Michael Jackson died (June 25, 2009) at age 50, having been a “star” most of his life, with a gift for singing, dancing, and putting himself completely into the pose. His talent was original, it was the steam of consciousness, the part of being that wants to be and do the best image, the top of fashion, the most expressed expression.
He was one of the dancers who changed the world. Couple the moves with the music, and he changed how we think of ourselves, on a rainbow global scale. A black man whose talent was accepted by white people, and in his later years -- one hesitates to say "mature" -- as a white man who was accepted by people of color.
The debts of his estate are rumored to be $400 million. Clearly he was taken advantage of by those closest to him. He must have been completely isolated. Entirely alone, with the added certainty of having been betrayed, again and again.
Great dancers and musicians are more likely to change the world for the better, than any other occupational skill set. We seem to weaponize science, religion, law. But the arts, remain unifiers. Even when they are subversively invasive, they elevate the culture they invade. Even when they explode and pop, they do not destroy.
Showing posts with label Dance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dance. Show all posts
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Dance - a collection of quotes and dancers
The quite surprising prefatory Quote: "We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. We should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh." -- Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
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Carlos Aceituno (d. 2006) - Guatamalan/American founder of Fogo Na Roupa Grupo Carnaval, master and teacher of capoeira, the Brazilian blend of percussion, dance and martial arts, often called "physical chess".
Fred Astaire - an American film and Broadway dancer, choreographer, singer and actor.
George Balanchine - a choreographer credited for bridging classical and modern ballet. Put together numerous ballet companies, including Ballet Society, which became the New York City Ballet, with dancer R P Beard as a founding member.
Mikhail Baryshnikov - Russian ballet dancer.
Richard Park Beard (1925-2009) - trained by Balachine, Vladiminoff, Anatole Oboukoff, and Muriel Stewart. After joining Cuevas' Ballet International, worked with Bronislava Nijinska, Leonide Massine, Vera Fokina, and Boris Romanoff in ballet, often paired with Tatiana Riabouchinska. When the Company appeared in the Park Theater (in Manhattan), he was taken into the The Ballet Theater by the English choreographer, Antony Tudor, often partnering with Alicia Markova. Became a founding member with Balanchine's New York City Ballet, dancing with ballerinas Marie-Jeanne, Tanaquil Le Clercq, Yvonne Mounsey and Elise Reiman. Did choreography for Television and musicals (with stars Dinah Shore, Danny Kaye and Julie Andrews, as well as Cher, Mitzi Gaynor, Shirley Maclaine, and Doris Day).
"Burn the Floor" - contemporary Broadway production from the Gilkison Studio in Perth. Q.v.
Jean Butler -(born March 14, 1971 in Mineola, Long Island), American Irish dancer and choreographer. Began performing Irish dance at the age of four, trained by the widely respected teacher Donny Golden. Famous for mastery of a cheery step dance. QV. "Riverdance".
Jack Cole - American choreographer/coach and respected dance scholar with a large library. Died 1974 age 62. Product of fatherless home, born in New Jersey, schooled in modern dance ensemble run by Ted Shawn and Ruth St Denis Denishawn. Went on his own to study India's bharata natyam.
Revelations about the influence of Cole in the iconic images of his clients continue to surface. Genre-busting, fusion jazz-based supper club beatnik forms with signature floor work and slides. Moved from New York to Hollywood where he ran a resident dance group, and coached "bombshells": Rita Hayworth ("Mame" 1946), Betty Grable ("Meet Me After the Show" 1951), Mitzi Gaynor ("I Don't Care Girl" 1953), and Bacall, Russell, Ann Miller, Lana Turner, and Dolores Gray. He worked extensively with Marilyn Monroe who was a keen student -- six movies (including 1963 "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes".) Her vocal coach Hal Schaefer recalls them working together:
Dick Crum - American, prominent folk dance teacher. (Not to be confused with infamous cartoonist.)
Merce Cunningham - (American) - 2010 died in his sleep age 90. Dancer/choreographer, soloist in Martha Graham's company, then his own, with life partner John Cage (music composer). Established "modernism" -- its abstraction, decentralization, I-Ching quality of chance in dance. Cage said they were aiming at "the imitation of nature in the manner of her operation": a bird flies, a rabbit runs, their directions, different. Joan Acocella described his work: "You seemed to be seeing dance for the first time." [Critic, New Yorker 2009]
David Dassa (Israeli/US) - teacher of the ebullient and genial life-loving forms of community dances, including traditional and modern choreography. Israel remains one of the few places on earth with freshly commissioned folk dance masters.
Doris Day - singer and dancer.
Edward Denby - New York dance critic. Good reviews during Dick Beard's dominance in Balanchine's NYCB Company.
Isadora Duncan - Born 1877, San Francisco, school drop out, musician, teacher, now aka the Mother of Modern Dance. Devoted educator, started three schools across Europe (the "Isadorables"). Flouted tradition, became a red (Soviet citizen) with hostility to the "commercialism" of the arts, and declined into drunken-ness as she aged. As she stepped into a wasp-tailed Amilcar designed by a handsome mechanic she had nick-named "Bugatti", she declared "Je vais à l'amour" ("I am off to love".) She hoped to bed the mechanic. Unfortunately, her scarf caught in the rear wheel of the open car, and she was strangled. She had previously lost her two children to automobile accidents. Composer Percy Grainger called Isadora's autobiography a "life-enriching masterpiece". I think she was a delicious poet as well. Writing to one of her lovers, the poet Mercedes de Acosta (in 1927):
A slender body, hands soft and white,
for the service of my delight,
two sprouting breasts round and sweet,
invite my hungry mouth to eat,
from whence two nipples firm and pink,
persuade my thirsty soul to drink,
and lower still a secret place
where I'd fain hide my loving face....
Gosh. Questions anyone?
Agnes De Mille - Great Broadway and ballet choreographer. "To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful. This is power, it is glory on earth, and it is yours for the taking."
Jean Erdman - Born in Hawaii 1916, dancer/choreographer, taught at Sarah Lawrence with her husband, Joseph Campbell. Martha Graham influences.
Vladimir Estrin - "If ballroom tango can be compared to a 'seasoned relationship' that has withstood the test of time--sharp, clean, and precise--then Argentine tango is a 'sizzling love affair', passionate, unpredictable and insatiable." Instructor at 3rd Street Dance, Los Angeles.
Michael Flately - (Born 1958, Chicago) Irish-American dance prodigy, boxer, promoter, and flautist. Began dancing lessons at 11. Flatley was taught by Dennis Dennehy in Chicago, then went on to producing his own shows with his own school, on Chicago's Southwest Side. Began world tours with Green Fields of America, whose members included Liz Carroll, Father Charlie Coen, Jack Coen, Sean McGlynn, Mick Moloney and Bill Ochs, with a slightly less flamboyant Donny Golden dancing alongside Michael. Later he toured with The Chieftains in the 1980s. Co-designed / choreographed the "Riverdance" (qv) phenomenon with Jean Butler (qv). Quote: "I will be a dancer until the day I die."
Loie Fuller - Born in Chicago, 1891 - actress and burlesque skirt dancer, embodied theatrical Art Nouveau movement. Experimented with gas lighting effects on her silk costumes. Fuller developed a form of natural movement and improvisation techniques that were used in conjunction with her revolutionary lighting equipment and translucent silk costumes. She patented her apparatus and methods of stage lighting that included the use of colored gels and burning chemicals for glow and shadow effects. Toured with Duncan and St. Denis in "free dance" expression. Died of breast cancer, age 65, in Paris.
Mata Hari (Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod) - Dutch Parisienne, built up her own stage-spa-fashion house. Introduced oriental influences and a "natural" shape -- undistorted by corsets, bustles, etc. -- but revealed with diaphanous shadows and veils. Wrongfully accused by disappointed suitor of being a German spy, executed by a French firing squad, October 15, 1917. In the year 2017, the French army will release its court-documents about Mata Hari's trial and execution, to the Frisian Museum which has already investigated the charges and the life of this influential woman. There is evidence of injustice, but no evidence of spying.
Garity sisters, Caroline and Kimberly - "The beats and rhythms become stuck in your head, almost in your heart, when you are dancing". [CG] Performers with Kelly School of Traditional Irish Dance, often playing with live pipe and drum.
Mitzi Gaynor - American Motion Picture Actress and Dancer
Jason Gilkison - Australian director dancer choreographer, maternal grandmother having founded the famous family Dance studio in 1931 in Perth, known for raw, personal "edge" and grit. International ballroom champion. Now playing the Longacre theatre in New York, with "Burn the Floor", which aims to reinvent ballroom dancing on Broadway. When associate producer Peta Roby was asked what is the dance, she replied: "It's a cha-cha. It's traditionally an afternoon dance, not like the rumba or tango, which are more sensual evening dances. It's the kind that a young man could dance with his mother or auntie." (!)
Ailes Gilmour - Early Martha Graham dancer, socialist activitst, and sister of Isamu Noguchi
Alexander Godunov - Russian dancer who defected to the West
Jeffrey Golladay - American ballet dancer
Ginger and Fred -- Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire
Betty Grable - American Motion Picture Actress and Dancer
Martha Graham - American dancer and choreographer
Yury Grigorovich - Russian dancer and choreographer
Audrey Hepburn - ballerina, stage dancer and movie star
Catherine Hepburn - stage dancer and movie star
Tame Iti - Maori dancer, male lead in 2011 Ponifasio (qv) production, "Tempest".
Joel Jacinto - (Philippine American) founder/teacher of Kayamanan Ng Lahi studio. "Our dancing is a means of cultural empowerment."
Michael Jackson (1958-2009) - singer, song-writer, choreographer and dancer. A prodigy at four, beginning with the Jackson Five, leading to multiple world tours and 40 years of intense performance, crossing generational, artistic, cultural and racial lines. Many technical innovations in hip-hop, pop, and R&B -- "moon walk", costume, and unique speed and hand gestures. "Thriller", "Off the Wall", "Bad", "Dangerous", "HIStory", "Beat it" and "Invincible" are all part of the transformation of multiple cross-over art forms around the core of dance. Died after the last rehearsal of a pre-sold 50-show "This is It" Tour.
Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival - In Massachussetts US, one of the world's legendary arts organizations, home to America's longest running dance festival, a US National Historic Landmark. Annually, visitors, dancers, choreographers, composers, teachers, experts, and novices converge to explore the art of dance, and themselves. In 2010, more than 50 dance companies performed on three Festival stages. Many photo and program exhibits, galleries, and more. Ted Shawn and Ruth St Denis bought 163 Acres in 1931 for the Arts.
Rocio Jiménez - (Mexico/American) dance leader of Jaliscience (1990), and De Colores Mexican Folk Dance Company. Cf qv. Sandoval.
Danny Kaye - forced to leave Russia, a great quintuple threat artist - singing, dancing, choreography, magic and puppetry acts, lyrics and acting.
Gene Kelly - American film and stage dancer, choreographer, singer, actor and film director
Theodore Kosloff - acting as if they personally invented the full-figured fouetté, in 1909 Ballets Russes debuted in France and redefined dance, with such superstars as Vaslav Nijinsky and Anna Pavlova. Only one of these stars made his way to Los Angeles to achieve fame, and this was Fedor Michailovich Koslov, known as "Theodore" in California. He was also a character actor, fencing master, painter, pantomimist and violinist. (In Russia, dance masters accompanied on fiddle.) He abandoned the hierarchic world of Russian ballet to pioneer in LA. He franchised schools, performed in vaudeville and was a key producer in the Hollywood Bowl. He was the first coach for Agnes DeMille (qv) with whom he had an enduring association, and was able to teach the traditions of movement while introducing (and pilfering) new ideas. Married ballet dancers, three, sequentially, each bearing the brunt of his vodka tempers. The last, Natascha Rambova, left him for Rudolph Valentino after Theodore shot her in the leg. Died in 1956 age 74 with no heirs to his dream dascha deep in the San Fernando Valley. In 1957, his attorney sold the house filled with objets d'art for $175,000.
Rudolf Laban - choreographer, inventor of Labanotation
Louise Lecavalier - Icon of Canadian contemporary dance
Judson Lipply - Dancer "Evolution of Dance" in six minutes, viral video: .
Jung Im Lee - Korean American, teaches in one of the largest Korean dance academies, often combining traditional Korean dance, with hip-hop, ballet, and jazz.
Tracy Li - Chinese ballet dancer who is a senior principail in the Cape Town City Ballet, South Africa
Maude Lloyd - South African ballerina and dance critic
Lydia Lopokova - Russian ballet dancer
Shirley Maclaine - triple threat singing, dancing and acting. Also authored a number of books exploring "consciousness", spirituality, and self-awareness.
Sabrina Matthews - Canadian ballet choreographer and former ballet dancer
Donald McKayle - born in New York, a dancer in Martha Graham and in the original West Side Story, American choreographer. Founder of troupes, Contemporary Dance Group ("Games" 1951), Angelitos Negros. Director, California Institute of the Arts. "Donnie" to his UCI dancers.
Sulamith Messerer - founder of Japanese ballet
Barbara Mettler - founder of Tucson Creative Dance Center, theorist of language of movement and kinesthetic sense, dance as primary art. "Art is not an escape from daily life but a dimension of experience without which human life is incomplete."
[I took some of her classes, did some editing, and helped with the grounds/garden.]
Ann Miller - Great American Tap Dancer, Singer & Actress
Lin Hwai Min, the choreographer and artistic director of the Cloud Gate Dance company from Taiwan
Arthur Mitchell - American artistic director, educator, choreographer and dancer
Arthur Murray - a famous dance instructor and businessman, known for Arthur Murray Dance Studios franchise.
Music Visualization - this modern dance concept calls for movement equivalents to the timbres, dynamics and acoustic shaping in music, including the rhythmic bones. In 1916 Ted Shawn choreographed the first, as "Inventions and Fugues to Bach" as a heuristic exercise.
Natonal Museum of Dance - Saratoga Springs, New York, perhaps the only museum dedicated to professional dance. Associated with Jacob's Pillow (qv).
Vaslav Nijinsky - Russian ballet dancer and choreographer
Ivan Novikoff, Ballet master, founder of Novikoff School of Russian-American Ballet
Rudolf Nureyev - Russian ballet dancer
Leon Neshanian - Armenian ballet dancer; performed for Queen of England (1958); at Opera La Scala (1961); live on KCET - 10/67
Friedrich Nietzsche - (German author, faced with the struggle of the Gods to replace themselves): "I would believe only in a God that knows how to dance." After seeing Lou Salome dance and falling in love with her.
Anna Pavlova - legendary Russian prima ballerina, who brought ballet to the world
Shida Pegahi - traditional Persian dance, now outlawed in Iran under the heretical "fundamentalist" construction of the Quoran. Teaches an emphasis on The Dancing Face -- expressions -- integrated with the choreography and hip/leg/upper body movements.
Plato - (or Socrates, his mentor) In The Laws, Plato writes that dance should be taught to both boys and girls as an integral part of their education. Interestingly, he taught that the children should not only be instructed in the noble and aspirational forms, but also the comic and ridiculous; to show contrast.
Lemi Ponifasio - Samoan choreographer, founder of MAU, collaborator with Helen Todd (lighting). Produced "Paradise", "Requiem", "Bone Flute", and 2011 "Tempest: Without a Body" - he calls it a meditation on life after 9/11. Features Maori chants, magical creatures, and "ordinary warriors": He says "We are living in dangerous times. I don't propose solutions, but if we ever stop talking about the terrible things occurring, we are finished." And "We are so paralyzed and frightened by the political disasters in the world that we are impotent and simply watch. I don't want our lives to be defined by the repetition of the horrors in our history. We have to do something about them. And we can." He says, "I create to open people's eyes." The Tempest is Inspired by Paul Klee's painting "Angel of History" (anguished angel unable to prevent evils' repetition), the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben, and Shakespeare -- The Tempest' themes of institutional injustice. Punctuated slow oceanic mythology. Works with MAU, and the dancer Tame Iti (qv).
Pearl Primus -
"Riverdance" - world tour of traditional Irish clog and step-dancing, notable for rapid line-syncronized leg movements under stationary arms and erect body. First performed in 1994, with Jean Butler and Michael Flately (to Celtic choral score written by Bill Whelan).
Wade Robson - contemporary Australian/US dancer choreographer, becoming a star at age 5, teacher at 12, choreographer at age 14. At 16 he was invited by Britney Spears to choreograph, write, direct, remix and co-design the world tour, "A Dream withina Dream", and with NSYNC, the PopOdyssey World Tour. EMMY in 1007 for "So You Think You Can Dance" entry, "Ramalama". Working with Cirque du Soleil. Signature dances are story-telling cross-overs.
Ginger Rogers - American film and stage dancer, singer and actress, most remembered as partner of Fred Astaire.
Gema Sandoval - (Mexican/American) Teacher/director of Danza Floricanto in Los Angeles. The passionate and coquettish Mexican folk dance.
Jerry Savin / Asteria Greek Dance - Teaches dance as a celebration of life's peaks and valleys, love and tragedy, the Greek troupe forms intricate lines that re-create Aegean village life.
Ted Shawn - Born Kansas City 1841, died age 80 in 1972, co-founder of Jacob's Ladder (qv), early notable male performer/choreographer of natural style free form modern dance. Partnered with St Denis (qv) to develop the principle of Music Visualization (qv), and Norma Gould, with whom he toured as "Interpretive Dancers". Taught M.Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman. QUOTE: "Dance communicates man's deepest, highest and most truly spiritual thoughts and emotions far better than words, spoken or written".
Dinah Shore - triple threat singing, dancing and acting.
Ruth St. Denis - born 1879. A famous pupil was Martha Graham (qv). Co-founded the school, Denishawn, with her husband Ted Shawn. They helped created the festival, Jacob's Pillow. Showcased modern dance solos in the program, "The Art of the Solo". Influenced by the actor Sarah Bernhardt and Japanese dancer Sada Yacco, developed her translations of Indian culture and mythology. Brought first full-length (8 hour) Balinese Shadow Puppet play to US. She became popular and toured extensively whilst researching Oriental culture and arts, often coupling spirituality.
Muriel Stewart - trained Pavlova.
Twyla Tharp - American dancer and choreographer
Agrippina Vaganova, founder of Vaganova method
Gwen Verdon - Broadway dancer and actress
Ben Vereen - Tony Award winning,Emmy Award nominated actor,dancer & singer
Dame Ninette de Valois, founder of the Royal Ballet of London
Lula Washington - (Los Angeles / African) dancer, studio instructor - ballet, hip-hop, Senegalese, Caribbean. In 2004, she said "Dance is life. You came into this world moving. Dance can change your whole life."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Carlos Aceituno (d. 2006) - Guatamalan/American founder of Fogo Na Roupa Grupo Carnaval, master and teacher of capoeira, the Brazilian blend of percussion, dance and martial arts, often called "physical chess".
Fred Astaire - an American film and Broadway dancer, choreographer, singer and actor.
George Balanchine - a choreographer credited for bridging classical and modern ballet. Put together numerous ballet companies, including Ballet Society, which became the New York City Ballet, with dancer R P Beard as a founding member.
Mikhail Baryshnikov - Russian ballet dancer.
Richard Park Beard (1925-2009) - trained by Balachine, Vladiminoff, Anatole Oboukoff, and Muriel Stewart. After joining Cuevas' Ballet International, worked with Bronislava Nijinska, Leonide Massine, Vera Fokina, and Boris Romanoff in ballet, often paired with Tatiana Riabouchinska. When the Company appeared in the Park Theater (in Manhattan), he was taken into the The Ballet Theater by the English choreographer, Antony Tudor, often partnering with Alicia Markova. Became a founding member with Balanchine's New York City Ballet, dancing with ballerinas Marie-Jeanne, Tanaquil Le Clercq, Yvonne Mounsey and Elise Reiman. Did choreography for Television and musicals (with stars Dinah Shore, Danny Kaye and Julie Andrews, as well as Cher, Mitzi Gaynor, Shirley Maclaine, and Doris Day).
"Burn the Floor" - contemporary Broadway production from the Gilkison Studio in Perth. Q.v.
Jean Butler -(born March 14, 1971 in Mineola, Long Island), American Irish dancer and choreographer. Began performing Irish dance at the age of four, trained by the widely respected teacher Donny Golden. Famous for mastery of a cheery step dance. QV. "Riverdance".
Jack Cole - American choreographer/coach and respected dance scholar with a large library. Died 1974 age 62. Product of fatherless home, born in New Jersey, schooled in modern dance ensemble run by Ted Shawn and Ruth St Denis Denishawn. Went on his own to study India's bharata natyam.
Revelations about the influence of Cole in the iconic images of his clients continue to surface. Genre-busting, fusion jazz-based supper club beatnik forms with signature floor work and slides. Moved from New York to Hollywood where he ran a resident dance group, and coached "bombshells": Rita Hayworth ("Mame" 1946), Betty Grable ("Meet Me After the Show" 1951), Mitzi Gaynor ("I Don't Care Girl" 1953), and Bacall, Russell, Ann Miller, Lana Turner, and Dolores Gray. He worked extensively with Marilyn Monroe who was a keen student -- six movies (including 1963 "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes".) Her vocal coach Hal Schaefer recalls them working together:
"He [Cole] wanted her to make a move, and she put her arm out. It just kind of drifted. Jack said, 'No, wait. Sharp, I want it sharp!'/ 'But Jack, I'm supposed to be a sex queen,' she said./ And he answered, 'That's not sexy. That's like a limp fish. Put that arm out there, strong! That's sexy! That's life, that's alive, that's energy!" This ancecdote speaks volumes.
Dick Crum - American, prominent folk dance teacher. (Not to be confused with infamous cartoonist.)
Merce Cunningham - (American) - 2010 died in his sleep age 90. Dancer/choreographer, soloist in Martha Graham's company, then his own, with life partner John Cage (music composer). Established "modernism" -- its abstraction, decentralization, I-Ching quality of chance in dance. Cage said they were aiming at "the imitation of nature in the manner of her operation": a bird flies, a rabbit runs, their directions, different. Joan Acocella described his work: "You seemed to be seeing dance for the first time." [Critic, New Yorker 2009]
David Dassa (Israeli/US) - teacher of the ebullient and genial life-loving forms of community dances, including traditional and modern choreography. Israel remains one of the few places on earth with freshly commissioned folk dance masters.
Doris Day - singer and dancer.
Edward Denby - New York dance critic. Good reviews during Dick Beard's dominance in Balanchine's NYCB Company.
Isadora Duncan - Born 1877, San Francisco, school drop out, musician, teacher, now aka the Mother of Modern Dance. Devoted educator, started three schools across Europe (the "Isadorables"). Flouted tradition, became a red (Soviet citizen) with hostility to the "commercialism" of the arts, and declined into drunken-ness as she aged. As she stepped into a wasp-tailed Amilcar designed by a handsome mechanic she had nick-named "Bugatti", she declared "Je vais à l'amour" ("I am off to love".) She hoped to bed the mechanic. Unfortunately, her scarf caught in the rear wheel of the open car, and she was strangled. She had previously lost her two children to automobile accidents. Composer Percy Grainger called Isadora's autobiography a "life-enriching masterpiece". I think she was a delicious poet as well. Writing to one of her lovers, the poet Mercedes de Acosta (in 1927):
A slender body, hands soft and white,
for the service of my delight,
two sprouting breasts round and sweet,
invite my hungry mouth to eat,
from whence two nipples firm and pink,
persuade my thirsty soul to drink,
and lower still a secret place
where I'd fain hide my loving face....
Gosh. Questions anyone?
Agnes De Mille - Great Broadway and ballet choreographer. "To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful. This is power, it is glory on earth, and it is yours for the taking."
Jean Erdman - Born in Hawaii 1916, dancer/choreographer, taught at Sarah Lawrence with her husband, Joseph Campbell. Martha Graham influences.
Vladimir Estrin - "If ballroom tango can be compared to a 'seasoned relationship' that has withstood the test of time--sharp, clean, and precise--then Argentine tango is a 'sizzling love affair', passionate, unpredictable and insatiable." Instructor at 3rd Street Dance, Los Angeles.
Michael Flately - (Born 1958, Chicago) Irish-American dance prodigy, boxer, promoter, and flautist. Began dancing lessons at 11. Flatley was taught by Dennis Dennehy in Chicago, then went on to producing his own shows with his own school, on Chicago's Southwest Side. Began world tours with Green Fields of America, whose members included Liz Carroll, Father Charlie Coen, Jack Coen, Sean McGlynn, Mick Moloney and Bill Ochs, with a slightly less flamboyant Donny Golden dancing alongside Michael. Later he toured with The Chieftains in the 1980s. Co-designed / choreographed the "Riverdance" (qv) phenomenon with Jean Butler (qv). Quote: "I will be a dancer until the day I die."
Loie Fuller - Born in Chicago, 1891 - actress and burlesque skirt dancer, embodied theatrical Art Nouveau movement. Experimented with gas lighting effects on her silk costumes. Fuller developed a form of natural movement and improvisation techniques that were used in conjunction with her revolutionary lighting equipment and translucent silk costumes. She patented her apparatus and methods of stage lighting that included the use of colored gels and burning chemicals for glow and shadow effects. Toured with Duncan and St. Denis in "free dance" expression. Died of breast cancer, age 65, in Paris.
Mata Hari (Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod) - Dutch Parisienne, built up her own stage-spa-fashion house. Introduced oriental influences and a "natural" shape -- undistorted by corsets, bustles, etc. -- but revealed with diaphanous shadows and veils. Wrongfully accused by disappointed suitor of being a German spy, executed by a French firing squad, October 15, 1917. In the year 2017, the French army will release its court-documents about Mata Hari's trial and execution, to the Frisian Museum which has already investigated the charges and the life of this influential woman. There is evidence of injustice, but no evidence of spying.
Garity sisters, Caroline and Kimberly - "The beats and rhythms become stuck in your head, almost in your heart, when you are dancing". [CG] Performers with Kelly School of Traditional Irish Dance, often playing with live pipe and drum.
Mitzi Gaynor - American Motion Picture Actress and Dancer
Jason Gilkison - Australian director dancer choreographer, maternal grandmother having founded the famous family Dance studio in 1931 in Perth, known for raw, personal "edge" and grit. International ballroom champion. Now playing the Longacre theatre in New York, with "Burn the Floor", which aims to reinvent ballroom dancing on Broadway. When associate producer Peta Roby was asked what is the dance, she replied: "It's a cha-cha. It's traditionally an afternoon dance, not like the rumba or tango, which are more sensual evening dances. It's the kind that a young man could dance with his mother or auntie." (!)
Ailes Gilmour - Early Martha Graham dancer, socialist activitst, and sister of Isamu Noguchi
Alexander Godunov - Russian dancer who defected to the West
Jeffrey Golladay - American ballet dancer
Ginger and Fred -- Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire
Betty Grable - American Motion Picture Actress and Dancer
Martha Graham - American dancer and choreographer
Yury Grigorovich - Russian dancer and choreographer
Audrey Hepburn - ballerina, stage dancer and movie star
Catherine Hepburn - stage dancer and movie star
Tame Iti - Maori dancer, male lead in 2011 Ponifasio (qv) production, "Tempest".
Joel Jacinto - (Philippine American) founder/teacher of Kayamanan Ng Lahi studio. "Our dancing is a means of cultural empowerment."
Michael Jackson (1958-2009) - singer, song-writer, choreographer and dancer. A prodigy at four, beginning with the Jackson Five, leading to multiple world tours and 40 years of intense performance, crossing generational, artistic, cultural and racial lines. Many technical innovations in hip-hop, pop, and R&B -- "moon walk", costume, and unique speed and hand gestures. "Thriller", "Off the Wall", "Bad", "Dangerous", "HIStory", "Beat it" and "Invincible" are all part of the transformation of multiple cross-over art forms around the core of dance. Died after the last rehearsal of a pre-sold 50-show "This is It" Tour.
Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival - In Massachussetts US, one of the world's legendary arts organizations, home to America's longest running dance festival, a US National Historic Landmark. Annually, visitors, dancers, choreographers, composers, teachers, experts, and novices converge to explore the art of dance, and themselves. In 2010, more than 50 dance companies performed on three Festival stages. Many photo and program exhibits, galleries, and more. Ted Shawn and Ruth St Denis bought 163 Acres in 1931 for the Arts.
Rocio Jiménez - (Mexico/American) dance leader of Jaliscience (1990), and De Colores Mexican Folk Dance Company. Cf qv. Sandoval.
Danny Kaye - forced to leave Russia, a great quintuple threat artist - singing, dancing, choreography, magic and puppetry acts, lyrics and acting.
Gene Kelly - American film and stage dancer, choreographer, singer, actor and film director
Theodore Kosloff - acting as if they personally invented the full-figured fouetté, in 1909 Ballets Russes debuted in France and redefined dance, with such superstars as Vaslav Nijinsky and Anna Pavlova. Only one of these stars made his way to Los Angeles to achieve fame, and this was Fedor Michailovich Koslov, known as "Theodore" in California. He was also a character actor, fencing master, painter, pantomimist and violinist. (In Russia, dance masters accompanied on fiddle.) He abandoned the hierarchic world of Russian ballet to pioneer in LA. He franchised schools, performed in vaudeville and was a key producer in the Hollywood Bowl. He was the first coach for Agnes DeMille (qv) with whom he had an enduring association, and was able to teach the traditions of movement while introducing (and pilfering) new ideas. Married ballet dancers, three, sequentially, each bearing the brunt of his vodka tempers. The last, Natascha Rambova, left him for Rudolph Valentino after Theodore shot her in the leg. Died in 1956 age 74 with no heirs to his dream dascha deep in the San Fernando Valley. In 1957, his attorney sold the house filled with objets d'art for $175,000.
Rudolf Laban - choreographer, inventor of Labanotation
Louise Lecavalier - Icon of Canadian contemporary dance
Judson Lipply - Dancer "Evolution of Dance" in six minutes, viral video: .
Jung Im Lee - Korean American, teaches in one of the largest Korean dance academies, often combining traditional Korean dance, with hip-hop, ballet, and jazz.
Tracy Li - Chinese ballet dancer who is a senior principail in the Cape Town City Ballet, South Africa
Maude Lloyd - South African ballerina and dance critic
Lydia Lopokova - Russian ballet dancer
Shirley Maclaine - triple threat singing, dancing and acting. Also authored a number of books exploring "consciousness", spirituality, and self-awareness.
Sabrina Matthews - Canadian ballet choreographer and former ballet dancer
Donald McKayle - born in New York, a dancer in Martha Graham and in the original West Side Story, American choreographer. Founder of troupes, Contemporary Dance Group ("Games" 1951), Angelitos Negros. Director, California Institute of the Arts. "Donnie" to his UCI dancers.
Sulamith Messerer - founder of Japanese ballet
Barbara Mettler - founder of Tucson Creative Dance Center, theorist of language of movement and kinesthetic sense, dance as primary art. "Art is not an escape from daily life but a dimension of experience without which human life is incomplete."
[I took some of her classes, did some editing, and helped with the grounds/garden.]
Ann Miller - Great American Tap Dancer, Singer & Actress
Lin Hwai Min, the choreographer and artistic director of the Cloud Gate Dance company from Taiwan
Arthur Mitchell - American artistic director, educator, choreographer and dancer
Arthur Murray - a famous dance instructor and businessman, known for Arthur Murray Dance Studios franchise.
Music Visualization - this modern dance concept calls for movement equivalents to the timbres, dynamics and acoustic shaping in music, including the rhythmic bones. In 1916 Ted Shawn choreographed the first, as "Inventions and Fugues to Bach" as a heuristic exercise.
Natonal Museum of Dance - Saratoga Springs, New York, perhaps the only museum dedicated to professional dance. Associated with Jacob's Pillow (qv).
Vaslav Nijinsky - Russian ballet dancer and choreographer
Ivan Novikoff, Ballet master, founder of Novikoff School of Russian-American Ballet
Rudolf Nureyev - Russian ballet dancer
Leon Neshanian - Armenian ballet dancer; performed for Queen of England (1958); at Opera La Scala (1961); live on KCET - 10/67
Friedrich Nietzsche - (German author, faced with the struggle of the Gods to replace themselves): "I would believe only in a God that knows how to dance." After seeing Lou Salome dance and falling in love with her.
Anna Pavlova - legendary Russian prima ballerina, who brought ballet to the world
Shida Pegahi - traditional Persian dance, now outlawed in Iran under the heretical "fundamentalist" construction of the Quoran. Teaches an emphasis on The Dancing Face -- expressions -- integrated with the choreography and hip/leg/upper body movements.
Plato - (or Socrates, his mentor) In The Laws, Plato writes that dance should be taught to both boys and girls as an integral part of their education. Interestingly, he taught that the children should not only be instructed in the noble and aspirational forms, but also the comic and ridiculous; to show contrast.
Lemi Ponifasio - Samoan choreographer, founder of MAU, collaborator with Helen Todd (lighting). Produced "Paradise", "Requiem", "Bone Flute", and 2011 "Tempest: Without a Body" - he calls it a meditation on life after 9/11. Features Maori chants, magical creatures, and "ordinary warriors": He says "We are living in dangerous times. I don't propose solutions, but if we ever stop talking about the terrible things occurring, we are finished." And "We are so paralyzed and frightened by the political disasters in the world that we are impotent and simply watch. I don't want our lives to be defined by the repetition of the horrors in our history. We have to do something about them. And we can." He says, "I create to open people's eyes." The Tempest is Inspired by Paul Klee's painting "Angel of History" (anguished angel unable to prevent evils' repetition), the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben, and Shakespeare -- The Tempest' themes of institutional injustice. Punctuated slow oceanic mythology. Works with MAU, and the dancer Tame Iti (qv).
Pearl Primus -
"Riverdance" - world tour of traditional Irish clog and step-dancing, notable for rapid line-syncronized leg movements under stationary arms and erect body. First performed in 1994, with Jean Butler and Michael Flately (to Celtic choral score written by Bill Whelan).
Wade Robson - contemporary Australian/US dancer choreographer, becoming a star at age 5, teacher at 12, choreographer at age 14. At 16 he was invited by Britney Spears to choreograph, write, direct, remix and co-design the world tour, "A Dream withina Dream", and with NSYNC, the PopOdyssey World Tour. EMMY in 1007 for "So You Think You Can Dance" entry, "Ramalama". Working with Cirque du Soleil. Signature dances are story-telling cross-overs.
Ginger Rogers - American film and stage dancer, singer and actress, most remembered as partner of Fred Astaire.
Gema Sandoval - (Mexican/American) Teacher/director of Danza Floricanto in Los Angeles. The passionate and coquettish Mexican folk dance.
Jerry Savin / Asteria Greek Dance - Teaches dance as a celebration of life's peaks and valleys, love and tragedy, the Greek troupe forms intricate lines that re-create Aegean village life.
Ted Shawn - Born Kansas City 1841, died age 80 in 1972, co-founder of Jacob's Ladder (qv), early notable male performer/choreographer of natural style free form modern dance. Partnered with St Denis (qv) to develop the principle of Music Visualization (qv), and Norma Gould, with whom he toured as "Interpretive Dancers". Taught M.Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman. QUOTE: "Dance communicates man's deepest, highest and most truly spiritual thoughts and emotions far better than words, spoken or written".
Dinah Shore - triple threat singing, dancing and acting.
Ruth St. Denis - born 1879. A famous pupil was Martha Graham (qv). Co-founded the school, Denishawn, with her husband Ted Shawn. They helped created the festival, Jacob's Pillow. Showcased modern dance solos in the program, "The Art of the Solo". Influenced by the actor Sarah Bernhardt and Japanese dancer Sada Yacco, developed her translations of Indian culture and mythology. Brought first full-length (8 hour) Balinese Shadow Puppet play to US. She became popular and toured extensively whilst researching Oriental culture and arts, often coupling spirituality.
Muriel Stewart - trained Pavlova.
Twyla Tharp - American dancer and choreographer
Agrippina Vaganova, founder of Vaganova method
Gwen Verdon - Broadway dancer and actress
Ben Vereen - Tony Award winning,Emmy Award nominated actor,dancer & singer
Dame Ninette de Valois, founder of the Royal Ballet of London
Lula Washington - (Los Angeles / African) dancer, studio instructor - ballet, hip-hop, Senegalese, Caribbean. In 2004, she said "Dance is life. You came into this world moving. Dance can change your whole life."
Monday, October 29, 2007
Cave Paintings - what we learn about the future
Nothing ever starts or ends, but it has roots before and casts a shadow ahead.
We know of more than 200 European caves with Paleolithic paintings and carvings. Of these, 85% are in Southern France and Northern Spain, a striking concentration. Only a dozen in Italy and only one has been found in eastern Europe - the Kapova Cave in the Urals.
This concentration has much to do with the Ice Age, but here is the bottom line: Food was plentiful, and life was much more pleasant than has sometimes been imagined by their descendants. We know that 20,000 years ago at Les Eyzies on the Veyzere, 400 to 600 people lived side by side under the protection of a half-dozen rock shelters known as "abri". Some demographic evidence indicates the population was even much larger when mega-fauna were ranging in the neighborhood. We have evidence of mass kill-offs. For example, at a kill-site in Solutre, the remains of 100,000 horses. In addition, Salmon filled the streams--and are depicted on the caves, dried and stored. A rich and varied way of life is depicted, and which we are only beginning to understand.
What is the significance of Lascaux ("Sistine Ceiling of the Cave"), Altamira, Chauvet (oldest, at 30,000), Les Tres Freres (6-part shaman), the riparian region of Dordogne and Vezere, the coast of what is now Basque country in the Franco-Cantabrian heartland, the dotted horse and dance prints of Peche-Merle, the 500 footprints of children deep in the dark passages of the Niaux, the underwater Mediterranean gallery of Cosquer Cave?
1. Ritual - evidence of use other than for subsistence function. No one needs to paint a great auk (flightless relative of razorbill) to catch one or eat its eggs. No painting of a bison or mammoth helped bring one to ground. However, the symbols helped recall the Memory, wove the Dream, and told the Story. The Story passed to the children attempts to intervene in the future, attempts to create a future, insure prosperity in an environment of change and surprise.
2. Dance - flat rock spaces and seating areas with fire posts and fat lamps. The mud prints. Footprints in dance lines.
3. Acoustics - some chambers perdured the echoing, for example, of clapping. The staccato thunder perhaps emulating the stampeding herds depicted of aurochs, reindeer and bison; Pictures of big growling cats and bears in acoustically "dead" ends that resonate low sounds without echoing interference.
4. Fertility - again the tie to the future. More female parts. The earliest are all female, vulvular. Rising again, rebirth images, pregnant. All. Female. In fact, there is a dearth of "weapons", of depictions of killing other people. It is all about nurturing and beauty. All.
5. Totemism - system of clan organization distinguished by objects or animals with special relationships. There is an alphabet of relationships. A Story telling.
6. Mythology - many of the creatures are indeterminate or mixed, half-man, half woolly rhinoceros and feathered creature, the dominance of sexual symbolism (and gravid) and the relative scarcity of the game animals.
7. Dreams. Walk-about in the darkness, following the guide-string, with the fire-flickered shadows telling the story. Direct invocation of memory, hopes, visions. The re-emergence as awakening.
8. Eye-lid visions. The color and shape-shifting seen on the closed eye-lid after exposure to the high contrast black bison on the white rock.
9. Pharmacology. In the last two years, scientists have re-appraised the sites in terms of What to look for in light of the discovery of a high-level technology in pharmacological preparations among hunter/gatherers in Sur America (the Ayahuasca experience), and our own measuring and detecting technologies. Now we are looking for drugs in all the cave places, and finding them in spades, or more specifically, in mushrooms and vegetation. Of the 38,000 mushrooms, some 20 are seriously hallucinogenic as well as poisonous -- requiring a "technology" to ingest safely and a culture to want to, or to find some purpose in doing so. The abundant paintings of unidentifiable creatures, the half-man creatures (for example, the famous 6-part "shaman" at Les Tres Freres), may be readily recognizable portraits of things encountered as a result of ingesting amanita muscaria, or a muscarin or psylocibin compound. There is no question that hemp was in abundance and was actually used in the caves -- in the making of a "guideline" to hold onto in the dark.
10. Absences. Note the complete absence of ANY indication of wars, or gangs bent upon attack or annihilation of other humans. Very few depictions of men. No caudillo or personality worship. No gods. No virginity. No gross inequality -- pharoah and serf. No Big Man.
Some people, our people, were squatting around a fire, waving skin-reflector-shields, echoing drums and hunting calls, bringing their sons and daughters to the Story, to their senses, and hoping for a bountiful future for their children...and here we are.
We know of more than 200 European caves with Paleolithic paintings and carvings. Of these, 85% are in Southern France and Northern Spain, a striking concentration. Only a dozen in Italy and only one has been found in eastern Europe - the Kapova Cave in the Urals.
This concentration has much to do with the Ice Age, but here is the bottom line: Food was plentiful, and life was much more pleasant than has sometimes been imagined by their descendants. We know that 20,000 years ago at Les Eyzies on the Veyzere, 400 to 600 people lived side by side under the protection of a half-dozen rock shelters known as "abri". Some demographic evidence indicates the population was even much larger when mega-fauna were ranging in the neighborhood. We have evidence of mass kill-offs. For example, at a kill-site in Solutre, the remains of 100,000 horses. In addition, Salmon filled the streams--and are depicted on the caves, dried and stored. A rich and varied way of life is depicted, and which we are only beginning to understand.
What is the significance of Lascaux ("Sistine Ceiling of the Cave"), Altamira, Chauvet (oldest, at 30,000), Les Tres Freres (6-part shaman), the riparian region of Dordogne and Vezere, the coast of what is now Basque country in the Franco-Cantabrian heartland, the dotted horse and dance prints of Peche-Merle, the 500 footprints of children deep in the dark passages of the Niaux, the underwater Mediterranean gallery of Cosquer Cave?
1. Ritual - evidence of use other than for subsistence function. No one needs to paint a great auk (flightless relative of razorbill) to catch one or eat its eggs. No painting of a bison or mammoth helped bring one to ground. However, the symbols helped recall the Memory, wove the Dream, and told the Story. The Story passed to the children attempts to intervene in the future, attempts to create a future, insure prosperity in an environment of change and surprise.
2. Dance - flat rock spaces and seating areas with fire posts and fat lamps. The mud prints. Footprints in dance lines.
3. Acoustics - some chambers perdured the echoing, for example, of clapping. The staccato thunder perhaps emulating the stampeding herds depicted of aurochs, reindeer and bison; Pictures of big growling cats and bears in acoustically "dead" ends that resonate low sounds without echoing interference.
4. Fertility - again the tie to the future. More female parts. The earliest are all female, vulvular. Rising again, rebirth images, pregnant. All. Female. In fact, there is a dearth of "weapons", of depictions of killing other people. It is all about nurturing and beauty. All.
5. Totemism - system of clan organization distinguished by objects or animals with special relationships. There is an alphabet of relationships. A Story telling.
6. Mythology - many of the creatures are indeterminate or mixed, half-man, half woolly rhinoceros and feathered creature, the dominance of sexual symbolism (and gravid) and the relative scarcity of the game animals.
7. Dreams. Walk-about in the darkness, following the guide-string, with the fire-flickered shadows telling the story. Direct invocation of memory, hopes, visions. The re-emergence as awakening.
8. Eye-lid visions. The color and shape-shifting seen on the closed eye-lid after exposure to the high contrast black bison on the white rock.
9. Pharmacology. In the last two years, scientists have re-appraised the sites in terms of What to look for in light of the discovery of a high-level technology in pharmacological preparations among hunter/gatherers in Sur America (the Ayahuasca experience), and our own measuring and detecting technologies. Now we are looking for drugs in all the cave places, and finding them in spades, or more specifically, in mushrooms and vegetation. Of the 38,000 mushrooms, some 20 are seriously hallucinogenic as well as poisonous -- requiring a "technology" to ingest safely and a culture to want to, or to find some purpose in doing so. The abundant paintings of unidentifiable creatures, the half-man creatures (for example, the famous 6-part "shaman" at Les Tres Freres), may be readily recognizable portraits of things encountered as a result of ingesting amanita muscaria, or a muscarin or psylocibin compound. There is no question that hemp was in abundance and was actually used in the caves -- in the making of a "guideline" to hold onto in the dark.
10. Absences. Note the complete absence of ANY indication of wars, or gangs bent upon attack or annihilation of other humans. Very few depictions of men. No caudillo or personality worship. No gods. No virginity. No gross inequality -- pharoah and serf. No Big Man.
Some people, our people, were squatting around a fire, waving skin-reflector-shields, echoing drums and hunting calls, bringing their sons and daughters to the Story, to their senses, and hoping for a bountiful future for their children...and here we are.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Mata Hari's Dance, old Flamenco, new Lumbres and Alegrias
This is the 100th anniversary of Mata Hari's execution in 1917. Under her married name, she is the most famous of the MacLeods, and although well-known, completely unsung and misunderstood.
The MacLeods were a Scots clan that pretty much annihilated the Keys, a sept of the McKay clan, but by some oversight, they missed my progenitors on that branch of the tree. Still, I remember all MacLeods, with a kind of gratitude that they have calmed down considerably. And Mata Hari is simply one of the greats.
And this comes up opportunely in 2007, with the first biography I have seen of her. Pat Shipman authored a significant Biography of our dearest MacLeod, known to us by her stage name, "Mata Hari". [Shipman, Femme Fatale; Love, Lies, and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari]. Born in Holland in 1876, Margaretha Geertruida Zelle married Rudolf Macleod, an army officer stationed in Indonesia. She eventually returned to the Netherlands, divorced, and penniless, sought the attention of wealthy men. With an instinct "for what would succeed", she developed a series of "sacred dances" ostensibly learned in the Indies. The Malay phrase she adopted as her name, means "the eye of the day", or "sunrise".
As World War I broke out, the Belle Epoch tied off, and it got hard for a dancing lady to earn a living. She was approached by French and German diplomats, all males, with advances in cash and kind. Eventually she was hounded mercilessly by a French double agent, Georges Ladoux--he was himself playing both sides--and prosecuted for spying, although the evidence was completely based on her supposed "immorality", her transparently eager willingness and patent ability to drain men of their bodily fluids. Her skills had really nothing to do with espionage, and it is difficult to imagine a lady less likely to be able to go un-noticed than Mata Hari.
She was imprisoned in the filth of the prison at Saint-Lazare until her execution by firing squad in 1917. And this is but another example of a miscarriage of justice in the magistrate system under the Napoleonic Code; see also Dreyfus. Preconception and scapegoating, religious piety, the need to do "something" when another thing--the War--is not doing well, all tainted the pretense of a trial.
Now, about the dancing....!
The costume alone, of course, was worth the price of admission: Beautiful brunette in a shining metal bra, spangly tiara, and transparent veils. We have no choreographic descriptions although the men who watched her have related fairly specific bits. Their journals were set atremble by the intoxicating mixture of exotic music, striptease, and veiled anatomy. These accounts, all by men, "are a hoot" in their way, but we have no way of reconstituting the dances. Nejla Y. Yatkin is one professional who does a great contemporary depiction.
I want to suggest something more. The descriptions of the rhythms--from slow liquid gestures to swirling and shaking--are in many forms of dance. However, it is hard for me not to think of Romani women and small flamenco performances. First of all, the performance itself was a series of alegrias, with taranto stylings, at one with the music, sumptouous. From her poverty in the Spanish portions of the Netherlands, and in Europe, there would be exposure to the Gypsy solo dances. And the veils? This is not really a "sacred" or traditional element in Indonesian dance. It is moorish, Arabesque, belly-dancing. She provided content to the interest Europeans had in the Middle Eastern cultures -- with veiled women.
It is documented then (!): Mata Hari drew from the nyai traditions of Malaysian mistresses, gypsy performers, and Middle-eastern exoticism, to capture an audience.
The MacLeods were a Scots clan that pretty much annihilated the Keys, a sept of the McKay clan, but by some oversight, they missed my progenitors on that branch of the tree. Still, I remember all MacLeods, with a kind of gratitude that they have calmed down considerably. And Mata Hari is simply one of the greats.
And this comes up opportunely in 2007, with the first biography I have seen of her. Pat Shipman authored a significant Biography of our dearest MacLeod, known to us by her stage name, "Mata Hari". [Shipman, Femme Fatale; Love, Lies, and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari]. Born in Holland in 1876, Margaretha Geertruida Zelle married Rudolf Macleod, an army officer stationed in Indonesia. She eventually returned to the Netherlands, divorced, and penniless, sought the attention of wealthy men. With an instinct "for what would succeed", she developed a series of "sacred dances" ostensibly learned in the Indies. The Malay phrase she adopted as her name, means "the eye of the day", or "sunrise".
As World War I broke out, the Belle Epoch tied off, and it got hard for a dancing lady to earn a living. She was approached by French and German diplomats, all males, with advances in cash and kind. Eventually she was hounded mercilessly by a French double agent, Georges Ladoux--he was himself playing both sides--and prosecuted for spying, although the evidence was completely based on her supposed "immorality", her transparently eager willingness and patent ability to drain men of their bodily fluids. Her skills had really nothing to do with espionage, and it is difficult to imagine a lady less likely to be able to go un-noticed than Mata Hari.
She was imprisoned in the filth of the prison at Saint-Lazare until her execution by firing squad in 1917. And this is but another example of a miscarriage of justice in the magistrate system under the Napoleonic Code; see also Dreyfus. Preconception and scapegoating, religious piety, the need to do "something" when another thing--the War--is not doing well, all tainted the pretense of a trial.
Now, about the dancing....!
The costume alone, of course, was worth the price of admission: Beautiful brunette in a shining metal bra, spangly tiara, and transparent veils. We have no choreographic descriptions although the men who watched her have related fairly specific bits. Their journals were set atremble by the intoxicating mixture of exotic music, striptease, and veiled anatomy. These accounts, all by men, "are a hoot" in their way, but we have no way of reconstituting the dances. Nejla Y. Yatkin is one professional who does a great contemporary depiction.
I want to suggest something more. The descriptions of the rhythms--from slow liquid gestures to swirling and shaking--are in many forms of dance. However, it is hard for me not to think of Romani women and small flamenco performances. First of all, the performance itself was a series of alegrias, with taranto stylings, at one with the music, sumptouous. From her poverty in the Spanish portions of the Netherlands, and in Europe, there would be exposure to the Gypsy solo dances. And the veils? This is not really a "sacred" or traditional element in Indonesian dance. It is moorish, Arabesque, belly-dancing. She provided content to the interest Europeans had in the Middle Eastern cultures -- with veiled women.
It is documented then (!): Mata Hari drew from the nyai traditions of Malaysian mistresses, gypsy performers, and Middle-eastern exoticism, to capture an audience.
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