THE LANGUAGE OF MOVEMENT 7

This is a blog that invites comments about the guest presenter we had today.

Deborah Slater, a San Francisco choreographer, spoke about influential Bay Area dancers and choreographers and showed tapes of their work. She also showed tapes of her own pieces which she calls "theater pieces". She distinguishes this form from "dance" by noting that it depends upon deep emotional expression, rather than on just body movements.

We could see, in her work, and in that of other contemporary choreographers, the elements of our post-modern culture that we talked about during this course: multiplicity and diversity. In the pieces shown we could see the combinations of music/dance/scenery/costumes/and stories and the use of a variety of sources for movement. The contemporary dancers were more acrobatic than they had been in the Modern period, and employed much more body contact.

To those of you who are reading the blogs, feedback that can help to improve the courses I give will be most welcome. You can comment on the blog page, in an e-mail to me (goldmark@usfca.edu), or on a piece of paper other than the course evaluation form.