The TWIST

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The TWIST is a social dance from the mid 20th
century with Afro-centric origins.
A notated version emphasizing the repeats shows
the isolated changes easily.
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This hand written version shows each repetition
fully in repeated patterns of symbol groupings
But, to my eyes, another pattern form begins to
emerge.
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Each time I show these notations to my classes,
they easily see how the arrangement of symbols in
patterns can be interpreted as textile patterns
from non-European cultures.
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With some imagination, these visual patterns
produced in the notation of a Afro-centric social
dance can transform into textile patterns kin to
the same cultural origins.
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Compare the visual elements in rhythm between an
original Kente textile pattern and the pattern
produced by the notation of a borrowed dance
form
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Kente Cerimonial Cloth
Kente Cloth pattern is designed to celebrate the
soul and spirit of life
Family Unity
More on Kente Cloth
Spiritual Achievement
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The dance called the TWIST, celebrated life and a
new age of music called ROCK ROLL!!!
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More about designers on africancrafts.com
Contemporary Ghana Textile Designs
by David Lojo
Estelle Carlson
Ghana textile
Ghana textile
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ART DECO
However, the orthography of this dance notation
system has its roots in a period of Western
design style. The influence of this period of art
and design shares ethnographic sources with other
cultural elements in design and textile patterns.
More on ART DECO
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Tea Room design Sophie Tauber-Arp
Born 19 January 1889 in Davos, Switzerland.
Attended the School of Applied Arts in St. Gallen
from 1908 to 1910, then transferred to Wilhelm
von Debschitz's Teaching and Experimental Studio
for Applied and Liberal Arts in München. Broke
off her studies there in 1912 to take up an
apprenticeship at the School of Applied Arts in
Hamburg. Became a member of the Swiss Werkbund in
1915. Taught textile design at the School of
Applied Arts in Zürich from 1916-1929. Also
started an independent artistic career in 1916,
which leads her to contacts with the Dadaists in
Zürich. Married Hans Arp in 1921. In 1926, she
receives the assignment to design the interior of
the Café Aubette in Straßburg - a task she
eventually shares with Hans Arp and Theo van
Doesburg. Of her art, she is best known for
paintings, graphic designs and drafts in
abstract, geometrical forms. Moved to Meudon with
Hans Arp in 1926, but is forced to flee to
southern France (due to German advances) in 1940.
Died in Zürich, 13 January 1943.
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Sophie Taueber and Zurich Dadaists - From 1916
through 1919 she was simultaneously a student of
Labans, one of the main performers in Zurich
Dada events, and also a Professor of Textile
Design and Technique at the School of Applied
Arts, Zurich.
Niama Prevost DRJ, vol 17, 1985
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Taeuber came from the world of the dance, but
also had a background in the decorative arts.
With their collages, paintings, watercolors,
engravings, reliefs, and embroidery, Hans Arp
(1886-1966) and Sophie Taeuber (1889-1943) -
later to become husband and wife - produced the
Zürich group's major works. Arp's beginnings were
Expressionistic, and show the influence of
Kandinsky's Blaue Reiter and Klänge woodcuts.
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On this subject, Arp declared "In 1915,
Sophie Taeuber and I did our first works based on
the simplest possible forms in painting,
embroidery, and collage. These were probably the
earliest manifestation of a new kind of art.
These works are Realities in themselves, without
meanings or cerebral intentions. We rejected
everything having to do with copying and
description to leave Simplicity and Spontaneity
in complete liberty. Since the arrangement of
surfaces, as well as their proportions and
colors, was left to chance alone, I said that
these works were arranged 'according to the law
of chance' found in nature, chance being for me a
tiny part of a greater order which, elusive and
inaccessible, cannot be wholly grasped. In
1916, Sophie Taeuber began to do nonfigurative
drawings, watercolors, and embroideries dominated
by horizontal and vertical structures, in reds,
blues, and yellows, arranged in two-dimensional
space. Her investigations along these lines led
to the creation of a masterpiece, the
Vertical-Horizontal Composition with Reciprocal
Triangles (1918, Zürich, Kunsthaus), a triptych
consisting of three identically-sized panels
structured in vertical strips which intersect
with several horizontals to define surfaces
painted in black, brown, various shades of red
(from orangey to pinkish), blues, and golds.
Sophie Taeuber soon transposed the aesthetic
principles found in her paintings to sculpture.
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In any Discussion of Dadais the more highly
publicized aspect that emphasized immediacy and
non-Western forms and ideas
Interest in ethnography by early vanguard artist
had to do with a fundamental shift from style
rooted in visual perception.
.to others based on conceptualization
More on DADA
Niama Prevost DRJ, vol 17, 1985
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Courage
Kente Cloth pattern is designed to celebrate the
soul and spirit of life
Hope
Spiritual Vitality
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Labans explorations of dance notation were
started, according to Mary Wigman, in 1914. When
Laban moved his school to Zurich in 1915, he
certainly continued his exploration into a symbol
system for recording dance.
Looking at Labans interaction with Zurich Dada,
it becomes clear that he was establishing new
directions in dance through an alliance with this
development in art.
Niama Prevost DRJ, vol 17, 1985
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Tea Room design Spophie Tauber-Arp
Laban and Tauber must certainly have provided a
mutuality of interests in their search for images
that penetrated the inner realities.
Niama Prevost DRJ, vol 17, 1985
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More on Rudolf von Laban
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