Post-Modern Dance Issue || Experiments in the Art of the Dance

Experiments in the Art of the DanceAuthor(s): Nikolai Foregger and David MillerSource: The Drama Review: TDR, Vol. 19, No. 1, Post-Modern Dance Issue (Mar., 1975), pp. 74-77Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1144971 .

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74

Experiments in the Art of the Dance By Nikolai Foregger

The contemporary era is a working era. Every day, every hour-a new thrust for- ward, a new blow at the dying order. Simplicity, precision, expediency-these are the requirements called for in works of art. "I create---as the bird sings"; "I am above all and create what my leg desires"; "Art is accidental"; "Art for art's sake," are phrases that now have been forgotten. The muses have become production workers and have dis- persed to their respective trade unions. They meet not on Olympus but at the All Union Central Council of Trade Unions (VTSPS), and are summoned not by Apollo but by Tomski.

The dance fulfills certain functions, strengthens the basics for self-discipline in the masses, provides practice for the learning and mastery of rhythm (mass dances), which is so necessary in all labor processes. It can be said that the work of the Scientific Organization of Labor (NOT) is the inculcation of the dancing instinct in industrial manufacturing. We are aware of the psycho/physiological properties of certain light and sound combinations. The dance also possesses this property. The simultaneous and naturally constructive influence on the viewer's hearing and vision not only relaxes him but also tones him in a certain way, charging up his spirits and stirring his emotions.

The dance can be summarized as follows: A. The art of the dance is independent; in relation to the other arts it may utilize

Moliere's maxim: "Take what you need where you find it." Music provides a rhythmic support for the dance; painting, a colorful setting-but no more.

B. The dance must not be an illustration of music. The musical melody and the plastic may not coincide. The dancer and the violin form a duet.

C. In the dance, the expressiveness of the whole body is important, and not its parts. A slip or indifference of any one of the parts of the body in the dance is akin to a torn wire in a grand piano.

D. The affected line, pliant softness, slackness, incompleteness in the dance pattern, a passive surrender to the musical melody define the female beginnings in the dance.

Precision, firmness, muscular effort, an aggressiveness in fulfilling the pattern of the musical accompaniment characterize the male beginnings.

E. Eras of decline attribute the central position in the dance to women; the eras of construction-to men. The reverie, romance, and finesse of the nineteenth-century dance was transmitted by the ballerina. The validity, reality, and the strength of our times must be demonstrated by the male dancer.

F. The male dancer leads the dance. Precision, boldness, strength define his work. The demand for pre-eminence for the male dancer does not mean the abolition of all female dancers. Male and female elements manifest themselves not through the work records of the performers but in the predominance of various traits of aggressiveness or passivity that are transmitted in the dance.

G. Thematic task of the dance: it is either the manifestation of accents in movement (combat, defeat, passion, victory, etc.) or the reflection of contemporaneity. The



EXPERIMENTS IN THE ART OF THE DANCE

images that surround us are celebrated in the rhythmic pattern of the dance. In the dances of savages can be seen stories of the fat gamebird, the slumbering forest, a battle with a favorable outcome. Our life creates dances of the sidewalks and speeding auto- mobiles, and renders homage to the precision of machine functions, the quickness of flowing crowds, and the grandeur of skyscrapers.

The performance of a dance requires the determined and thorough training of the body. Although in the theatre of the old days quarrels would arise concerning the uselessness of school and technique, as compared with "the trembling inner flame," the significance of the strong school and great technique is now axiomatic in the art of the dance.

The character of the school system is determined by the character of dances in a given era-which we have shown above. The reverse contention would also be valid, that the character of dances is determined by the character of the school system.

There are frequent examples of gifted female dancers of the plastic school, who lose all their lightness and melodiousness in a classic dance, and examples of those in the classic school who dry up and coarsen the dance of the former as they do not have the capacity to transmit that musical freedom of the body, that ability to "spiral" in the plastic dance which the body captivates. No wonder that such an exceptional producer as M. Fokine, wanting to cross the two schools took the path of stylization and at- tempted to cover defects of the classical school with the dryness of the graphic pattern.

The first attempts to select new forms for the dance indicate the incompleteness of dance preparation at existing schools. Recognizing the plastic and the classical exercises needed for the training of today's dancer as a secondary element equivalent to acroba- tics and sports, the schools found it necessary to establish their own system: the system of dance and physical training-tafiatrenage (EDITOR'S NOTE: French for "molasses-

pulling.") A detailed exposition of this system would transform this article into a guide or

textbook on tafiatrenage, which is outside the author's scope. Hence, we will attempt to describe only the general traits of the leading positions that are basic to tafiatrenage. Let us recall two assertions mentioned above. Firstly, that the dancer's body as an instru- ment-as mechanism that is controlled by the will of the performers. And secondly, if we view the dancer's body as a machine and the volitional muscles as the machinist, then it can be said that the temperament is the fuel for the motor. This facet-the facet of the emotional expressiveness of the dance, and the psycho/physical training of the dancer-was mistakenly let out of sight by existing schools, thanks to which the emotional expressiveness of the dance was replaced by the guise of temperament-bared teeth, protruding eyes, panting, etc. If the real temperament did manifest itself, then it was considered to have "come from God."

And so, the pattern of tafiatrenage exercises is constructed along two lines:

1) Exhaustive training of the dancer's body (musculature). 2) Training and increasing his psycho/physiological potentials (control, volitional impulses, reflex arousal, etc.).

The two groups are not isolated in the course of the work. They are closely wovened together, creating a chain of tasks ranging from the primitive (lifting the arm, which is mechanical, active, and passive, etc.) to the complex (group constructions). School work in tafiatrenage requires that students consciously and firmly understand the meaning of the given exercise. Rote learning and cramming are intolerable. The

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NIKOLAI FOREGGER

character of the first group's exercises (the technical training of the body) is determined by the following circumstances:

1) The contemporary dance displays the richness and diversity of the whole body, and not the virtuosity of its separate parts (legs, arms, etc.). There is a gradual and uniform development of the muscles of the head, neck, torso, arms (its parts-wrist, forearm, shoulder, etc.) and legs. Special attention is devoted to the shoulderblades as the spokesmen for the emotional picture. The duration of the task is from one to four bars. 2) The complex construction of components (from four to thirty-two bars). The gradual coordination of movements of the arms, legs, head, etc., as each presents a different pattern. 3) The essence of strength in the contemporary dance. Aggressiveness, muscular effort, pressing exercises, leaps, and exercises with the weight of one's partner. 4) Accuracy and precision in the completion of a given exercise. Bringing out the character (style) of the gesture. The pattern of each exercise is accomplished in a series of plastic textures. The primary work has two phases: hard exercises (accentuation) and soft exercises (body resiliency). Further on, each exercise is completed with a stress on its character. Four basic types have been established:

a) The pattern of movements. Simplicity and squaring. b) Roundedness. Waviness of movements. The muscles weaken. c) Spiral movements. Exaggeration of waviness. The muscles loosen. d) Affected movement. Angularity and pretentiousness of pattern de- formation. Alternation of muscular weakness.

Practically every exercise in the first group already has, in itself, elements of the second; that is, it also realizes the psycho/physical training. The task of the school is to bring out and develop the series of qualities that the dancer needs. In ordinary life, a

person is not aware of his body; he does not sense the functions of various muscles.

Furthermore, Philistine wisdom asserts that only during an illness does one feel one's body. The dancer, however, must always be sensitive to his body's harmony and be aware of every contraction of the muscles. This leads, most importantly, to the development of the following skills:

1) Control of one's movements. Work on coordinating exercises for the separate parts of the body. Further tasks in the construction of the exercises are the same. 2) Speed of the plastic memory; attention to oneself and to one's partner (coupling). The trainer demonstrates the exercise several times and outlines it once. Exercises in pairs or larger groups. 3) Emotional coloring of the exercises. 4) Precision and speed of reaction. Boldness. Interrupted movement. Arbitrary alternation of the chain of exercises. 5) Inventiveness and ingenuity. Development of plastic thought. Completion of the assigned exercise basics. A reciprocal movement in the sequence of construction. The shaping of the musical phrase, etc.

The tafiatrenage system possesses an already fairly developed exercise alphabet. According to the records of the students at the Moscow School of Proletarian Culture, it is possible to identify 400 basic exercises, and the same number (for a six-month period) of exercises that were not subsequently repeatable. In the course of the work, it is imperative that as well as alternating the exercises according to character, there should also be changes in the sites used for training. For rest and the regulation of breathing, there is the established method of slow walking with measured inhalation and exhala- tion.

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EXPERIMENTS IN THE ART OF THE DANCE

This old account-almost a telegraphic message of the tafiatrenage system- nevertheless, indicates the landmarks that guide the work. Of course, we cannot claim that this system is complete and finally finished. Our age is the age of break-up and experiment; we are clearing paths for the new culture. And as a protest against decrepit rules, as a necessity of the new-quite unlike the old-school for the actor and dancer, new systems appear such as the Biomechanics of Meyerhold, tafiatrenage of Foregger, and more, and more. They are distant from abstract fabrications and dilettantisms of theoreticians. They are created by life itself; by the urge to establish cadres of strong, skilled, and joyous dancers and actors of the future.

A future historian of art will call our years the years of prophecy. Every day, verbally and in the press, anyone who feels like it informs us of the future shape of the theatre, dance, and art in general. Modesty does not permit me to augment the cadre of prophets; I am not aware of tomorrow's destinies and prefer to simply complete the tasks of today. The work of the present-day dance producer bears more of a negative rather than positive character. He destroys past traditions, beats against obsolete tastes and senses of beauty, strives to capture new perceptions and new themes, and, only seldom erring and falling, outlines new forms for his art.

On the desk of the busy man, one can always find a sheet of paper with the words "To do-today." A similar plan for the staging of dances would state:

1) Study the form of the contemporary dance. The most precise and unexpec- ted technique can be found at the music hall. 2) Noble princes, kind fairies, evil sorcerers, and barefooted nymphs are hardly convincing. New themes are needed. 3) Music only provides the rhythmic support for the dance. Chopin and the drummer are equally valuable. The striving to illustrate the music and bowing before the composer are irrelevant and inappropriate. The producer's pencil has already struck through the Shakespeares and the Ostrovskis; the line forms behind the Scrabins and the Tchaikovskis. 4) Life dictates forms and tempos of movement. In the folk dance, "Russkaya," the Scythian imitates the wild boar in his plie; the boyar's maiden daughter-the peaken's haughty grace. Today, the precision and accuracy of machines, the distinctive lines of the streets, represent the tempo of movement. 5) Simplicity and economy of resources are requirements for the contemporary dance. Complete absence of ornamentation and fancifulness. The ballerina twir- ling twenty fuetve and the poodle riding a bicycle are of equal worth. 6) The worker at a lathe, the soccer player in a game, already harbor within themselves the outlines of the dance. We must learn to recognize these features.

Every new day enriches this vademecum. We are justified in demanding militancy in the area of the dance. We can see how the awareness of movement stands out more and more in the contemporary theatre. The future is for the dance and film. But while the film fantastically gallops ahead and becomes firmly established-conquering the whole world, the dance peacefully dreams along in the shadow of the Good Fairy's tutu, using a plastic bust-bodice as a pillow.

The Greeks called the Muse of the Dance Terpsichore-"The Entertainer"; we will call her "The Fascinating One." The precision, power, and skill of her creations will draw the attention of puny-for the time being-mankind to the richness and beauty of her body. The people of the Middle Ages, suffocating under the yoke of the Church, created the "Dance of Death." In the joyous construction of a new world, the "Dance of Life" must resound.

Translated by David Miller

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Post-Modern Dance Issue || Experiments in the Art of the Dance