Analytic post-modern dancers believe that dance can be done for the purpose of the dance itself and the movement itself.  Dances are made to create a structure within which movement can be seen for its own sake.  Post-modern dance often embodies different perspectives on space, time, or orientation.  It often includes the use of repetition, improvisation, chance, and actual time.  Analytic post-modern dance rejects musicality and meaning, and it uses costume, lighting, and objects for their functions.  In these dances, life is often the subject of the art.  Also, the dancers can be choreographers as well.  Post-modernists dance for the pleasure of the dancer.  Thus, it does not matter if the audience does not particularly like the piece.  Analytic post-modern dance can create a new way of looking at dance for the audience.

Steve Paxton used the ideas of analytic post-modern dance in his contact improvisation style.  This style of dance uses two bodies moving with each other and in physical contact with each other.  This form of dance also has to do with these dancers’ relationship to the physical laws that surround them, such as gravity.  Contact improvisation displays the importance of movement and chance just like analytic post-modern dance.  These dancers must work with their partner in order to continue the flow of the dance without stopping or losing contact.  Steve Paxton’s dance, like post-modern ideas, focuses on movement, spontaneity, and the exploration of the body.  Like other dancers in the analytic post-modern dance movement, Paxton provided the audience with a new idea of what dance can be defined as.

Post-modern dance came into existence as a counter-reaction to modern dance, which had emphasized expressionism and theatricality. The newer style rejects the story-telling and symbolic aspects of dance, instead focusing on the physical components and bare technique. Its purpose is solely to emphasize form and movement. It examines the relation of the body to space and time, in different orientations and perspectives. There is no hidden message to be found or analysis to be made; movement is appreciated for its own aesthetic. Each isolated characteristic of dance–each bend, gesture, shape, and shift–is meant to be viewed simply for what it is.

Steve Paxton’s approach to movement through contact improvisation helped to shape these principles of post-modern dance. He had the idea that dance should be viewed as a demonstration of the body as a machine, working in tandem with that of another. Through direct contact, bodies produce spontaneous movement, displaying physical versatility. His work cast out all the excesses of dance, leaving simply the movement to display the utility of the apparatus of the body. Without music, props, or symbolism—Paxton’s improvisational method experimented with the concept of dance, and what could be considered an art. For Paxton, any ordinary movement was dance, and the body was (is) a vessel in itself for expression.

-Sophie

Analytic post-modern dance uses a factual, objective, down-to-earth style that emphasizes choreographic structure and movement. The way the dancer’s body moves is more important than the meaning of the dance. Often, analytic post-modern dance calls attention to the workings of the body in a scientific way, focusing purely on the physicality of a dance. Dances are then defined as ordinary movements such as tasks and everyday work.

Steve Paxton’s contact improvisation focuses purely on the way the dancers’ bodies move against each other. The dancers use physical contact in order to explore the physical workings and movements of the body. Dances revolve around spontaneous and improvised moves that explore different and new ways to balance and move in concert with the other dancers. This follows directly with the definition of analytic post-modern dance to explore the body’s workings in a purely scientific way. Paxton displays the human body as an exhibit, a machine rather than a vehicle of meaning and metaphor in a spiritual or meaningful way as most dance seeks to. Paxton’s contact improvisation doesn’t seek to mean anything or symbolize anything. It makes no statements about politics, art, or religion. It seeks merely to display the versatility, flexibility, and improvisation of the human body in concert with other bodies.

This is a review of “Einstein on the Beach” scored by Philip Glass and directed by Robert Wilson.

“Einstein on the Beach” runs through Sunday at the Howard Gilman Opera House, Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Avenue, at Ashland Place, Fort Greene; (718) 636-4100, bam.org.

This is a dance review by Brian Seibert published September 9, 2012.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/10/arts/dance/kapila-venu-in-the-abandonment-of-sita-at-asia-society.html?_r=0

This is a review from April 2011 of Stephen Petronio’s piece Underland, which was performed at the Joyce Theater.

http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-04-13/dance/stephen-petronio-venures-into-a-dark-world-chunky-move-lights-one-u/

This is a review on ‘Eclipse’ performed at the new BAM Fisher Theatre, by Jonah Bokaer and Anthony McCall.

This is a dance review of ‘Cinderella’ at the Edinburgh International Festival.

This is a review of Nora Chipaumire’s “Miriam” by Claudia La Rocco.

A review from May 25, 2011 written by Brian Selbert on Dean Moss’ “Nameless Forest”