A photo of Cunningham
Steve saw the Cunningham company perform, and like many other young artists, was inspired to move to New York to begin a new chapter of his life and try to get involved with the company. He began taking classes with Cunningham and was invited to join the small company in 1961. He said he remembers traveling around the U.S. in a VW (Volks Wagon) bus with Cunning ham or John Cage driving.Steve and Merce Cunningham
Volkswagon Bus of 1960's.
The company was "small, poor and adamant," he said in an interview. Steve was interested in other areas of art such as music and painting while growing up. In the fall of 1950 Hans Namuth (a film maker) recorded a painter, Jackson Polluck creating a work on a sheet of glass. This project was filmed from below with the movement of the paint and the painter seeming to be a form of choreography, it was a work of art, made from another work of art. This is an example of how painters were beginning to incorporate more movement into their processes of making art and experimenting with new techniques along the way.
There were great technological advances during Steve Paxton's early years, and film equipment was one of those materials to reach new heights. During 1983, with the collaborations of Lisa Nelson, Nancy Stark Smith, and videographer Steve Christansen, Steve made Fall After Newton, a film that recorded eleven consecutive years of contact improvisation which challenged the principle of verticallity.
As America has become a melting pot of many cultures, studies of Akido and Tai Chi Chuan have been brought from overseas. Steve dove into these techniques and incorporated them into his work, especially Material for the Spine, which was started in 1986 at a NYC workshop for Movement Research. He injured his spine and became interested in the operations of the skeleton. -Carrie
With the development of the TV, the internet, and technology, and with the accessibility to of all this, people don't move like they once did, and not nearly as frequently. Paxton has become frustrated with this lack of movement that now occurs in this society. He has stopped formal performances and has began to teach many workshops and classes. Paxton focuses primarily on working with the disabled but he believes that movement is vital to the development to all human beings.-Rachel
These are interesting items and products made in his time but how did these barbie dolls, cars, etc effect him? You stated that he was "frustrated with this lack of movement" but to what specificity was the movement he was so frustrated about? Did these influence him and in what way did these material take away from "the movement".
ReplyDeleteKao
Hey Kao,
DeleteMuch like the point that Carrie just made, the rise in consumerism really took focus off of movement and placed it elsewhere. With the creation of the Barbie, daily life became about material things opposed to movement. Play surrounded prefabricated toys and left little room for imagination.
The variety and options in transportation allowed for the quick spread of post-modern dance ideas as well as more options when it came to touring. In general there was a lot of change, and even unrest at this time, and it filtered its way into a lot of the art of the time period.
~Rae
Hi Kao,
ReplyDeleteThis video pretty much sums up how society's relationship of movement has effected him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a82Qy62bUTc
And although the whole video is interesting and related, one of my favorite quotes of his is, "We've engineered an environment which requires physical and sensoral suppression to exist in."
I think the connection (especially between cars and televisions) is that America was beginning to become sedentary with these technological advances. Instead of running outside to play, maybe some young girls would get together to sit around at each others houses to dress up Barbies.
Steve lives on a farm and has stressed that life is a physical activity that requires many types of movements throughout the day. I think that America was realizing a time of "progress" and movement was beginning to diminish with the development of more technology. He probably hates the fact that there truly is an App for everything on Ipods and Ipads these days, you can have groceries delivered right to your door and keep in touch with friends via Facebook or Twitter all from the comfort of your home. I think he was greatly effected by how America is basically diminishing the need to move more and more and unfortunately, the epidemic is only getting worse.