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Danza e ricerca. Laboratorio di studi, scritture, visioni
Tilden Russell (editor), <em>Dance Theory. Source Readings from Two Millennia of Western Dance</em>, Oxford University Press, Oxford/New York 2020
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2021-12-27
2021-12-21
2021-12-27
2021-12-27
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danzaericerca
Gonzalo Preciado-Azanza
2021/12/27
10.6092/issn.2036-1599/14137
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University of Zaragoza, Spain
2036-1599
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Tilden Russell (editor), <em>Dance Theory. Source Readings from Two Millennia of Western Dance</em>, Oxford University Press, Oxford/New York 2020
https://danzaericerca.unibo.it/article/download/14137/13734
                                          Gonzalo Preciado-Azanza


Tilden Russell (editor), Dance Theory. Source Readings from
Two Millennia of Western Dance, Oxford University Press,
                   Oxford/New York 2020




        This book provides a two millennia perspective of the intricate interaction between theory and
practice to reintegrate “dance theory” within the historical field of dance studies. By doing so, this
critical anthology, edited by Tilden Russell – Professor Emeritus of Music at Southern Connecticut
State University –, includes fifty-five selected readings from its roots in ancient Greece until the Twen-
ty-first century postmodern “dance theory”. The problem of tracing and linking the history of “dance
theory” is discussed by Russell in the introduction. «Writers in every age have theorized prescriptively,
according to their own needs and ideals» (p. xix) weighing down this discipline1, which leads to que-
stion whether it is a methodological problem, rather than dance being an ephemeral art. The book is
organized chronologically in nine chapters by prevailing historical, intellectual and artistic eras.
        Dance Theory to ca. 1300 explores a millennium and-a half from Greek and Roman classical
authors – Plato’s ethics of dance, Aristotle and Plutarch’s raw materials of dance or Lucian’s culture of
dance – up to the Fourteenth-century Parisian musical theorist Johannes de Grocheio. It reveals how
after the fall of the Roman Empire dance had an immoral reputation under ecclesiastic dominance.
The Renaissance highlights the flourishing of the first dance treatises such as Domenico da Piacen-
za’s De arte saltandi et choreas ducendi (1452-1465), but above all, Thoinot Arbeau’s Orchesographie
(1589). Both became «The first to separate dance into the two areas of theory and practice, and the
first to name and define the elements of “dance theory”» (p. 26). Arbeau was a pioneer when he cre-
ated a notation thorough written symbols2. He considered himself the “first to have preserved dance



    1. As a matter of fact, a valuable source such as the International Encyclopedia of Dance (edited by Selma Jeanne Cohen,
Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1998) does not include any article titled “dance theory”.
    2. Alike music, dance also can be written. However, it is not widespread enough given the diversity and disparity of
notation systems. Even though Spanish Cervera notation is truly the pioneer, there is not enough information about it,
and therefore Arbeau is considered the first notator. Currently, Laban and Benesh notation are the most widely used sys-
tems.




                           «Danza e ricerca. Laboratorio di studi, scritture, visioni», anno XIII, numero 13, 2021
                                                                                            danzaericerca.unibo.it
                                                                              DOI: 10.6092/issn.2036-1599/14137
330                                                                                              Gonzalo Preciado-Azanza




knowledge for posterity” – a mantra that will be repeated by almost all dance theorists since then.
In The Seventeenth Century chapter Russell focuses on French authors François de Lauze and Clau-
de-François Ménestrier to discuss the influence of the recently founded académies as well as the credo
of sentiments, which ultimately led to the development of Jean-Georges Noverre’s ballet d’action.
        The Early Enlightenment chapter introduces the reader the belle danse, a term coined to describe
Eighteen-century social dances. It expanded throughout Europe via Beauchamp-Feuillet’s notation,
a system forged at the court of Louis XIV. Pierre Beauchamp was his ballet master and conceived the
five ballet positions of ballet3. Raoul-Auger Feuillet’s Chorégraphie (1700) perfected the choreographic
language in a time where there is «A concinnity between dance practice, notation and theory» (p. 84).
Russell emphasizes how this treatise marked the beginning of a new format, where theoretical content
was drastically reduced, and what endured lacked the thoroughness of German sources – such as
Behr or Taubert between 1703 and 1721 –. Undoubtedly, this notation heavily influenced Giovanni
Battista Dufort or Louis de Cahusac, among the selected authors in Dance Theory from Feuillet to the
Encyclopédie, as well as forthcoming notations. Nonetheless, «Its raison d’être was being questioned
and undermined» (p. 101) due to its biased focus on the lower body and social dances, directly leading
to the chapter Divergent Paths: Noverre. This French dancer and ballet master displaced the belle danse
by ballet d’action through his widely cited opus magna Lettres sur la danse et sur les ballets (1760).
        Noverre’s concepts greatly impacted dance theorists in The Nineetenth Century and Fin de siècle,
where «Paris became the focal point of a new impetus in “dance theory” writing» (p. 125) – besides
being the capital of Romantic Ballet –. Russell emphasizes how Carlo Blasis’ Traité élémentaire théor-
ique et pratique de l’art de la danse (1820) or Arthur Saint-Léon’s La Sténochorégraphie (1852) prove
the implacable ascendance of practice until the appearance of Rudolf von Laban, one of the most re-
levant authors of The Twentieth Century: Modernist Theory. Laban established “the three areas of dance
knowledge: practice, notation and theory”. His prolific 1920s writings established him as a pioneer
and theoretical father of modern dance. Laban developed his ideas together with his choreographic
practice. Die Welt des Tänzers (1920) details «His core theoretical principles, which he formulated un-
der a new title: Tanzwissenchaft» (p. 167) – dance science in German –. While Schriftanz: Methodik,
Orthographie, Erlaeuterungen (1926) discloses the basis of his own notation, based on abstract symbols
to understand the kinetic content of all movement forms and dance styles4. And ultimately, the chap-
ter Postmodern Dance Theory and Anti-Theory emphasizes the heterogeneous and latest contributions
within the field – as African American Dance Theory authors Brenda Dixon Gottschild or Thomas



    3. For this reason, they are still called in French.
    4. Laban expressed visually his ideas, either through the symbols of his own choreographic notation or by drawing a
human figure in motion through geometric designs. To do so, he created several possibilities of a dancer inside a tetrahedron,
that can be understood as a moving sculpture of an expressionist modern dance.
Dance Theory. Source Readings from Two Millennia of Western Dance                                       331




De Frantz –, in order to become even broader, richer and more diverse that it has been in previous
centuries.
       This volume has been entirely based on primary sources, where Russell has selected a total of
fifty-five readings to cover two millennia «That trace a coherent and fair narrative of the evolution of
“dance theory” as a concept in Western culture» (p. xxv). Therefore, there are several paths to read this
book. You can either go from beginning to end or to select the chapters using the index. Each part
includes an introduction to contextualize it, as well as to develop a narrative that links the different
ages of this anthology. Particularly interesting is its back matter. All chapters include End Notes with
further information about the research, as well as the selected readings and its sources. The author also
includes a complete bibliography at the end, which provides an essential state of the art. Russell uses
a formal and fluid language with careful terminology throughout the text – including his translations
of almost all readings –. It is noteworthy the Appendix: Table of Dance Periodization that notes the
fundamental chronological differences between music and dance, but also among practice and theory,
as «What we call classical ballet is the epitome of Romanticism» (p. 58).
       As a whole, Dance Theory. Source Readings from Two Millennia of Western Dance covers the un-
told history of “dance theory” to incorporate it as a much needed field of dance studies. Whereby, this
anthology contributes to acknowledge the recurrent leitmotif that «Theorists have continually asser-
ted the lack of any pre-existing “dance theory”» (p. xx) since the sixteenth century. It will be of interest
to those academics, researchers or students working in the fields of dance, philosophy and history, as
well as to those whose interest lies in dance notation. Undoubtedly, this volume is going to become a
valuable tool to connect dance practice and theory, as well as with other related art forms. Definitely,
I recommend this book to acquire an overview of the notion, evolution and impact of “dance theory”
and its intricate interaction with practice, that have shaped Western Dance.




		
