Analytic Post-Modern Dance is a movement that wanted to revolutionize the meaning of what dance truly is. This is similar to the purpose of just about any movement in art forms. The movement wanted to take away the belief that the beauty in dance is in the meaning. Merce was an artist that began to challenge this belief, and he believed that the choreography itself is a story as opposed to a story having to be told through the dance. A part of Analytic Post-Modernism that was promoted by Rainer in Trio A is the insertion of dance moves that are part of the casual and amateur moves into this new ideal (Banes XXI). The movement wanted to isolate dance motions in an almost scientific way, a way that intellectualized the movements of the body. Analytic Post-Modern Dance focused on the movements of the artists as the dance and minimized the importance of finding a meaning or story in the pieces.The movement originally was not too intermeshed, but became more combined through the work of the Grand Union with one another.
Steve Paxton was the artist who came up with Contact Improvisation in 1973, and this form of dance was the embodiment of the choreography being the story. The movements of the dancers in Contact Improvisation are largely based on the reactions of one dancer with another. Paxton’s dance form consisted of fluid and nearly random movements. As I saw in the Contact Improvisation class as well as the video, the dance form allowed for an expression of the individual artist and for expression for the group dynamic. Paxton incorporated the ideas of Analytic Post-Modern Dance that someone who is not a dance enthusiast can get involved with his dance from. I found this out for myself, even though I was only observing the class I can see how anyone willing to get involved could have, and is a testament to why the Contact Improvisation has stuck around.
Glenn Collaku
I definitely agree with Glenn that analytic post-modern dance was about stepping away from the tradition of assigning dance a meaning, but I think there was a lot more to it than just that. The post-modern choreographers wanted to make dance more transparent and make it more accessible to every day people (as compared to ballet and modern, which were “esoteric art [forms].” The movement brought about a change in the subject of a dance; now, nature, history, structure, and function themselves could be the focus of a dance. In addition, they made references to history and made new use of time, space, and the body. They had performances outside of the usual theater/formal setting, which would later allow dance to be seen as on the same plane as visual art. In addition, the movement brought about a change in the definition of dance. As Glenn said, it was less about meaning and using the body as a metaphor. Choreographers explored what made up a dance at its core. They believed that dances were dances because of their context and not their content. In stripping down dance to its essentials, analytic post-modern dance was “reductive, factual, objective, and down-to-earth.” It was stripped of expressive elements. Movement became objective, audiences were invited to get an insider look at how a dance is made. Dances emphasized steps or gestures, often using repetition, rather than emphasizing phrases. Choreographers rejected musicality and got rid of traditional principles of “dramatic phrasing, contrast, and resolution.” The meaning of analytic post-modern dance was focused on “the discovery and understanding of [dance] forms and processes,” as opposed to something more metaphorical.
In this, Trisha Brown, was an early member of the movement. She focused on breaking down the intricacies of earlier dance forms, choosing distinct and discrete movements. She also focused on the use of space in dance. For instance, her “Equipment Pieces” involved dancers using different pieces of equipment and different apparatuses to expand the vertical plane and defy gravity. This involved pure movements, with no narrative or musicality. This was common in most of her works, this lack of music, allowing for a focus on the movements. Similarly, in “Solo Olos,” dancers danced a series of steps, with a woman calling out and telling some/all of them to reverse on the spot. Brown, one of the well-known analytic post-modern dancers/choreographers, certainly fit into her dances the radical ideas of her fellow analytic post-modern choreographers, revolutionizing dance and the way audiences watch and perceive dance.
Jessica Sun