The Work of Dance: Labor, Movement, and Identity in the 1930s - Softcover

Franko, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0819565539 ISBN 13: 9780819565532

Publisher: Wesleyan University Press, 2002

Synopsis

Explores the complex relationship between dance, work and labor in the 1930s.

In this insightful new book, Mark Franko explores the many genres of theatrical dancing during the radical decade of the 1930s and their relationship to labor movements, including Fordist and unionist organizational structures, the administrative structures of the Federal Dance and Theatre Project, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, and the Communist Party. Franko shows how the structures of labor organization were reproduced and acted out ― but also profoundly reasoned through in corporeal terms ― by choreography and performance of the proletarian mass dance, the chorus line of the Ziegfeld Follies and the reflexive backstage musical film, Martha Graham's modern dance, the revolutionary dance movement of the proletarian avant-garde, African-American "ethnic" opera-ballet, and Lincoln Kirstein's "American" ballet.

The contributions of many important personalities of American theatrical, visual and literary culture are included in this study. Franko's focus extends from the direct impact of performances on audiences to the reviewing, reporting and photography of print journalism.

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Reviews

Dance and labor may seem an unlikely pairing, but the author of this scholarly work proves otherwise with a look at the relationship between theatrical dancing and the progressive politics of the 1930s. Drawing on a cast ranging from modern dance pioneers Anna Sokolow and Jane Dudley, to the less-celebrated chorines of backstage film musicals, to organizations such as the Federal Dance and Theatre Project (part of the WPA), the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGW), and the Communist Party, Franko (Dancing Modernism/ Performing Politics) "explores how work in the 1930s was configured by dance, and how dancers performed cultural work." A central thesis is that the organizational structure of labor and political groups was replicated and even put into action by the choreography and performances of the day, as seen in the modern dance creations of Martha Graham, the avant-garde revolutionary dance movement, and even the chorus lines of the Ziegfeld Follies. Enhanced by a generous bibliography and detailed notes, this title should find a place in specialized collections in dance, labor, or social history. Carolyn M. Mulac, Chicago P.L.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0819565539
• ISBN 13: 9780819565532
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272