During the career of William Forsythe a lot was happening in the world of modern dance but this was not the world that William Forsythe was living in. Forsythe's artistic developement stemmed from the ballet world and in Europe much was happening to allow different more contemporary ballet works to be produced. Martha Graham was working with George Balanchine. Jiři Kylián became the artistic director of Nederlands Dans Theatre. Pina Bausch was also across Europe making new and never before seen work. William Forsythe took great note to the changes in ballet repertoire and explosion of more contemporary dance. Post-structuralism was a new concept spreading across Europe during the 60's and 70's and William Forsythe is known for bring post-structuralism to ballet. As mentioned much of Forsythe's work stems from impovisation. Through tools and techniques created by Forsythe the approach to creating ballet choreography took a major shift. William Forsythe has redesigned the ballet aesthetic giving it movement that is exceptionally more mobile by breaking the stiff and static shapes of ballet as well as eliminating the ornamentation creating the more architectural look of contemporary ballet today.
-Sylvie Guillem in William Forsythe's "In the Middle Somewhat Elevated" - As you can tell from the music, costumes, and choreography William Forsythe has shifted the aesthetic of ballet into a more contemporary architectural form.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Very fascinating site. Can you describe what you mean by Post-structuralism? How did Forsythe 'redesign" the ballet aesthetic? Do you have an idea as to what improvisational devices he used to move dancers off center?
ReplyDeleteBy post-structualism I am referring to the literary movement which began in France during the later 60's but it also translates to Forsythe's approach to ballet. The deconstruction of the ballet performance is what Forsythe is bringing the table. Forsythe took attention away from creating ballets in the traditional programatic story book format and brought in ideas of seeing choreography as the dance. With post structuralism the viewer isn't clearly given a set story but given contextual elements to emote feelings, stories, and ideas which can differ greatly from viewer to viewer. Forsythe's improvisational techniques are what are used to create his choreography. Instead of thinking about how the dancers themselves are moving Forsythe looks at how the geometry is changing. For example points and lines are used to create movements in space and not necessarily in the body forcing the body to follow the geometric devices in front of them. Go to the improvisation technologies link to view the full spectrum of improvisational techniques Forsythe uses.
ReplyDeleteNice job with this. Great examples of his strategies for movement invention.
ReplyDelete