DANCE 467 Features

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a t u r e s

Ambra Vallo & Tyrone Singleton in Aladdin

by the Birmingham Royal Ballet

© S I M O N T O M K I N S O

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Dancing Down the Red Carpet

Curator Amy Henderson has rolled out the red carpet

to a host of America’s dancing superstars in a new

show at the Smithsonian National Portrait

Gallery in Washington DC

Judith Jamison in ‘Cry’ by Max

Waldman, 1976

© 1 9 7 6 M A X W A L D M A N

DANCE FEATURES

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From the late 19th century to today,

dance has captured the culture of the

USA in motion. Dancing the Dream

showcases generations of performers,

choreographers and impresarios. The show

includes images of performers like Fred

Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Michael Jackson,

Savion Glover, George Balanchine, Mikhail

Baryshnikov, Beyoncé, Isadora Duncan,Agnes de Mille and Lady Gaga. Dance has

drawn from the boundless commotion of

cultures to represent the rhythm and beat

of American life. This exhibition explores

the relationship between the art of dance

and the evolution of a modern American

identity. Dancing the Dream will be open at

the National Portrait Gallery, Washington

DC, until 13th July 2014. Curator Amy

Henderson takes us behind the scences.

Iam an unapologetic fan of showbiz glitz.

When organising an exhibition, my

approach is to dip scholarship in dazzle:

I firmly believe that injecting an exhibitionwith spectacle and showmanship fuels the

path to understanding. The idea is to inspire

visitors rather than to intimidate, baffle or

bore them. I’ve always wanted to roll out the

red carpet and this time I did.

In the current exhibition, Dancing the

Dream, which recently opened at the National

Portrait Gallery, the idea was to show how

Broadway, Hollywood, Modern, Classical

and Contemporary Dance have captured

American culture in motion. In 1900, Loie

Fuller unleashed her barefoot and uncorseted

version of the New Woman on stages around

the world; in the 1930s, Fred and Ginger

danced an elegant escapism for Depressionaudiences; at the height of the Cold War,

Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov

sought asylum and sparked a mania for Ballet

in America; from the 1980s to today, MTV

and YouTube have showcased such dancers

as Michael Jackson and Beyoncé and created

audiences that are both more diverse and

more individualised than ever before.

The dance exhibition’s basic ingredients

– strong images of iconic personalities –

were already present, as the Gallery has an

extraordinary collection of key dance figures

– Isadora Duncan, Irene Castle, Josephine

Baker, Busby Berkeley Rita Moreno, Alvin

Ailey, Shakira and Justin Timberlake, to namea few. The challenge for the museum’s design

team was to create a lively showcase that

conveyed dance’s dynamism. “I don’t like

white walls,” I chirped. “Make it dazzle.”

And they did. One of the most exciting

design elements is the red carpet that runs

down the centre hall connecting each of

the six exhibition rooms. Yes, the National

Portrait Gallery has a real red carpet.

Designer Raymond Cunningham told me

that he researched A-list red carpet events

and discovered that the red used by the

Golden Globes is a bluer red than the brighter

hue used for the Academy Awards (Oscars).

The color used for Dancing the Dream is closeto the Oscars’, but has been uniquely created

for the Gallery.

Tibor Waldner, the museum’s chief of

Top: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers

by Unidentified Artist, 1936

Above: Liza Minnelli by Alan Pappe,

1972

“The Galleryhas anextraordinarycollection of

key dancefigures”


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design, and his remarkable staff created a

space that radiates with color – a drawing

of Josephine Baker shimmies and shakes

in a gallery with stunning teal walls; young

Ballet dancer Misty Copeland soars as a

flaming Firebird in a gallery the color of her

fires; Beyoncé hot-steps her Single Ladies

number in a yellow-green gallery that I call

“the riot of spring.”

I was vastly intrigued by Raymond’s redcarpet research, and have since discovered

that the red carpet itself has an amazing

history. The earliest reference to “walking a

red carpet” is in Aeschylus’s Agamemnon in

458 BC, when the title character is greeted

by his vengeful wife Clytemnestra, who

invites him to walk a “crimson path” to his

house. In Georgetown, South Carolina, aceremonial red carpet was purportedly rolled

out for President James Monroe when he

disembarked from a riverboat in 1821. Mainly,

though, it seems the red carpet was a railroad

phenomenon: in 1902, the New York Central

used plush crimson carpets to direct people

boarding the 20th Century Limited. It was

this usage that seems to mark the origin of

the phrase “red carpet treatment.”

Today, we associate red carpets as

fashion and celebrity runways at major

entertainment events. I asked Linda

Mehr, director of the Academy of Motion

Pictures’ Margaret Herrick Library, when

the Academy began using a red carpet,and she told me that it wasn’t until 1961.

Television broadcasts of the Oscars had

begun in 1953, and by 1966 when the

Above: Peter Martins And Suzanne

Farrell in ‘Chaconne’ by Max

Waldman, 1976

Top right: George Balanchine by

George Platt Lynes, 1941

© E S T A T E O F G E O R G E P L A T T L Y N E S

© 1 9 7 6 M A X W A L D M

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“Many of the iconicfigures in the danceexhibition have

walked the red carpet”


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DANCE FEATURES

awards were first broadcast in colour, the

red carpet had become a major factor

in the Oscars experience. Turner Classic

Movies primetime host Robert Osborne

has said that “for most of us, even a walkdown the red carpet is just a dream.” It has

also has become the stage for one of the

biggest fashion events of the year. At the

2013 Oscars, Jessica Chastain told a reporter

that “as a little girl … I always dreamed

about my Oscar dress. I love fashion that

celebrates a woman’s body, and that maybeis a throwback to the glamour of old

Hollywood.” Amy Adams said of her Oscar

de la Renta dress, “I’ve worn a lot of different

dresses, but I’ve never worn a big ballgown,

so I thought I wanna wear a dress you can’t

wear anywhere but the Oscars.”

Many of the iconic figures in the dance

exhibition have walked the red carpet,

several have won Oscars – including Gene

Kelly, James Cagney, Rita Moreno, and Liza

Minnelli – and several have been awarded

Grammys, including Lady Gaga, Justin

Timberlake and Beyoncé.Installing the red carpet was the

exclamation point that finished the

exhibition’s high impact design. But once it

was unrolled, there was yet another surprise:

the carpet’s red reflected off the walls and

ceiling in a way that suffused the entire

corridor with an unexpected glow. Amy Henderson, Curator

© 1 9 6 6 R O N A L D S E Y M O U R / M A U R I C E S E Y M O U R

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The above article was originally published on

Smithsonian.com, all rights reserved (25th October 2013).

All images courtesy of the Smithsonian’s National

Portrait Gallery.

Bottom left: Mikhail Baryshnikov in

‘Le Jeune Homme et la Mort’ by Max

Waldman, 1975

Below: Agnes De Mille by Maurice

Seymour, 1942


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Mathematics has never had a higher

profile in the news as politicians

beat their chests and talk about

children in other countries outperforming

those in the UK. This means that you, as

dance teachers, have never been in a more

marketable position as schools try to engage

and enthuse the students in mathematics.

After 10 years as a Ballet teacher and 10

years as a maths teacher my experiencehas inevitably created a rather different

perspective on how to use creativity in

teaching maths. If I can enthuse my students

by dancing maths – then so can you. In

addition to my own teaching maths to

students aged 11–18, I now give workshops

to maths teachers on ‘How to Teach Maths

through Movement and Rhythm’, borrowing

mercilessly from everything I ever taught in

the dance studio.

I teach equivalent fractions by getting

the teachers to create rhythms to a bar of 4/4

putting together half notes, quarter notes,

eighth and twelfth notes just as we do in

Tap. The only difference is that when they’ve

created the rhythms and taught them to

another pair, they then have to write down the

sum and show how it adds up to a whole using

common denominators. This is perfect for

upper primary or lower secondary teachers.

Multiple moves sees one group dancing

a sequence of five movements repeatedlywhile another repeats a sequence of four

movements. When both groups finish their

sequences at the same moment then they

have found that the lowest common multiple

of 4 and 5 is 20 – great for adding and

subtracting fractions too.

The Cecchetti Ballet method involves the

corners and walls of the room labeled from

1 – 8. Using these you can get the students

to face corner 1 (downstage right) and rotate,

for example, 135 degrees clockwise to see that

they end facing wall 7 (upstage). This offers

great angles revision with some adding and

subtracting thrown in for good measure.

In class, I ask students to reflectthemselves in an imaginary line across the

room and then give the students 30 seconds

to run into the place that they have been

reflected. They can see that those directly

on the axis of reflection stay put whilst

those who are farthest away have to race to

the other side of the room as they have the

longest distance to travel.

I’m currently choreographing a piece of

dance with my maths class showing how

Did You Know You Are Teaching Maths?

Corinne Wolfe , gives some tips on how to branch out and use

your dance teaching skills more widely

“Thechoreographicpotentialis obvious

whateverthe style ofdancing andno matterhow complex

or simple themovements”

Top: Students in Hong Kong finish

their ‘Multiple Moves’


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consecutive triangle numbers make a square

number. The triangular numbers 1, 3, 6, 10,

15 etc. created by adding one more number

each time and so beautifully demonstrated in

Swan Lake, can be put together in consecutive

pairs to make square numbers 4, 9, 16, 25

etc. The choreographic potential is obvious,

whatever the style of dancing and no matter

how complex or simple the movements.

However, as long as you are reinforcing the

number patterns along the way, you are

teaching maths. The students are so receptive

and see nothing odd about learning maths

in the theatre instead of the classroom. With

laminated numbers (1 – 36) around each of

their necks I can keep track of who is where

and get non dancers to create something

wonderful.Next I will create a piece on factors

entitled ‘5 is not a Factor of 12’. I have

posted this dance on YouTube under the

heading ‘Maths Dance’, Triangular Squares

if you would like to see how this idea

works in practice. We break down numbers

automatically as choreographers – 12 dancers

become groups of 6, 4, 3, 2, 1 or even 12 and

these are the factors of 12 but alas, in the

dance, 5 is not!

You may be teaching dance but you’re

really teaching maths and that’s before I talk

about constants and variables, symmetry,

angles, reflection, rotation, functions and

translation. You too can develop these ideasand offer your expertise to a local primary

or secondary school to enhance their maths

lessons during the day; it just takes a little

Corinne taught Cecchetti Ballet at the Edmonton School

of Ballet, Alberta, Canada, the Arts Educational School,

Tring and Hurst Lodge in Sunningdale before retraining

as a maths teacher, teaching in the UK, Shanghai and

Hong Kong. She is currently teaching at the British

School of Jakarta, Indonesia but she also delivers

workshops internationally and writes on maths and

creativity. If you would like more information or if you

are interested in a workshop or collaboration around

these or other ideas on maths and creativity please

contact [email protected].

imagination. If you are a Ted’s Talks fan you

might have already seen how the idea of

dancing science has been embraced with

‘Dance your PhD’ (John Bohannon and Black

Label Movement).Needless to say, my maths lessons can be

a little unusual but at least, like my career so

far, there is no time to get bored. Good luck

if you would like to try out any of these ideas

and please let me know how you get on.

Corinne Wolfe (neé Jacobs) LISTD

Top: The theatre as a maths

classroom, British International

School, Jakarta

Middle: Year 7 students create the

triangle number, ten

Above: Corinne Wolfe



I

n 1878 English photographer Eadweard Muybridge

developed a technique to capture a moving horse.

His photographs were a technical and conceptual

breakthrough; to have a clear image of movement. Dance

photographers have been trying to capture movement

ever since. Lois Greenfield in the 1980s was able to capture

dancers as they had never been seen before, capturing a

moment, an unusual position and unpredictable movement

unseen to the naked eye. For many dance photographers she

changed the idea of how to photograph dancers.

It seems now that photographers are once again pushingthe boundaries of dance photography, trying to create their

own style and groundbreaking images. To show a moment

or the unique movement of dancers is no longer enough

and photographers are now creating pieces of art through

their photographs.

New York City Ballet’s second Annual Art Series combines

both photography and dance. French street artist, JR,

photographed 80 dancers posing on giant sheets of paper, which

formed a giant eye when viewed from above. He then pasted

a 6,500ft vinyl photograph of the eye onto the floor of the

David H Koch Theatre for all visitors to enjoy. This piece of art

showcases the dancers as well as JR’s creativity, and helps fans to

interact with New York City Ballet in an original way. Hundreds

of audience members posted photos on social media siteInstagram, creating their own piece of art from the installation.

Other dance photographers are experimenting and

discovering their own style of dance photography. Former

The Art of Displacement

Jane Cuppage talks to dance photographer Simon Tomkinson

The Urban Playground Team

in ‘Run this town’ at Pavilion

Dance South West

© S I M O N T O M K I N S O N

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professional Ballet dancer, Jesus Chapa-Malacara, describes

himself as both a multi-media artist and photographer. He

has taken posed and motion photographs of dancers, but

is now experimenting with his technique and what he can

create. Another photographer who is also experimenting withthe boundaries of the medium is Simon Tomkinson. Simon

specialises in dance and has been commissioned by a broad

range of companies from the Birmingham Royal Ballet to the

New Movement Collective. The ISTD team were invited to

Simon’s exhibition ‘The Art of Displacement’ at the Silverprint

Gallery in London in December and spoke to him about his

work. The photographs on this and the previous page are

from this exhibition.

While on tour as a soldier with the British Army, Simon

took a photograph of an Israeli soldier standing against the

Wailing Wall and realised he could have a serious career

in photography. He took a year long course at the London

College of Communications and then started his photographyprofessionally. With an interest in the way dancers move and

control their movements, Simon took a course with dance

photographer Chris Nash.

Simon regularly attends photo calls with many leading

dance companies. ‘The Art of Displacement’ came about

from a year of experimenting with a new creative idea after

the allotted photo-call time with the dancers. Simon had

included his experimental photographs in his portfolio when

he met with Artistic Producer of Pavilion Dance South West,

Ian Abbott. Ian liked Simon’s new style and suggested he

work with Urban Playground Team who were rehearsing their

“performance parkour” for their UK premier of Run This Town

at Pavilion Dance South West. Urban Playground Team blend

parkour with urban and contemporary dance into what they

call “performance parkour”. The photographs Simon tookwere made even more striking with the help of the team’s

lighting designer, Chris Umney.

“The photographs show notonly the control the dancershave over their bodies but also

the energy that they exudewhile performing”

Sasha Biloshitsky in ‘Run

this town’ by The Urban

Playground Team at Pavilion

Dance South West

© S I M O N T O M K I

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Simon’s photographs aim to focus on the

emotion and movement of the dancers he

is shooting and with this particular projecthe wanted to show the motion of movement

as well, rather than a captured or frozen

dancer. He wanted to add an extra layer

to the movement in his photographs. The

photographs in his exhibition show not onlythe control the dancers have over their bodies

but also the energy that they exude while

moving and performing. All the photographs

were created entirely in camera with no post

production techniques. The photographs

were taken over two days and Simon was able

to show the shots to the dancers and discuss

the images in between and after taking them.

Simon is pleased with how far his

technique has progressed after spending

a year experimenting with his camera and

lighting to produce work he was happy to

exhibit and find a style he can call his own; a

unique style that shows the dynamic nature

of movement without manipulation The

photographs that Simon takes are the result

of what the dancers give on the day, how they

perform and how they interpret their art form

for the camera. He now plans to experiment

with showing the audience a different view of

dancers, as if the audience is part of the dance.

To find out more about Simon’sphotography you can visit his website: www.

simontomkinson.com.

Jane Cuppage

Top: Maria Kochetkova in ‘Trio’ by

San Francisco Ballet at Sadler’s Wells

Above: Vitor Luiz and Maria

Kochetkova in ‘Symphonic Dances’ by

San Francisco Ballet at Sadler’s Wells



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