Let's close the dance thread that opened on Thursday and continued yesterday with a post about an interesting event that may inspire people who are into art, photography, dance, fashion and costumes - the exhibition "Dancing the Dream" at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC.
Curated by National Portrait Gallery historian Amy Henderson, the exhibition is a visual journey through dance. The event offers something for everybody, opening with a poster of Loïe Fuller's show at the Folies Bergère, showing an illustration of the iconic performer creating different shapes - from flowers to butterflies and flames - in her fantastically coloured phosphorescent swaths of silk attached to a pair of hand-held wands, and closing with an image of an alien-like masked Lady Gaga.
In between these two rather unique figures, Henderson looks through photographs, posters and sketches from the National Portrait Gallery collection, at numerous dance icons.
Images, videos and clips - divided in the sections "Broadway and the American Dream", "Lights! Camera! Action!", "Choreographing Modern America", "The Rise of American Ballet" and "Choreography Goes Pop!" and "Dance in the Media Age" - celebrate athletic perfomance, pioneering choreographers and musicals.
Around 70 icons - among them dancers, choreographers, singers, actor and actresses - are featured in the exhibitions. There are performers for all ages and tastes, from Isadora Duncan and George Balanchine to Mikhail Baryshnikov and Merce Cunningham, from Agnes de Mille, to Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Gene Kelly, Bob Fosse, Michael Jackson, Madonna and Beyoncé.
The main point behind this event is indeed to look at dance as a source of energy and dynamism, a form of art that brought innovation in global culture through evolving dance styles and that helped forging the American identity.
These concepts are illustrated via key images such as American dancer and choreographer Martha Graham portrayed by Edward Jean Steichen in 1931 clad in a jersey dress, her body morphing into an architectural construction; Mikhail Baryshnikov in the ecstasy of dance in "Le Jeune Homme et La Mort", Balanchine striking a statically dynamic pose in George Platt Lynes's 1941 portrait; Agnes de Mille, who choreographed more than a dozen Broadway musicals, leaping in the air, and Judith Jamison, energetically dancing in a solo in "Cry".
The National Portrait Gallery also invited a dance company in residence, a brilliant way to make the exhibition more lively and real and attract a wider audience. The Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company has indeed been rehearsing in the exhibition galleries and will perform a new site-specific piece inspired by the event and by the visitors' feedback on 16th November - the perfect chance to face the music and dance.
Image credits for this post
Martha Graham by Edward Jean Steichen, 1931, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Instistution; acquired in memory of Agnes and Eugene Meyer through the generosity of Katharine Graham and the New York Community Trust, The Island Fund © The Estate of Edward Steichen/Joanna T. Steichen Steichen/Condé Nast
George Balanchine by George Platt Lynes, 1941, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Istitution; gift of Donald Windham © Estate of George Platt Lynes
Mikhail Baryshnikov in "Le Jeune Homme et La Mort" by Max Waldman, 1975, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Carol Greunke, Max Waldman Archives © 1975 Max Waldman
Agnes De Mille by Maurice Seymour, 1942, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; © 1966 Ronal Seymour/Maurice Seymour
Judith Jamison in "Cry" by Max Waldman, 1976, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Carol Greunke, Max Waldman Archives © 1976 Max Waldman
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