Democracy's Body

Democracy's Body

Judson Dance Theatre, 1962–1964

  • Author: Banes, Sally
  • Publisher: Duke University Press
  • ISBN: 9780822313991
  • eISBN Pdf: 9780822396567
  • Place of publication:  Durham , United States
  • Year of digital publication: 1993
  • Month: October
  • Pages: 288
  • DDC: 792.8/09747/1
  • Language: English
Democracy's Body offers a lively, detailed account of the beginnings of the Judson Dance Theater--a popular center of dance experimentation in New York's Greenwich Village--and its place in the larger history of the avant-garde art scene of the 1960s. JDT started when Robert Dunn, a student of John Cage, offered a dance composition class in Merce Cunningham's studio. The performers--many of whom included some of the most prominent figures in the arts in the early sisties--found a welcome performance home in the Judson Memorial Church in the Village. Sally Banes's account draws on interviews, letters, diaries, films, and reconstructions of dances to paint a portrait of the rich culture of Judson, which was the seedbed for postmodern dance and the first avant-garde movement in dance theater since the modern dance of the 1930s and 1940s. Originally published in 1983, this edition brings back into print a highly regarded work of dance history.
  • Contents
  • List of Illustrations
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction
  • 1. Robert Dunn's Workshop
  • 2. "A Concert of Dance" at Judson Church
  • 3. The Judson Workshop
  • 4. The Plot Thickens
  • 5. Dance in the Sanctuary and in the Theater
  • 6. From Great Collective to Bus Stop
  • Notes
  • Illustrations
  • Bibliography
  • Index

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