A Game for Dancers: Performing Modernism in the Postwar Years, 1945-1960
“This valuable book unearths a new perspective on dance in New York, a perspective based on attitudes, actions, aesthetics, and definitions of dance by major choreographers and dance writers/theorists and on the ways they dealt with broad cultural and social issues. Morris looks at the evolving new form of dance drama; modern dancers fighting against the commercialization of Broadway and Hollywood; dancers’ interest (or lack of interest) in developing their own personal style and vocabulary; narrative versus abstract corporal movement; and new ballets by George Balanchine, Anthony Tudor, Agnes de Mille, and Jerome Robbins challenging “modern dance’s vanguard position.” Especially significant are Morris’s insightful analyses and interpretations of the writings of John Martin, Edwin Denby, and John Cage and their faith in the corporal intelligence of dance; of how Anna Sokolow, Sophie Maslow, and the New Dance Group Company tried to embody minority communities and identity in their dances; of how Ronnie Aul and Donald McKayle gained greater access while still losing ground in discrimination and stereotyping; and of the demanding objectivism of Merce Cunningham and Alwin Nikolais and ‘the right of dancing to be its own subject matter.’”—Choice“A Game for Dancers is a vital contribution to the literature of the field.”—Victoria Phillips Geduld, Dance Research Journal