Which movement are you talking about?

In Durham at the American Dance Festival, the tag line was ‘where ballet & modern meet.‘ A cute pr angle that did little to attract new audiences. For dancers and choreographers, ballet and modern met long ago and creative seeds have been cross-pollinating for decades.

What constitutes modern and what constitutes ballet might be for academics to determine, but is a theoretical moot point in performance. The marriage either works or it doesn’t. In a down economy, dance fusion can be a good way to go for many practical reasons.

At ADF, The Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, showed how investing ballet with elastic repertoire, even with their wobbly reconstruction of an early work by Twyla Tharp. All of ASFB dancers have extensive ballet training, but co-directors Jean-Phillippe Malaty and Tom Mossbrucker have the attitude “We don’t look for dancers with turn-out, but open minds.” Versatility in both camps may end up helping the health of classical ballet particularly, since established audiences are, well, dying off and younger audiences need something fresh.

During a round table discussion with a panel of dance journalists, dance scholar Roger Copeland reminded that in the prevailing artistic climate in 1958, pioneer choreographer Merce Cunningham tried to fill in the divides between disparate dance worlds. For danceartists, Cunningham’s brilliance of purpose busted through conventions from all sides, changing the dynamics forever.

For those slower on the uptake, Copeland reminded that Cunningham was met with suspicion and derision by the dance establishment in general and ADF in particular. But 50 years later his is the dance new wave that is still breaking on unknown shores.

Suzanne Carbonneau, director of our NEA group, talks about the vital ‘ecological balance’ in the dance world. The necessity of all forms coexisting for a sound creative environment. Just as there has to be Sylphs and Apollos triumphing the dance stage there has to be environments for aesthetic labs so Brooklyn choreographer Miguel Guitierrez can stage a dance orgy of an orgy. Sex in this case is beside the point.

Speaking of that eco balance, choreographers from around the world continue to break dance traditions, as well as challenge methodology, theory and classical syllabus. Choreographer Ohad Naharin echoed the same sentiment as the Aspen directors, when he accepted the ADF Lifetime achievement award. He told the dancers in the audience “get rid of the mirror….and look at the sky.”

Naharin is integrating his GaGa training technique, which is just as much as a philosophy for life as it is dance training. You have to wonder at such sweeping statements, if in the dancers trenches of classes, touring, rehearsals and performance, such a laissez-faire attitude can work over time or if it just a nice idea. You wonder if you can wander into one of his rehearsal late with a note from nature.