Ourselves and our environs

[waldopaper]

What’s left of us… where we’re coming from… and where do we go? Post it under here. Did you just think of underwear?

[Cal]

So ... How did Dance react to the social upheavals etc? ... you've piqued my curiosity.

[BO]

My cultural refinement ended with the Funky Chicken.

[pan]

In the 30s, under the slogan "Dance is a Weapon" several communist dancers leagues taught free classes to anyone who wanted and performed agitprop dance with the empowering of labor and equal rights for women and blacks.

Likewise, in the 50s and onward: Alvin Ailey is the most known black choreographer whose work directly addressed his culture. Alwin Nikolais, Merce Cunningham and, at first, Paul Taylor created work that challenged the modernist project's focus upon the heroic efforts of the individual. The Post-modern experiments of Judson Church and, in the U.K., the New Dance, pursued an egalitarian aesthetic to the point that all movement from untrained performers was embraced. Feminist critique of the ballet had a huge impact, several women choreographers created a body of work with feminist themes - Pina Bausch in Germany is the most known. After the Stonewall Riots overtly gay themed, including camp and drag, work was featured in "serious" art dance venues. With the AIDs epidemic the focus changed - Bill T. Jones, especially after the death of Arne Zane, has created several major works focused upon that.

There is much more. My effort throughout the semester has been to make the students aware that dance is culture - not classical Culture with a capital C - but the culture that we create as members of a society. To understand the history of the arts one must know the history of the culture that created those arts.

[Cal]

Interesting - I hadn't thought about dance that way before, but now that I do I realize
we have our very own version right here of "Dance is a weapon" ... the good old toyi-toyi ...
must get better at it .....

[Cal]

Here's some toi-toi outside a Cape Town court last year ... the best dancing is the last 2 minutes or so.

[hannah j]

OMG all these moves bring back my jr and sr high days in 'modern' dance class. I was actually looking for a vid of the late 60s with the light show, all us grace slick wannabes and the flowy earth goddess clothes.....

[hannah j]

[BO]

Ahhh....Mary Ann. We all loved her because she was so naive and wholesome. Where have all the good girls gone?

[hannah j]

i was a good girl......but i danced like ginger. i was the designated driver of the 70s.

but i knew where the bodies were buried, so to speak.....

[pan]

I always wondered why Ginger's wardrobe was so big when it was supposed to be a three hour tour.

I must be getting old - Mrs. Thurston Howell III is looking pretty sexy in that video.

[BO]

"I must be getting old - Mrs. Thurston Howell III is looking pretty sexy in that video."

Yip. Those GILF's can really set your pants on fire.

When it was created, that video would've given me wet dreams for a week. Now...not so much.

[Cal]

I'm studying (supposed to be ... it's dragged on a bit) to get an MPhil in 'Futures Studies'. I'm through a lot of the course ... still have my thesis to wrap up though. One of the techniques in futures studies is building scenarios. It's a technique that has been put to good use in this country prior to democracy in 1994. So I was quite interested to read today that a high level team has done a new set of scenarios called the Dinokeng scenarios. They came up with 3 scenarios for South Africa - Walk Apart, Walk Behind & Walk Together. Big clue ... the last one is the one we are supposed to aim for. And the success of it hinges on an engaged citizenry. The facilitator, Kahane, suggests "that how civil society engages with the state may turn out to be the crucial issue of 2009 and beyond".

... hope nobody minds me dropping breadcrumbs on the wrong trail ... didn't quite know which thread this fitted under ... bit too introverted to start a whole new one on my own just yet.