Anatomy of a Dance: From Idea to Movement

The importance of subject matter is paramount mostly for the choreographer. It is his source, his dream, his love. For the audience it often makes very little difference what a dance is about; in fact, some of the most famous and successful dances in the world have been on trivial and inconsequential subjects. --Doris Humphrey, 1957

The paradox of dance choreography is that the audience is often unlikely to grasp the subject of the dance; but without a strong central theme, even if it is unperceived, the audience is likely to be bored. The pleasure one feels at a dance performance comes when he or she is immersed in the movement of the dancers. To a large extent, the success of a dance hinges on the interaction of thematic content with movement.

Howard Fine '78, who has one complete dance, named "Gladfall," to his credit, received the inspiration for a new piece in a dream. In it, Fine and three friends crossed the Weeks Bridge on a sunny day. Fine was bird-watching when suddenly he was overcome by a miracle; the four friends made a ring, joined hands, and danced in a circle. Fine awake, bathed in real tears of joy.

Although these events are incorporated into the choreography, any attempt to recreate this dream sequence from the action in the piece would be impossible. Nor could one ever hope to find correspondences between individual gestures and specific meanings.

Expressed generally, Fine's theme is one of transformation from the disharmony of the single individual to the harmony of the group, symbolized by the ring. This change is represented in the dance by the structure of the music, as it changes from groups of seven beats to groups of eight. It also occurs in the movement of the dancers as they change from interacting in groups of three to interacting in groups of four. According to Fine, "the numbers three and seven cry out to be four and eight. When they change it represents the realization of harmony."

In addition to following a thematic story line, the movements in most works are guided by certain recurring principles. In Fine's dance these principles are "locomotive necessity" and "reversing impulses." His idea is that the body is guided by certain natural patterns of movement that reflect the laws of physics Reversing impulses applies to the ability of the human mind to modify what seems natural. Throughout the dance, this theme results in several surprising changes that are designed to eliminate the boredom of predictable movements.

In Fine's case, inspiration came in a quick moment, while the task of choreographing took several months. Once he had chosen his theme, he discussed it with Claire Mallardi, who helped choose the best style for its presentation. Her concern is to avoid techniques that are "tacky, superficial, imitative or sophomoric."

After choosing the style, the actual composition begins. The central elements are the motion and expression of the whole body of the dancer, the interactions of the dancers to each other, and the spatial orientation the dancers have on the stage.

Although the choreographer tries to attain new combinations of gestures and movements, he is already supported by a 50-year-old tradition in modern dance. In fact, dance is now thought to be going through a classical period, in which certain "phrases," such as the contraction and release of Martha Graham or the fall to the floor of Doris Humphrey, have become rigidified, and used over and over again with little variation.

The dance of Meg Streeter '79 provides a clear example of the representation of thematic content in highly organized phrases. Her dance starts with a heavy, bound-up feeling shared among the dancers. This is expressed in the first picture by an angular arrangement of the arms, legs and torso.

In the next phase, the dancers attempt to discard their constraints actively. In the second photograph, Clara Maxwell '80 symbolically sheds the beauty that restricts her by ruffing up her hair. In the third section, the dancers succeed in casting off their chains for a short time, and pretty, free-flowing forms predominate.

But the success of the dancers is short lived, and the dance ends on a pessimistic note. The pretty images become distorted. The dancers assume a futile scuttle across the stage, inspired by Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock":

I should have been a pair of ragged claws Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.