Choreography and the Specific Image: Nineteen Essays and a Workbook

Daniel Nagrin

ISBN 10: 0822941473 / ISBN 13: 9780822941477

Published by University of Pittsburgh Press, (Pittsburgh, Pa.), 2001

About this Item

Hardcover book bound in the publisher's full cloth-gilt. 24 cm. 274 pages. Contains black-and-white illustrations throughout. The book is in near fine condition. No ownership marks/writing present within. Hinges tight, interior pages bright. Light edge wear/bumping to the cloth covers.

Seller Inventory # 5860

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Choreography and the Specific Image: Nineteen Essays and a Workbook
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press, (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
• Publication Date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0822941473
• ISBN 13: 9780822941477
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First hardcover edition.
• Seller catalogs:
  • Performing Arts

About this title

Synopsis

"The world outside has burst into the studio", writes the influential dancer, teacher and choreographer Daniel Nagrin. Many dancers want passionately to confront concrete, difficult subjects. But their formalistic training hasn't prepared them for what they need to say. This book, the first on choreography approached through "content" rather than "structure", is designed with them in mind. Spiced with wit and strong opinions, "Choreography and the Specific Image" explores, in 19 far-ranging essays, the art of choreography through the life's work of an important artist. A career of performance, creativity and teaching spanning five decades, Nagrin reveals the philosophy and strategy of his work with Helen Tamiris, a founder of modern American dance, and of Workgroup, his maverick improvization company of the 1970s. During an era when many dancers were working with movement as abstraction, Nagrin turned instead toward movement as metaphor, in the belief that dance should be "about" something. In "Choreography and the Specific Image", Nagrin shares with the next generation of dancers just how that turn was accomplished. "It makes no sense to make dances unless you bring news", he writes. "You bring something that a community needs, something from you: a vision, an insight, a question from where you are and what churns you up". In a workbook following the essays, Nagrin lays out a wealth of clear, effective exercises to guide dancers toward such constructive self-discovery. Unlike other choreography books, Nagrin addresses the concerns of both modern and commercial (show dance) choreographers. "The need to discover the inner life", he maintains, "is what fires the motion". This is Nagrin's third book of a trilogy, following "Dance and the Specific Image: Improvization" and "The Six Questions: Acting Technique for Dance Performance". Each focuses on a different aspect of dance - improvization, performance and choreography - engaging the specific image as a creative tool. Part history, part philosophy, part nuts-and-bolts manual, "Choreography and the Specific Image" should be a useful resource for all those who care passionately about the world of dance, and the world at large.

About the Author

Dubbed "the great loner of American dance" by Dance Magazine. Daniel Nagrin has worked with Martha Graham, Helen Tamiris, Mme. Anderson-Ivantzova, and Anne Sokolaw. He has danced on Broadway, in film and television, and has toured nationally and internationally as a solo concert artist. He is professor emeritus of dance of Arizona State University.