Seven Statements of Belief: José Limón, Anna Sokolow, Erick Hawkins, Donald McKayle, Alwin Nikolais, Pauline Koner, Paul Taylor
CONTRIBUTORS: Jose Limon, Anna Sokolow, Erick Hawkins, Donald McKayle, Alwin Nikolas, Pauline Koner, Paul Taylor.
Introduction: The Caterpillar's Question José Limón: An American Accent Anna Sokolow: The Rebel and the Bourgeois Erick Hawkins: Pure Poetry Donald McKayle: The Act of Theatre Alwin Nikolais: No Man From Mars Pauline Koner: Intrinsic Dance Paul Taylor: Down With Choreography Contributors
Trained in modern dance and ballet, and educated at the University of Chicago from which she holds a Ph.D., SELMA JEANNE COHEN occupies a unique place in the dance world as editor of Dance Perspectives. She is also director of the National Regional Ballet Association and the American Society for Aesthetics, and a member of the Dance Panel for the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities. Cohen is the author of Next Week, Swan Lake (Wesleyan, 1982) and she edited and completed Doris Humphrey, An Artist First: An Autobiography (Wesleyan, 1972). Most recently, she was founding editor of The International Encyclopedia of Dance (1998).
"Editor Selma Jeanne Cohen 'turned on' seven prominent choreographers to write what their art meant to them. Each was to set forth his or her ideas on the modern dance and then to describe what he [or she] would do if commissioned to compose a dance that had to deal with the theme of the Prodigal Son... With the help of these pre-established foci, the essays actually amount to a documentary on the modern dance at mid-century as seen by its practitioners."
~Herta Pauly, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
"The essays actually amount to a documentary on the modern dance at mid-century as seen by its practitioners."
~Herta Pauly, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism.
"I am always amazed at how well the modern dancers are able to express themselves in words, and the seven chosen for this book are no exception. These are artists with a strong point of view, and what they have to say is worth reading. [This] will appeal to professionals and laymen alike."
