Matthew Lockitt
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199997152
- eISBN:
- 9780199348572
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199997152.003.0006
- Subject:
- Music, Popular, Dance
Michael John LaChiusa utilizes the musical theater’s two primary song forms, the book and the diegetic song, in his 2006 musical Bernarda Alba. Song and dance are purported to be functional elements ...
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Michael John LaChiusa utilizes the musical theater’s two primary song forms, the book and the diegetic song, in his 2006 musical Bernarda Alba. Song and dance are purported to be functional elements that further plot and develop character in a musical. However, recent scholarship challenges this integrated ideal suggesting the inherent repetitions of song structure create a state of suspension pausing the progression of plot. This chapter addresses these conflicting ideas and asserts that song and dance are gestures of active-suspension. Applying the liminal structures of Social Drama and the Liminoid, as defined by Victor Turner, to these numbers within Bernarda Alba we can better understand the differences in the dramatic and performative function of both song types. Within this hermeneutic schema the book song becomes an obligatory action in which a character must engage, while the diegetic is a song one chooses to sing.Less
Michael John LaChiusa utilizes the musical theater’s two primary song forms, the book and the diegetic song, in his 2006 musical Bernarda Alba. Song and dance are purported to be functional elements that further plot and develop character in a musical. However, recent scholarship challenges this integrated ideal suggesting the inherent repetitions of song structure create a state of suspension pausing the progression of plot. This chapter addresses these conflicting ideas and asserts that song and dance are gestures of active-suspension. Applying the liminal structures of Social Drama and the Liminoid, as defined by Victor Turner, to these numbers within Bernarda Alba we can better understand the differences in the dramatic and performative function of both song types. Within this hermeneutic schema the book song becomes an obligatory action in which a character must engage, while the diegetic is a song one chooses to sing.
Kirsten Harvey
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813049298
- eISBN:
- 9780813050119
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813049298.003.0021
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
Since the early 1920s, Broadway choreographers such as Albertina Rausch have been finding ways to entertain audiences with dance. Jazz dance, in particular, has evolved every decade to suit the ...
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Since the early 1920s, Broadway choreographers such as Albertina Rausch have been finding ways to entertain audiences with dance. Jazz dance, in particular, has evolved every decade to suit the commercial needs and desires of the Broadway choreographer. Jack Cole, Katherine Dunham, and Agnes de Mille were leading artists in the 1930s and 40s and initiated new dance styles and hybrids. Choreographers such as George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Bob Fosse changed the face of Broadway dance forever by incorporating challenging technical skills, multi-genre movements and vocabulary, as well as integration of plot, character, and style, as in Robbins’ West Side Story. More recently, Twyla Tharp, Garth Fagan, and Susan Stroman have contributed new ways of using dance in a musical theater context, notably Tharp’s use of dance without dialogue in Movin’ Out.Less
Since the early 1920s, Broadway choreographers such as Albertina Rausch have been finding ways to entertain audiences with dance. Jazz dance, in particular, has evolved every decade to suit the commercial needs and desires of the Broadway choreographer. Jack Cole, Katherine Dunham, and Agnes de Mille were leading artists in the 1930s and 40s and initiated new dance styles and hybrids. Choreographers such as George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Bob Fosse changed the face of Broadway dance forever by incorporating challenging technical skills, multi-genre movements and vocabulary, as well as integration of plot, character, and style, as in Robbins’ West Side Story. More recently, Twyla Tharp, Garth Fagan, and Susan Stroman have contributed new ways of using dance in a musical theater context, notably Tharp’s use of dance without dialogue in Movin’ Out.
Michael G. Ankerich
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780813136905
- eISBN:
- 9780813141381
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813136905.003.0002
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter brings the reader into the new century and follows Mae Murray as she set about making her dreams come true. She is introduced to the likes of Vernon Castle, Julian Mitchell, and Florenz ...
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This chapter brings the reader into the new century and follows Mae Murray as she set about making her dreams come true. She is introduced to the likes of Vernon Castle, Julian Mitchell, and Florenz Ziegfeld, all powerhouses in the world of musical theatre. The chapter examines her early stage work on Broadway, such plays as About Town, Fascinating Flora, and The Hoyden.Less
This chapter brings the reader into the new century and follows Mae Murray as she set about making her dreams come true. She is introduced to the likes of Vernon Castle, Julian Mitchell, and Florenz Ziegfeld, all powerhouses in the world of musical theatre. The chapter examines her early stage work on Broadway, such plays as About Town, Fascinating Flora, and The Hoyden.
Paige A. McGinley
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813060699
- eISBN:
- 9780813050928
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813060699.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter discusses the 1934 black-cast opera Four Saints in Three Acts, composed by Virgil Thomson with a libretto by Gertrude Stein. Employing Stein’s landscape dramaturgy as an interpretive ...
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This chapter discusses the 1934 black-cast opera Four Saints in Three Acts, composed by Virgil Thomson with a libretto by Gertrude Stein. Employing Stein’s landscape dramaturgy as an interpretive lens, this chapter explores the staging of an imagined South in a modernist opera that, lyrically or musically, seemed to have nothing to do with blackness. The Spanish setting of a black-cast opera reveals a matrix of global southern relations and exchanges; through a dizzying set of equivalences and substitutions, Four Saints in Three Acts put the global South on a modernist stage. The opera, the chapter concludes, not only staged transatlantic modernism but also theatrically echoed the pastoral South of the hit black-cast musical The Green Pastures.Less
This chapter discusses the 1934 black-cast opera Four Saints in Three Acts, composed by Virgil Thomson with a libretto by Gertrude Stein. Employing Stein’s landscape dramaturgy as an interpretive lens, this chapter explores the staging of an imagined South in a modernist opera that, lyrically or musically, seemed to have nothing to do with blackness. The Spanish setting of a black-cast opera reveals a matrix of global southern relations and exchanges; through a dizzying set of equivalences and substitutions, Four Saints in Three Acts put the global South on a modernist stage. The opera, the chapter concludes, not only staged transatlantic modernism but also theatrically echoed the pastoral South of the hit black-cast musical The Green Pastures.
Lindsay Guarino and Wendy Oliver (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813049298
- eISBN:
- 9780813050119
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813049298.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
This multi-author textbook provides an in-depth look at the rich and varied history of jazz dance, from its African roots in early American society until today. The book is divided into six main ...
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This multi-author textbook provides an in-depth look at the rich and varied history of jazz dance, from its African roots in early American society until today. The book is divided into six main parts, each addressing a different aspect of jazz dance. The opening section explores the nature of jazz dance from the perspective of four different authors, and is capped by descriptions of the many different styles of jazz dance. The second section focuses on jazz dance history, giving an expansive overview beginning with African dance, through the jazz era of the 1920s-40s, the immense diversification of the late 20th century, and up to the present. The third part looks at master teachers and choreographers who shaped the way jazz dance was codified and performed from 1930-1980. The fourth section discusses dance genres which are closely related to jazz dance, including tap dance, musical theater dance, African-American concert dance, hip-hop dance, and dance in pop culture. Education and training is the focus of the fifth part, including an examination of jazz dance in colleges and universities, as well as private dance studios. Lastly, the sixth section looks at current topics in the jazz dance world including race, jazz dance in France, England, and Japan, and jazz dance aesthetics. The sum of these many parts is both a broader and deeper understanding of a uniquely American dance form, with its African roots and multiple permutations that have evolved as it has mixed with other dance forms and styles.Less
This multi-author textbook provides an in-depth look at the rich and varied history of jazz dance, from its African roots in early American society until today. The book is divided into six main parts, each addressing a different aspect of jazz dance. The opening section explores the nature of jazz dance from the perspective of four different authors, and is capped by descriptions of the many different styles of jazz dance. The second section focuses on jazz dance history, giving an expansive overview beginning with African dance, through the jazz era of the 1920s-40s, the immense diversification of the late 20th century, and up to the present. The third part looks at master teachers and choreographers who shaped the way jazz dance was codified and performed from 1930-1980. The fourth section discusses dance genres which are closely related to jazz dance, including tap dance, musical theater dance, African-American concert dance, hip-hop dance, and dance in pop culture. Education and training is the focus of the fifth part, including an examination of jazz dance in colleges and universities, as well as private dance studios. Lastly, the sixth section looks at current topics in the jazz dance world including race, jazz dance in France, England, and Japan, and jazz dance aesthetics. The sum of these many parts is both a broader and deeper understanding of a uniquely American dance form, with its African roots and multiple permutations that have evolved as it has mixed with other dance forms and styles.
