TERPSICHORE IN SNEAKERS: Post-Modern Dance

by Sally Banes ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 18, 1979

Except when tackled by inspired critics like Arlene Croce, dance doesn't take well to verbal description. And ""post-modern dance""--avant-garde, anti-illusionist, often pretentious or silly experimentation (with time, space, chance, improvisation, games, and everyday movement)--comes off unusually poorly in print, especially as solemnly served up by Banes, a humorless, un-evocative, and generally uncritical booster. Ten choreographers receive chapter-length studies (plus ""The Grand Union,"" a group), nearly all of them with roots in Merce Cunningham, John Cage, and the 1960s Judson Dance Theater. Banes chronicles the oeuvre of each; describes the works either in detail (in Seesaw, ""They seesawed for a while. . . Rainer shrieked and threw herself around. . . Morris read in a flat voice from Art News. . ."") or in brief (""In Discs. . . a dancer attempts to walk naturally across the room while three other dancers pitch cardboard discs under her feet""); analyzes the themes and motifs involved, with reference to such as Heidegger and Robbe-Grillet; and quotes liberally from positive Village Voice reviews. The resulting volume will win no new devotees, but, for Banes' fellow enthusiasts (and for theater scholars interested in cross-references to the work of Robert Wilson)--an earnest, straightforward enough record.

Pub Date: Jan. 18, 1979

ISBN: 0819561606

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979

Categories: NONFICTION