Dances of José Limón and Erick Hawkins examines stagings of masculinity, whiteness, and Latinidad in the work of US modern dance choreographers, José Limón (1908-1972) and Erick Hawkins (1908-1994). Focusing on the period between 1945 to 1980, this book analyzes Limón and Hawkins’ work during a time when modern dance was forming new relationships to academic and governmental institutions, mainstream markets, and notions of embodiment. The pre-war expressionist tradition championed by Limón and Hawkins’ mentors faced multiple challenges as ballet and Broadway complicated the tenets of modernism and emerging modern dance choreographers faced an increasingly conservative post-war culture framed by the Cold War and Red Scare. By bringing the work of Limón and Hawkins together in one volume, Dances of José Limón and Erick Hawkins accesses two distinct approaches to training and performance that proved highly influential in creating post-war dialogues on race, gender, and embodiment. This book approaches Limón and Hawkins’ training regimes and performing strategies as social practices symbiotically entwined with their geo-political backgrounds. Limón’s queer and Latino heritage is put into dialogue with Hawkins’ straight and European heritage to examine how their embodied social histories worked co-constitutively with their training regimes and performance strategies to produce influential stagings of masculinity, whiteness, and Latinidad.

CONTRIBUTORS: Jose Limon, Anna Sokolow, Erick Hawkins, Donald McKayle, Alwin Nikolas, Pauline Koner, Paul Taylor.

Each unit contains core ideas, a series of journaling and discussion topics, improvisation experiments, biographical sketches of the choreographers, and a presentation of-class material. At the end of each chapter, questions and experiments offer basic ideas that you can use to further your understanding of the choreography presented. --

Seven Statements of Belief: Jose Limon, Anna Sokolow, Erick Hawkins, Donald McKayle, Alwin Nikolais, Pauline Koner, Paul Taylor.

A groundbreaking study of the 92nd Street Y and its major influence on 20th-century American culture.

CONTRIBUTORS: Jose Limon, Anna Sokolow, Erick Hawkins, Donald McKayle, Alwin Nikolas, Pauline Koner, Paul Taylor.

Making Music for Modern Dance traces the collaborative approaches, working procedures, and aesthetic views of the artists who forged a new and distinctly American art form during the first half of the 20th century. The book offers riveting first-hand accounts from innovative artists in the throes of their creative careers and provides a cross-section of the challenges faced by modern choreographers and composers in America. These articles are complemented by excerpts from astute observers of the music and dance scene as well as by retrospective evaluations of past collaborative practices. Beginning with the careers of pioneers Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis, and Ted Shawn, and continuing through the avant-garde work of John Cage for Merce Cunningham, the book offers insights into the development of modern dance in relation to its music. Editor Katherine Teck's introductions and afterword offer historical context and tie the artists' essays in with collaborative practices in our own time. The substantive notes suggest further materials of interest to students, practicing dance artists and musicians, dance and music history scholars, and to all who appreciate dance.