Dancing Naturally: Nature, Neo-Classicism and Modernity in Early Twentieth-Century Dance

191 Pages·2011·1.691 MB·English

by  Alexandra Carter, Rachel Fensham (eds.)

Dancing Naturally
Also by Alexandra Carter
THE ROUTLEDGE DANCE STUDIES READER (ed.)
RETHINKING DANCE HISTORY: A Reader (ed.)
DANCE AND DANCERS IN THE VICTORIAN AND EDWARDIAN
MUSIC HALL BALLET
THE ROUTLEDGE DANCE STUDIES READER
(second edition, ed. with J. O’Shea)
Also by Rachel Fensham
DISORIENTATIONS, CULTURAL PRAXIS IN THEATRE: Asia, Pacific, Australia
(ed. with P. Eckersall)
THE DOLLS’ REVOLUTION: Australian Theatre and Cultural Imagination
(with D. Varney)
TO WATCH THEATRE: Essays on Genre and Corporeality
Dancing Naturally
Nature, Neo-Classicism and Modernity in
Early Twentieth-Century Dance
Edited by
Alexandra Carter and Rachel Fensham
Palgrave
macmillan
Selection and editorial matter © Alexandra Carter and Rachel Fensham 2011
Individual chapter © contributors 2011
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2011 978-0-230-27844-8
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication
may be made without written permission.
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work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2011 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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ISBN 978-1-349-32621-1 ISBN 978-0-230-35448-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230354487
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgements ix
Notes on Contributors x
1 Nature, Force and Variation 1
Rachel Fensham
2 Constructing and Contesting the Natural in British
Theatre Dance 16
Alexandra Carter
3 Ideas of Nature, the Natural and the Modern in Early
Twentieth-Century Dance Discourse 31
Michael Huxley and Ramsay Burt
4 The Ancient Greeks and the ‘Natural’ 43
Fiona Macintosh
5 From the Artificial to the Natural Body: Social Dancing
in Britain, 1900–1914 58
Theresa Jill Buckland
6 Dancing Based on Natural Movement 73
Mary A. Johnstone and Madge Atkinson
Extracts edited by Alexandra Carter
7 Undressing and Dressing Up: Natural Movement’s
Life in Costume 82
Rachel Fensham
8 Nature Moving Naturally in Succession: An Exploration of
Doris Humphrey’s Water Study 98
Lesley Main
9 Tensing and Relaxing Naturally: Systematic Approaches to
Training the Body 110
Susan Leigh Foster
10 ‘Female Nature’, Body Culture and Plastique 124
Karen Vedel
v
vi Contents
11 Tethering the Flow: Dialogues between Dance, Physical
Culture and Antiquity in Interwar Australia 139
Amanda Card
12 Mining Anatomy: Moving Naturally 155
Libby Worth
Index 170
List of Illustrations
Front Cover: Photograph of a group of Natural Movement dancers in
backward bend pose rehearsing outdoors, c.1928, NRCD reference NM/
F/3/1/3/2 © Allied Newspapers Ltd
Back Cover: Anita Heyworth in Fire Dance or Fire. An image of this
dance appears in the Dancing Times as ‘The Spirit of the Bush Fire’,
1926, NRCD reference NM/F/2/15/1 © Longworth Cooper
2.1 Eunice Hardman in Bacchanale (NRCD reference
NM/F/2/2/1*) 20
2.2 Natural Movement dancer at Woody Bay, Devon, 25 August
1925 (NRCD reference NM/F/2/2/1*) 26
2.3 Dancer Nancy Sherwood, a tutor at the Ginner-Mawer
school and Ginner’s main demonstrator (Pauline Grant
photograph album of Revived Greek dancers, Bice Bellairs
collection, NRCD reference BB/F/l) 27
4.1 Frieze Lines (Pauline Grant photograph album from the
Ginner-Mawer School, Bice Bellairs collection, NRCD
reference BB/F/l*) 51
6.1 ‘(Ed. ne Alimari) N. 26970. ROMA – Musee Vaticano. Donne
che conducono un Toro al sacrifizio. (Scultura antica.)’
Illustration in mss.papers ‘Dancing based on Natural
Movement’ by Mary A. Johnstone and Madge Atkinson.
(National Resource Centre for Dance,
University of Surrey. NRCD reference NM/E/2/3/1) 74
7.1 Sigh of Autumn, All-in-alls/leaf dresses, c.1931 (NRCD
Reference NM/S/3/2*) 85
7.2 Anita Heyworth and Madge Bateman in Soaring, early 1930s,
Guttenberg (NRCD reference NM/F/2/14/1*) 89
7.3 Costume design for Laideronette character from Ravel’s
Mother Goose Suite, Lilian Reburn, c.1919/20 (NRCD
reference NM/N/2*) 91
vii
viii List of Illustrations
9.1 Illustration from Dudley Allen Sargent, Handbook of
Developing Exercises (Cambridge: n.p., 1897) 114
9.2 Exercises 10, 11 and 12, Elsie M. Wilbor, Delsarte Recitation
Book. A pantomime depicting Grief (4th edition, New York:
Edgar S. Werner, 1905) 116
10.1 H. E. Hetch: Ida Brun by the bust of her mother, 1803
(by courtesy of Christian Brun and Sophienholm) 126
11.1 Stage and Society (Vol. 12, No. 4, 1922; Mitchell Library,
State Library of NSW, Sydney Australia, call number Q0595) 145
* Every effort has been made to identify the owners of the rights in this material
where it is unknown. The NRCD apologize for any infringement that may have
occurred. If you have any information regarding copyright, then please contact
the publishers who will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the
earliest opportunity.
Acknowledgements
The editors extend their gratitude to Angela Kane and Helen Roberts, who
recognized the importance of the archives on early British modern danc-
ers held at the National Resource Centre for Dance (NRCD), University
of Surrey. Their conception of a research and preservation project, based
on these collections, was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research
Council from 2008–10. Thanks are due to the staff of the NRCD, in liai-
son with the University’s Department of Dance, Film and Theatre, who
were instrumental in sustaining this project: Emily Churchill, Project
Archivist; Laura Griffiths, Project Archivist and Research Assistant; and
Sharon Maxwell, NRCD Archivist. Sharon also provided essential assist-
ance in making possible the inclusion of many of the photographs from
the research project in this volume. A significant debt is owed to Helen
Roberts, NRCD Manager, whose continuing support and multi-skilled
co-management contributed significantly to the successful completion of
Pioneer Women: Early British Modern Dancers.
This edited text arises out of the above project. We thank all the con-
tributors, who have greatly enriched and expanded the field in terms of
both breadth of material and an international dimension by sharing their
research and responding so willingly to editorial negotiations. We are also
grateful to the members of the wider dance community who participated
in the conference, Moving Naturally, convened at Surrey University in
October 2009, and whose enthusiastic support made us realize that this
topic of the relationship between dancing, movement, and all things
natural, continues to pulse at the heart of much of what constitutes
dance today.
Last, we thank Penny Simmons for her enthusiastic and text-enhancing
proof reading and editing, and Paula Kennedy and Ben Doyle at
Palgrave, whose faith in the research field and continuing support have
made this edition possible.
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