An Amateur Look Over Steve Paxton’s Talking Dance
Nombre : Murat Gelir
Fecha: 01.02.2023
An Amateur Look Over Steve Paxton’s Talking Dance
Introduction
This review is based on Steve Paxton’s show called “Talking Dance” which took place in Walker Art Center on its 75th anniversary in 2015.
Summary
I, someone whose relation with the dance was only jumping and swinging all over when drunk up until a couple months ago, am not to criticize such an icon like Paxton. I am gonna go over and cover Contact Improvisation and Material for the Spine from amateur but curious eyes. What I am going to try to accomplish with this essay is to argue and hopefully understand the connection between that particular science experiment and the dance forms-methods he came up with which are “Material for the Spine” and “Contact Improvisation”.
Background of the Artist
Probably anyone,who is into dance or at least modern dance would know who Steve Paxton is. But for the sake of the review I should at least mention his biography and career briefly. So, Steve Paxton (was born in 1939, Arizona) is an experimental dancer and choreographer. He started his career as a gymnastician and got to work with Merce Cunningham and José Limón during these years.
Before he founded the experimental group Grand Union and in 1972, he also took part in the Judson Dance Theater as a founding member and later on he began to develop the dance form known as “Contact Improvisation” which he is most famous for. Contact Improvisation is a form of partner dancing that involves exploration of one’s body, which we will be talking more about. He is also founder of “Material of Spine” which is a system for exploring the interior and exterior muscles of the back. And aims to bring consciousness to the dark side of the body.
Personal Comprehension
I refer to this part as personal comprehension cause it’s gonna be about my personal perception of the topics I mentioned before rather than a judgment. I am gonna go ahead and start with a quote by Paxton himself, cause I’ll build my arguments around it.
“One day my science teacher proposed an experiment. We had three basins. Left one was filled with ice-cold water, the right one steamy and the center one room temperature. We were to put our hands in both of the basins and dunk them into the center one. So, the center basin felt hot to the left hand and cool to the other one. I could feel my mind sampling one hand and its reality, then the changing of the mental occupation of the other hand.”
So, he came up with a conclusion: “the mind can travel inside the body” he said. And this experiment has turned his mind to dance. In my humble comprehension what it means is that the mind, being connected to many inputs through sense organs and for some people through the soul, may focus the conscious on particular parts of the body when there is an indicator warning. And when the oneself is aware of their own body they can move their minds through their veins. Thereupon it is where Material for the Spine comes in use. Paxton developed this system for exploring the interior and the exterior muscles of the back, aiming to bring consciousness to the dark side of the body. In other words, to make the mind travel across the body. Yet, this time while being in control of both mind and body. When oneself succeeds at this system a particular part of the body can be in control rather than being controlled by mind.
Moreover, Paxton takes this system to whole another level with Contact Improvisation. As well as MFS being a system to explore one’s own body, Contact Improvisation also involves exploration of the partner's body as well. All that being said, CI makes it possible to blend participants’ minds in fusion. Person now is not only aware and in control of his own body, but also in awareness and control of their partner’s. Furthermore, one is also responsible for discovering and bringing light and consciousness to their partner's body as well.
Conclusion
To sum up, these two experimental methods contributed to modern dance in various ways. Even for me, someone who is just so new to all this, after studying Paxton, every exercise in my contemporary dance lab made more sense. Even though there is still so much more to learn and they are way too theoretical, I am much more illuminated. All that being said, everyone who is into dance in any way should at least take a look into Paxton’s work. You’ll see the impact.