I wanted to focus my task on Katherine Dunham and touch on the work of Jennifer Muller who are two quite different choreographers/teachers and dance pioneers distinct but complementary in their approaches to dance from the standpoint a non-positivist . One perspective came from and transgressed positivist negative thinking and stereotype to evolve a legacy philosophy and methodology that resonates with my cultural background and history and the other a different approach that rejects limited-historical positivism by not becoming beholden to the past in favour of the here and now grounded in the recognition of difference. The coming together of these two different and complementary worlds characterises me and my ever evolving thinking and experiences around the idea of non-positivism.
Katherine Dunham was an artist and visionary and was one of the first modern dancers to blend ballet, modern and folk forms and present it to the concert stage. However her path to the concert stage was marred by strong positivist and racist thinking of the 1930s but like other black dancers of her generation in the 1930s she used a variety of ideals and formats to present and perform their work, ultimately getting the recognition she deserved and evolving a black modern dance aesthetic.
Black dancers in the 1930’s and 40s could not study modern dance or ballet. There was a negative stereotype that black dancers and their bodies and any dances they performed was limited to Vaudeville and popular dance shows and musicals in films and any attempt to enter the realms of ballet and modern dance training would as the myth suggested black dancers would lose their natural spontaneity and naturalness as a dancer. However the Harlem Renaissance created an aesthetic manifesto that would change that view and act as a blueprint for black artists. Black dancers were not viewed in the mainstream and always seen as ethnic dancers whose performances were ‘barbaric, exotic and wild’. It is interesting to note that at the same time modern white dance pioneers such as Ruth St Denis who was inspired by and performed material with strong ethnic dance influences, were treated as modern dance icons and not referred to as ethnic dancers. It is within this backdrop that Katherine Dunham and other dance contemporaries performed the same material but unlike their white counterparts were treated differently within a positivist framework. To break down these barriers and create and define a black modern dance aesthetic Katherine Dunham through her work, teachings and research opened the doors and entered the mainstream of modern dance.
Between the years 1937 – 1945 Katherine faced a conundrum whereby black concert dancers who staged themes of an Africanist nature were considered by white critics as ‘natural performers’ rather that as ‘creative artists’ and if black dancers staged works of a Eurocentric nature and bias they were chided or their work considered ‘derivative’ rather than as ‘original artists’. However for white modern dancers when making work referencing dances from another race namely black they were applauded as an accepted convention in modern dance of the 1930s or as Susan Manning (2001) describe “Metaphorical Minstrelsy”. The critic John Martin applauded Katherine Dunham’s reliance on the rich heritage of Negro dance but disparaged the integration of ballet into her inter-cultural movement vocabulary. America in that time could not make the connection to or understand the form and function of her dances she staged and represented the diaspora of African people across the globe and specifically in north and South America and the Caribbean.
Katherine was a unique individual who contributed to the arts, was an anthropologist, choreographer, dancer and educator and humanist. With an interest in dance at a young age plus an interest in books and subject material about people and how they lived their cultural lives led her to studying for a degree in Anthropology. Whilst there she continued to study dance and was trained in ballet but was also interested to know about how people of Africa moved. She received a travelling Fellowship in 1936 to research and study dance in the West Indies. When asked what kind of research she had in mind:
“She stood up in her tights and first did some movements of the type that were being taught in most schools ‘pretty steps and turns’ (Biemiller 1969 p88)....” She then demonstrated in African dance [what] she had choreographed earlier, that’s what I’m after. I want to find out why Africans dance, how they started, and what this kind of dancing does to people, the life they lead” Biemiller, (1969, p89)
Theories that developed through her travels, documentation of dances of people from African descent in the Caribbean eventually led to the creation of what is now called the Dunham Technique. The technique is both physical and emotional and was as the result of Katherine’s years of observing, studying, assimilating, creating, understanding and living. Three theoretical models were evolved to create the technique and used as training and teaching model for her students and company. The three models are
1. Form and Function
2. Intercultural communication
3. Socialisation through the arts
Form and function – allowed for the understanding of the specifics of dance movement and why. She incorporated the principles of time, space, and dynamics and how the dance related to the overall cultural pattern of a dance and its particular relevance
Intercultural communication. The technique allowed a person to understand a culture or many cultures through dance, and Katherine found that an understanding of different cultures takes place when one is immersed in the culture. Through experiencing other ways of living, especially through the dances, knowledge is acquired
Socialisation through the arts. This model was a tool for training people not only as artists but as communicators. Albirda Rose writes: “Dunham believes that if given the opportunity a student can and will learn important information about him/herself through the art forms of his or her particular culture”
The above models formed what Dunham described as a ‘System’. This system allows students the opportunity to experience a way of life not only through the physical technical attributes of the technique itself but to set itself up as a framework for self-exploration and reflection.
Jennifer Muller’s work and philosophy was influenced by a large variety of instructors, cultural and political environments and philosophy that inspired the development of her work and also technique. She went to the Julliard School where she studied Ballet and Modern dance with at modern dance pioneers of Pearl Lang, Anthony Tudor, and José Limón who she was eventually invited to join the company. She was also inspired by Anna Sokolow and took classes with Merce Cunningham. She is rooted in Eastern philosophy for its ebb and flow and energy – a lifeforce and is separate from a western perspective of philosophy. This philosophy underpinned a lot of her technique and she had a humanistic and strong recognition of difference and acceptance plus a need for making a working environment harmonious. Dance for Muller is a language and form of communication and presents works on stage that doesn’t represent historical characters preferring to work with individuals of the present. The body she says is something that through its energy is permanently connected to the environment.
The conceptual basis of the Muller Technique is founded on three fundamental principles:
1. Working with the flow of energy
2. The power of imagination
3. Knowledge of the body’s physical structure
Her technique has an individual approach and designed to help dancers train with less tension and a desire that dancers are able to embody human emotions and movement. Her approach lends itself to a broader application by others who are studying other techniques and for performance. There are 7 approaches she uses and employs which are applicable to other forms of dance but the one which struck a chord with me was the imparting of fundamental social values, for example acknowledging the individual and respecting others thus enabling dancers to learn and grow in a supportive, motivated environment. This characterises the general atmosphere of a Muller technique class and can definitely draw parallels with Katherine Dunham’s ‘System’ and methodology.
For both Katherine and Jennifer I got a sense of the power of embodying movement through ‘sensing’ and use of energy efficiently creating experiences giving meaning a social significance to their work and themes that recognises difference, celebration of equality. The life force or energy of Jennifer Muller’s approach easily translates to Katherine’s staging of Africanist dance movement which although historical has a currency that is ever present and where critics talked about her work having a ‘constant element’ or ‘reason for being’. For me this constant and reason for being is an energy, an ebb and flow expressed through the body and movement. For me also it is endless possibility.
Bibliography
Clarke, V, Johnson S, Kaiso! Writings by and about Katherine Dunham
Diehl I, Lampert F, 2010, Dance Techniques 2010 Tanzplan, Germany
Osumare, Halifu, 1989 A National Dialogue Black Choreographers Moving towards the 21st Century
Rose, Albirda, 1990 Dunham Technique “A way of Life”
