William Forsythe in my World

William Forsythe is a pivotal part of current dance today. His method is taught to many dancers and implemented by many choreographers. In addition his deconstruction of ballet has changed the view of the ballet world and his work has become a new standard. His work is so influential that many ballet choreographers have tried to recreate the aesthetic and work in a derivative of the style Forsythe has created. The improvisation techniques created by Forsythe are also something that I personally find extremely valuable in creating choreography. They way that Forsythe moves is extremely captivating and his techniques have clearly come directly out of his natural abilities. It is also very interesting that Forsythe has worked in giving dance and ballet in particular a level of high conceptual art pairing it highly with the field of architecture, mathematics, and design. Forsythe has the ability to even verbally articulate the complicated nature of his work importantly giving his work great validity in the public eye. I have greatly enjoyed researching William Forsythe and his contribution in the field range from breathtaking dance works, conceptual techniques, and ultimately giving the field a big step foreword into proving the validity and complexity of the art of dance.

Why is Forsythe such a pivotal member of the dance world?

William Forsythe is a true pioneer of dance especially in the field of ballet. As one can see his work has evolved immensely and moved farther and farther from the aesthetic of ballet. What is truly amazing is that his work was created on ballet dancers who know nothing but ballet steps. Forsythe took the time and knowledge to train these dancers to move in his style by giving them improvisational structures and tools. Just due to the training model in ballet asking dancers to improv is something that a ballet dancer just cannot see, feel, nor understand unless gifted with natural improvisational talents. Forsythe's improvisational exercises work with geometry and moving lines, points, and shapes. The deconstruction of the ballet shape and step is truly very easy under Forsythe's structures and that is what I believe has allowed him to shift ballet into a new aesthetic. In addition this work has brought Forsythe into many new frontiers. Improvisation Technologies is a dance publication taught and used by many choreographers and is still studied today in depth with his current company of dancers. Synchronous Objects is also a pioneering way to look at dance by viewing the choreographic structure and movement through many different lenses that evaluate many aspects of laban movement analysis as well as similar ideas presented in Improvisation Technologies. It is really clear that Forsythe has made many changes to the ballet work but even his work has evolved from the beginning to now and Forsythe has stepped into other aspects of art making and found ways to involve movement within other forms such as site specific work, video work, multi disiplanary installations, and multiple artistic collaborations.

This is Firstext performed by the Frankfurt ballet.

Here you can see even further evolution of Forsythe's style of work. You can see the similarities in structure.