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Page 19 text:
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it. Dance unites the parts of the person segmented by our society, from Eighteenth- century rationalism right down to Twentieth- century specialization. Though coordination has come to mean physical aptitude, its mean- ing reaches further to the synchronization of mind and body. The body improvises movement, the mind improves it. This union of body and mind is, of all the arts, peculiar to dance. That which has always been labelled mindless in the arts has been renamed in the Twentieth century — the act of creation arises from the sub- conscious mind, guided or directed by con- scious principles or intent. The choreo- grapher may conceive of a theme — big, sustained, stationary movement or small, quick steps in a pattern — then the production of the movement ultimately rests with the body ' s experiments, the invention of rhythm in motion. The expressive virtue of any dancing is its rhythm, and its rhythm is felt only in continui- ty, Denby said. To dance is to surrender your movement to a higher rhythm, a rhythm which controls. This is the maxim which pro- duces effortlessness in dancers. If the spring of a leap is on the first beat and the landing is timed for the fourth, the dancer soars through the second and third, reluctant to come down. The rhythm, however complex, is non- verbal, subconscious. It is the driving rhythm, at the heart of one ' s nervous system, that provides the direct con- nection between the subconscious mind and the physical movement. When two dancers agree on a rhythm, they dance together. With rhythm as the impetus for movement, the dancer ceases to think in ideas or words and dwells on the throbbing rhythmic current. Accusations of stupidity are levelled im- mediately: dance requires no mind, dance is anti-intellectual. As for the former (made only by non-dancers, not because dancers haven ' t the insight, but because those who do not dance fail to understand the relationship of mind to body), the best contradiction is found in the fact that the best dancers are indeed the brightest. Once a rhythm has overtaken the central nervous system, manifesting itself in movement, the brain goes to work to im- prove the movement as art. To add a pause here, a burst of energy there, to look up, to raise the leg higher before bringing it down are all functions of the mind as critic of the body as performer. The mind perfects the rhythm which the body has assi milated. The mindless dancer can only last as long as someone else is thinking for her. The smart dancer is one who brings all that she has learned of life to dancing: ultimately, she is the more interesting, the more complex to watch. With the advent of modern dance came the introduction of a wide variety of
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Page 20 text:
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dance aesthetics. In our culture, dance has broken from the unified system of training and terminology to new approaches, many of them unsystematic. The dancer finds the theory with which both his mind and body are most at home, and then commits herself to It. Dance ' s double nature — the dancer as both creator and work of art — makes it the most in- tensely expressive and personal of all the arts. The dancer can do very little to alter the struc- ture of her body or the patterns of movement and gesture ingrained since childhood. Traditionally it has been a woman ' s art form, more subjective than objective as with most avenues of expression frequented by women. Whereas me have always dealt with the same themes on a grander scale, in both life and in art, women have been constrained by their some what limited roles and ex- periences. However, as there is no female counterpart for Dostoyevsky, there is no male match for Isadora. But the situation is chang- ing. The ideal woman is no longer ethereal and untouchable: neither is the ideal man merely her support. In the social sense, movement is indicative of one ' s attitude toward self and others. This aspect has carried over into the isolation of movement in dance. Dance is a social art, re- quiring awareness of and sensitivity to other dancers. Dance is one art form which can never become devoid of humanity. Deborah Jowitt has emphasized this: The seemingly tireless boys and girls spin- ning and leaping and taunting gravity are perhaps more vital to our spiritual defense than a standing army to our military de- fense. In all but the most morbidly sexy modern ballets, people dance optimistical- ly, openly, and with graciousness and trust toward each other. This is far from a trivial matter. HBD
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