Article on Graham & Balanchine

[dirac]

A long piece by Juliana Devaan in The Drift compares and contrasts the legacies of Balanchine and Graham and appraises recent biographies of both.

Dance, Revolution - George Balanchine and Martha Graham Trade Places

Quote

At the time of the premiere, Graham was the more established choreographer, and her contribution to Episodes was met with greater acclaim. Even though she was clearly declining in ability and stature, she was still renowned as a virtuoso performer and considered the mother of modern dance. Yet put side-by-side with Graham’s, Balanchine’s work appeared more abstract and modernist. His leotard-clad dancers flexed their feet, twisted their bodies, and moved with angular precision to Webern’s atonal music; hers donned full costumes to tell a story through gestures less suited to the radical composition. In the wake of Episodes, Graham and Balanchine swapped trajectories: like the bygone queen she embodied onstage, Graham became an archaic figure, the personification of modern dance history, while Balanchine became the emblem of twentieth-century American dance. 

 

[Marta]

Thanks for the link to this thought provoking article that's full  of possibilities for discussion.   I agree especially that Jowitt's biography of Graham seems incomplete and really glosses over Graham's late works.  Interesting that Devaan thinks "Graham’s work today feels much more contemporary and relevant than Balanchine’s."  I do not agree. n

[Quiggin]

Juliana Devaan seems to pit Balanchine's brittle Modernism (but also Cunningham's and Tricia Brown's non-narrative modernism) against Martha Graham's more natural and egalitarian story-telling dance model.

Most of Devaan's piece, however, is taken up with the case against the "Balanchine industry," a "culture industry" (Adorno v. Balanchine?) which has kept down a natural form of dance expression in America. Balanchine among many other things is faulted for his hyper patriotism, made explicit in Stars & Stripes – "The piece featured groups of dancers, called “regiments” performing “campaigns” to brass, militaristic music, as well as a pas de deux inspired by Dwight Eisenhower’s romance" – and his "legacy of misogyny, sexual misconduct, and expectations of extreme thinness."

The case Devaan wants to make, but holds back until the last paragraph, is for a more natural way of being in the world that a Graham inspired kind of dance could have led us to:

Quote

While ballet remains out of reach for many, with its strict requirements of physical ability, modern dance is more participatory. We can thank Graham for its core principle: that the body is a medium through which we can transmit emotions and ideas. If modern dance reigned, perhaps movement would be better integrated into our lives. Instead of something we consume as audience members, dance would become equipment for living ...

But she doesn't expand on that potentially interesting idea, explain what source material it would be, and how it would work.

And Devaan neglects to set 1950s ballet in the context, or field, of the Cold War when ballet and Modernism provided a kind of cultural capital that could be used between/against adversaries. Also the huge gravitational pull that Modernism held in parallel in all the arts, in painting (ab ex & Minimalism), music (Stockhausen & Scodanibbio) and in films (J-L Godard).

Much of the anti-Balanchine criticism could also be leveled against Mies van der Rohe. Both Balanchine and Mies had important careers abroad and in America, both participated in important early 20th century avant garde movements (Mies headed the Bauhaus), both established important schools in America, and both were accused of making art that was cold and inhuman as a result of its great clarity of form and that stifled competition in their respective fields.

Also ironically, during the period of Balanchine's anti-Soviet, "Eisenhower romance," Balanchine was building "American" ballets out of the principles of Soviet Constructivist dance that he had picked up during the pre-1924 days of heady experiment in post-revolution Russia (The Four Temperaments, Paul Taylor's solo in Episodes, Agon, Symphony in Three Movements).

(all my pet hobby horses, though not in a well-organized row!)

Am re-posting dirac's redirect to our discussion on Sarah Kaufman's similar anti-Balanchine argument, with good comments by volcanohunter, Helene, Kathleen O'Connell and others.

Fell influence of Balanchine discussion

Q: What would a Graham influenced dance world look like today?

[Kathleen O'Connell]

3 hours ago, Quiggin said:

While ballet remains out of reach for many, with its strict requirements of physical ability, modern dance is more participatory.

🙄 

I haven't read the article yet, but has Devann actually tried to dance any of Martha Graham's choreography? It too remains out of reach for many.  

[volcanohunter]

I think most would throw in the towel before they got to the Graham falls, long before asked to bourrée on their knees à la Seraphic Dialogue.