Ratmansch's Expressionist Movement

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While the 20th century expressionist movement prompted dancers, as artists, to focus on individual expression rather than description or imitation, later movements attempted to abolish individual expression, order, form, and rules. Even later, movements meshed the two styles together, creating another style in it’s own right, as exemplified with Ratmansky’s works. Pina Bausch exemplifies the 20th century expressionist movement with intense, expressive movements while, later on, Merce Cunningham sought to break down this very notion of dance. Then, Alexei Ratmansky combines the two styles, forming an expressive, yet less traditional style of dance. Throughout the course of history, dance has changed it’s face to reflect the society at large …show more content…

“A Cunningham dance is a series of movement events, often layered with several different things doing on at the same time” (Bennahum, 91). One implication of this statement is that some of his pieces are deliberately broken down in organization, as a form of expression. “Cunningham liberated choreography from traditional principles of good composition, such as the idea that every dance has a well-defined beginning, middle, and end.” (Au, 155) This liberation is apparent in Cunningham’s RainForest, which features movements markedly different than Bausch’s dancers as well as a flow that starkly contrasts the organization apparent in Bausch’s piece. While the movements still look expressionistic on the surface, the apparent lack of cohesiveness distinguishes the piece. The piece is certainly less of a narrative than pieces seen in the past. “Looseing the choreographer’s conscious control over the dance, the choreography produced unexpected results […] Cunningham decided just before each performance which sections of a dance would be performed, in what order, and for what durations, posting the instructions backstage.” (Bennahum, Lecture on Merce Cunningham) This last minute organization, which some may argue is simply lack of planning altogether, demonstrates how Cunningham broke free from the previous conventions of …show more content…

“Alexei Ratmansky was born in St. Petersburg and trained at the Bolshoi Ballet School in Moscow. His performing career included positions as principal dancer with Ukrainian National Ballet, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet” (Ballet Theatre Foundation). “Ballet has been the subject of much discussion regarding the need for new works of lasting significance in the classical technique. […] Many look to (Ratmansky) for a change in their aesthetic ability to envision different shapes and spaces within classicism.” (Bennahum, 113) In Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, it’s clear that this piece has a beginning, middle, and end, however it’s also clear that the forms were expressive, controlled, and highly technical. The ballet dancers exhibit movements that are energetic, refreshing, and laden with intense control, all behind a backdrop of correspondingly expressive and intense music. The shift in dance style becomes a fusion of the two discussed earlier: it has the intensity and expressivity of Bausch’s time period while it also sometimes has the abandonment of a narrative as well as daring experiments with form from Cunningham’s

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