DANCES THAT DESCRIBE THEMSELVES by Susan Leigh Foster ( 9780819565518 )

Item Details

Title:

DANCES THAT DESCRIBE THEMSELVES
THE IMPROVISED CHOREOGRAPHY OF RICHARD BULL

By:

Format:

Paperback

List price:	£21.50
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ISBN 10:

0819565512

ISBN 13:

9780819565518

Publisher:

UNIVERSITY PRESS OF NEW ENGLAND

Pub. date:

31 May, 2002

Pages:

352

Description:

Here, Susan Leigh Foster leads an inquiry into improvization as practised by Richard Bull and his contemporaries. Foster is also the author of "Reading Dancing and Choreography and Narrative".

Synopsis:

During an improvised performance, both dancers and audience members reflect on how the dance is being made. They ask themselves: What will happen next? What choices will each dancer make? And how will these decisions contribute to the overall effect and significance of the performance? Trained as a jazz pianist, Richard Bull did not uphold the opposition often found in dance between improvisation and composition. Instead, he believed that dancers, like jazz musicians, could craft a piece spontaneously in performance. Analyzing performances by Bull and many of his contemporaries, Susan Foster argues that their diverse practices embody distinctive values representative of different artistic communities, yet they all share a capacity to reflect on their own making, in a sense, describing themselves.

Illustrations:

35 illus.

Publication:

Imprint:

Wesleyan University Press

Returns:

Returnable

Some other items by this author:

CHOREOGRAPHING EMPATHY