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Primitivism, Modernism, and Dance Theory by
Marshall Cohen andPuppet Theatre by Heinrich
Von Kleist

• By
• Lindsay Kaufman
• and
• Lauren Garcia and Edited By Laura Pratt and Dr.
  Kay Picart

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Cohens Thoughts on Modernism

• According to the principle of modernism, the best
  works of art are _________________________________
  _______________________________________
• For example

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Cohens Thoughts on Modernism

• Sometimes Greenberg means by modernism not a
  refusal to _____________, but a refusal to
  _________________ of another medium. (171)

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Three Principles of Modernism

• According to Clement Greenberg, modernism is
  identified with a number of distinguishible ideas
  and it will be useful to separate them out.
  (170)
• They are.

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Three Principles of Modernism

• Frankness _______________________________________
  _________________________________
• Propriety _______________________________________
  _________________________________
• Minimalism ______________________________________
  __________________________

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Since dance is created in the medium of the
human body, dance should confine itself to
examining and revealing the qualities of human
movement in greater isolation, for its own sake,
and often as it is exhibited in the most
ordinary, least dance-like tasks. (162)

• Do you agree with this statement?

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Cohens Thoughts on Primitivism

• Cohen doesnt seem to believe in
  primitivism as a true form of dance in of itself.
  He states that the undiffterentiated unity of
  the primitive world is itself a mythand a modern
  one. Even if primitive mysteries are re-enacted,
  they are experienced by disassociated modern
  sensibilities and, as some say, only as an
  aesthetic phenomenon. (164)
• Do you feel that this view is cynical or extreme?
  Do you think that it is accurate?

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Von Kleists Puppet Theatre

• The best dancer or choreographer is someone who
  is like a puppet ____________________________

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Now, since the puppeteer can only have control
over this center of gravity through the medium of
his wires or strings, all the other limbs are, as
they should be, inert, mere pendulums, obeying
only the law of gravity an admirable quality
which one looks for in vain among the majority of
our dancers (181)

• Why is inertness an admirable quality? Is this
  an example of Primitivism, Modernism, or neither?

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Key Terms

• Modernism
• Primitivism
• Minimalism
• Frankness
• Propriety
• Medium
• Inertness

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Resources

• Marshall Cohen Primitivism, Modernism, and
  Dance Theory, and Heinrich Von Kleist Puppet
  Theory, from What is Dance? Roger Copeland and
  Marshall Cohen, Eds. Oxford University Press,
  NY 1983
• pages 161-184