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Common Ground: Modern Techniques for the 21st Century
By Lisa
Traiger
Dunham, Limón,
Horton, Graham, and Cunningham demystified
Technique, as any
good teacher will tell you, is a means to an end, not an end
in itself. In the 20th century, when modern dance was born, it
seemed nearly every choreographer wanted to distinguish
herself with a specific style and technique. Numerous camps
developed as dancers, students and professionals, aligned
themse lves
in balkanized fashion with a specific choreographer or
technique. You could tell a Graham dancer by the way she held
her chin and wound her hair in a high, full bun. A Dunham
dancer? The walk, like coursing through a sandy beach, gave it
away. But today, choreographers and artistic directors demand
versatility, not allegiance. The ability to remain flexible
enough to tackle any number of stylistic or technical
demands is what divides good dancers from great ones. The
techniques below may be built on differing foundations but the
end result remains constant: well-trained and adaptable
dancers.
Dunham Technique
Dunham technique is
more than a credo of movement education; it’s a way of life.
Dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist Katherine Dunham
integrated modern dance, practically and metaphorically. While
others before her (and certainly since) have used dancers of
color in their companies, it was Dunham, through her
self-styled movement practice, who brought together African
and Caribbean ritual and social dance and Western concert
dance into what has become her signature technique.
This fusion of polyrhythms and steps draws from ancient
ceremonial dances and European-style dance forms.
An anthropology
student at the University of Chicago in the 1930s, Dunham
traveled to Haiti and Africa to study. There she cemented
cultural bonds that have infused her challenging, high-energy
technique and left a potent legacy to 20th-century modern
dance.
The Dunham technique
requires a flexible torso and spine, an articulated pelvis,
and the ability to isolate and control the limbs
simultaneously in order to master the polyrhythmic movements.
The technique provides dancers with the building blocks to
create strong bodies.
A typical Dunham
class begins facing the barre in parallel. There dancers
acquire the sense of feeling centered while also stretching
their muscles, warming up the back, and activating the pelvis
and quadriceps with a series of body rolls of the spine,
flat-back reaches and forward roll-downs, grand pliés, and
hinges to the floor.
Away from the barre,
the students work on a series of contraction exercises
(typically danced to live percussion accompaniment) that
requires them to isolate the pelvis; gluteus muscles; and
lower, middle, and upper parts of the back and then combine
these isolations into full-body rolls of various tempos. Next
come progressions across the floor, beginning with the smooth
and direct Dunham Walk, which demands that students feel a
continuous flow of energy through space as weight shifts
across the entire foot with torso held high and chin lifted.
Then come traveling isolations requiring students to move the
head, shoulders, chest, and hips independently as they move
across the floor.
Arms in a Dunham
class are typically held in second position, parallel to the
floor, with palms facing the floor and elbows lifted. Often
culturally specific dances complete a class: Yanvalou,
performed in 3/4 or 6/8 time, is a worship-based dance that
features an undulating torso, arms, and hips; Zepaules,
a Voudoun dance, requires articulate isolations, including
percussive shoulders pushing downward that are mirrored
by feet in the same rapid tempo, while knees remain slightly
bent. Dunham dancers carry within their bodies the roots of
some of the world’s most ancient cultures; yet this dynamic,
multifaceted technique enables them to conquer a variety of
styles.
Limón Technique
Limón dancers
frequently swoop in breathtaking eddies of swings,
suspensions, and rebounds. The technique Limón devised is
based on fall and recovery, the fundamental building blocks of
movement articulated by modern-dance pioneer Doris Humphrey. A
kinesthetically appealing style to watch (though never
completely codified), it is disseminated both at the Limón
School in New York, which offers a nine-month professional
studies program, and by teachers around the country who have
studied at the school or danced with the company.
A Mexican native,
José Limón moved to the United States as a child, but dance
didn’t capture his imagination until he was a young man
studying painting in New York. Limón studied with Humphrey,
who became the first artistic director of his company in 1946.
The Limón technique allows students to explore and experience
their own momentum and develop into refined, articulate
dancers. In class students pay conscientious attention to
their breath and how it affects movement and prepares them to
move. Without specific codified exercises, Limón teachers
concentrate on alignment and core strength throughout class,
which often begins with bends, torso and arm swings, and head
rolls to warm up the body.
The class proceeds
with pliés, brushes, extensions, and torso and arm gestures.
Larger, full-bodied exercises include side bends, arches, and
off-center tilts and lunges, which lead into traveling across
the floor, often focusing on under curves (a locomotor step
where the pelvis traces a U-shape, not unlike a chassé)
and flowing,
breath-based combinations. But the technique is not solely nor
merely about breath and flow. Dynamic contrasts and in-depth
rhythmic awareness and musicality are also emphasized. By the
time the class reaches the extended movement phrases, the
dancer is completely active: covering space, jumping, falling
into the floor, and rebounding.
Limón-trained
dancers gain an innate understanding of the body’s weight and
the effect of gravity on movement, which allows for a fulsome,
three-dimensional attack. They also develop an expressive
torso, suitable for many of the choreographer’s dramatic
works. An organic sense of wholeness, along with an acute
understanding of breath, and give and take—“counter-energies,”
Limón called them—pervades the style, but dancers are
continually encouraged to find individual means to express
themselves.
Horton Technique
Horton dancers
exhibit athletic prowess and grace that belie the expressive
nature of the form. Indiana-born Lester Horton studied Native
American and world dances before settling in California and
developing America’s first permanent dance theater in 1946 in
West Hollywood. The technique he ultimately created homed in
on the body’s anatomy, strengthening the dancers to enable
them to perform proficiently in any style.
A typical Horton
class focuses on some or all of 17 “fortification studies,”
codified exercises that Horton devised to tackle different
physical concepts, like lateral or sideways bends, descent and
ascent for going into and rising up from the floor, or leg
swing releases for ease of movement. The warm-up moves quickly
through a series of exercises that includes flat backs,
squats, descent and ascent, lateral stretches, leg swings, and
deep lunges. Dancers must master the classic Horton shapes
incorporated into the warm-up, including the T-position, which
is as it sounds, but often bent laterally, performed on one
leg, or twisted; the stag position; the cross lunge; and, on
the floor, the coccyx balance (perching on the tailbone).
Horton technique stretches and strengthens dancers, enabling
them to build a solid core and abs of steel. Once they
progress to phrases across the floor, the technique favors
turns and single-foot arch springs, or jumps from one foot.
Though Horton died
young at 47 in 1953, his technique survives him through the
dedicated work of some of his early dancers, among them the
late
Alvin Ailey,
whose New York school continues to instruct students in Horton
principles. Horton’s legacy can be glimpsed in moments of some
of Ailey’s best-known works. In Revelations, Ailey’s
paean to the faith and fortitude of African Americans, the
coccyx study figures prominently in the male solo “I Wanna Be
Ready,” when a dancer balances on his tailbone, twisting and
pulling his torso from side to side.
For some dancers the
aggressive, fast-moving warm-up, which focuses on large
muscles like quadriceps and abdominals early in the class, can
be extremely challenging. Yet, aside from stamina-fortifying
exercises, which may make even the strongest dancers’ muscles
tremble, Horton always demanded expressive approaches to
movement throughout class. Dynamic and dramatic, the technique
can help build sensitive and powerful dancers with long, lean
lines and rock-solid torsos.
Graham Technique
Among modern dance’s
founding mothers, Martha Graham’s impact has been formidable.
Dancers trained in her technique dance like gods: The women,
in Graham’s own image, are awesome, majestic, fierce, yet
sensual; and the men muscular, dependable, indestructible, yet
sensitive. Her company, created in 1926, remains America’s
oldest continuously active dance troupe. Graham dancers have
always exhibited incredible strength and passion, along with
clarity of shape and directness of attack that comes from
immersion in exercises codified and disseminated over more
than half a century.
As Balanchine did
for ballet, Graham did for modern: propagating her technique
around the country as generations of her dancers retired from
the stage to teach at universities and found dance studios.
Although she didn’t invent the contraction, she brought the
forceful exhale that curves the pelvis under and hollows the
chest into common use. The Graham contraction, central to her
technique, carries with it a myriad of resonances: a sob of
pain, a gasp of joy, sexual stirrings. The contraction of the
pelvis, depending on the decade the teacher studied at the
Graham studio, might also resonate in the limbs with a bent
elbow, flexed foot, or even cupped hands, resembling the
hollowed midsection.
A typical Graham
class begins on the floor with a series of bounces forward in
a sitting position. Seated contractions and spirals
concentrating on breathing follow, and dancers should be
aware, even in the deepest contraction, of a feeling of lift
as the head drops backward, opening the throat. Floor work
continues in a seated fourth position with the back leg’s
inner thigh on the floor, the front knee bent at 90 degrees
and slightly elevated, and the ball of the front foot
“on the walk” (touching the floor). The class progresses to
falls, first from a seated position and eventually from
standing, frequently initiated by the pelvic contraction, then
hinging backward. Standing center work includes pliés,
brushes, and knee vibrations, which are like rond de jambes
but allow the knee to turn in and cross the supporting leg
before swinging out again.
Standing
contractions evolve into spirals, turns, and falls to the
floor on 16 counts, then 8, 4, and 2. Barre work might include
extensive stretching and rising to demi-pointe. Moving across
the floor begins with simple walks and variations, including
quickly counted triplets—down, up, up—embellished with turns
and arms. Straight-legged prances that work through the entire
foot and stag leaps are other signature Graham steps.
Graham-trained
dancers acquire a rich range of movement qualities, from
elegant lyricism to aggressive, percussive attack. While they
have indomitable midsections, they also defy gravity in
springing into leaps or holding steady in off-kilter balances
and ever-so-slow falls to the floor.
Cunningham Technique
Cunningham technique
requires clarity of body and mind. This iconoclast may have
seeded postmodern dance with his once-radical ideas about
using chance and natural movement to create and enhance his
choreography, yet a Cunningham class still appears nearly
balletic to the untrained eye, at least from the waist down. A
one-time ballet student who first studied with a vaudeville
hoofer, Cunningham, 89 as of April 2008, demands flawless
technique from his dancers: rigorous, quicksilver footwork
(what he has called “frisky feet”); challenging balances,
often with the body curved or tilted; a slow center-floor
combination; and great, bursting leap combinations at the end
of class.
What happens above
the waist, particularly to the spine, is of utmost importance
to becoming a proficient Cunningham dancer. The class begins
in the center, with ballet barre-like combinations that
incorporate the upper body and torso as well as arms and legs.
The warm-up starts with a sequence of exercises for the spine,
learning and practicing how to articulate the upper spine from
the lower spine and distinguishing curves to the front,
diagonal corners, sides, and back. The pelvis may also engage,
but not in an aggressive, breath-sapping contraction
reminiscent of Graham; instead a full-bodied curve involves
the entire spine from tailbone to top of neck. In
brain-teaser–like fashion, patterned arm movements overlay the
feet and torso, giving both body and mind a complete workout.
Traditional
Cunningham arms are held out from the shoulders in a slightly
straighter position than a sloping ballet curve. The technique
also works on directional changes and focus. Dancers must know
where their bodies are in space and make sudden changes of
direction crisply.
With his longtime
musical collaborator and partner, the late John Cage,
Cunningham came up with the idea that chance could expand
artistic possibilities. He and Cage worked independently, so
typically dancers never heard a score until opening night.
While everything in a Cunningham class is counted out
musically, the accompaniment might not support the dancers’
movements. Advanced dancers develop a sophisticated internal
clock that enables them to perform in unison without music.
Cunningham prefers to rehearse his dancers in silence, with a
stopwatch in hand.
Well-trained
Cunningham dancers are easy to spot for their articulation,
ability to tackle rigorous and complex movement combinations,
and their clean, unaffected technique.
Where to study
For all techniques,
check college and university dance departments for classes and
workshops near you.
The Martha Graham
Center of Contemporary Dance offers open classes and
professional, intensive, and independent programs at 316 E.
63rd St., New York, NY; 212-521-3621;
www.marthagraham.org.
The Limón
Institute (212-777-3353;
www.limon.org)
offers workshops, professional studies programs, and a summer
intensive at Peridance, 890 Broadway, Sixth Floor, New York,
NY; 212-505-0886;
www.peridance.com.
Open Horton
technique classes are offered through The Ailey Extension
at the Joan Weill Center for Dance, 405 W. 55th St., New York,
NY; 212-405-9000;
www.alvinailey.org.
Weekly classes in
Dunham technique are offered in the Children’s Workshop
Studio adjacent to the Katherine Dunham Dynamic Museum, East
St. Louis, IL. The 24th Annual Dunham Technique Seminar will
be held July 26–August 3, 2008 (tentative); check
www.eslarp.uiuc.edu/kdunham for updates. Open Dunham
technique classes are also offered through The Ailey Extension
at the Joan Weill Center for Dance, 405 W. 55th St., New York,
NY; 212-405-9000;
www.alvinailey.org.
The Merce
Cunningham Studio offers open classes at 55 Bethune St.,
New York, NY;
www.merce.org.
Above picture:
Modern-dance pioneer Martha Graham in the 1940s.
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