistic dance; and problems and prospects of dance - with each area ushered in by a brief, pointed introduction ( . . .it is possible to worry about American dance. No unmistakably important new ballet choreographer has developed in recent years. . . ). Eschewing technical language, Anderson here reveals the beating heart of dance: well done. (Kirkus Reviews)

"...Anderson here reveals the beating heart of dance: well done.""—Kirkus Reviews ""In a series of sharply perceived essays that served originally as dance reviews, Anderson comments astutely on the art of choreography. This is not only a useful way to organize a book of dance criticism, it is also fascinating. Here a critic obviously passionate about the creation of dance as well as the execution of the art form arranges his dance criticism over the years by types of choreography....Anderson is clearly interested in the psychological and historical aspects of successful choreography but, beyond that, is sometimes mesmerized by the beauty of the dance. These essays, like good dancing, do not date and should be read by anyone interested in the performing arts.""—Choice"

Author Information

Renowned for his dance criticism, Jack Anderson has written for such leading dance publications s the New York Times, Dancing Times, and Dance Magazine. He is author of Art Without Boundaries (IOWA), Ballet and Modern Dance: A Concise History, and The American Dance Festival, among others.

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