have never had an opportunity to do anything that was so bottom line. This is the real stuff. Where do you go from here? You know, this is dying or living. What people are capable of doing when they’re motivated is astonishing. And one man who was scheduled for a blood transfusion didn’t have to have one, his T-cell count went up from 40 to 250 in five days which means his immune system has strengthened. So that dance, in terms of dealing with an issue, was for me the most successful because it worked one hundred percent.
NANCY: How is an event both successful on the level of the issue, and to you artistically? It has to be meaningful and authentic, and at the same time it has to “work.”
ANNA: That’s right. My greatest challenge is to confront issues authentically and at the same time develop scores that generate powerful creativity for the dancers. I want social issues to be expressed imaginatively and in what to me is good art. I’m terribly concerned that when I take on a social issue it should not completely over-shadow the artistic aspect. This has been a problem for me.
I wasn’t excited about the first few mountain series dances, because I was still working with a limited company concept. And I didn’t feel the form was original or sufficiently reflective of the content. I didn’t start getting excited until we started working with groups of 100 people and I could begin working with all kinds of people, dancers and nondancers who were totally committed to the issues of peace and healing. And working under the pressure of five days to create and perform the dance meant that participants were required to cooperate at a very high state of alertness. And by necessity the scores had to be essential and archetypal.
I guess I’m also, at heart, a theater person. I’ve been in theater all my life and I think of myself as an artist, a theater artist. I was at a dance critics conference and I was referred to as doing religious dance. I don’t do religious dance! It’s not religious, it’s not political, it’s not therapy, it’s not anthropology, it’s not sociology, and yet it’s all of those things. I’ve come to trust that because I am an artist, and come from that perspective, that what I make is art.
NOTE
Nancy Stark Smith is the editor of Contact Quarterly in collaboration with Lisa Nelson. She is one of the leading innovators of Contact Improvisation.
THE MARIN COUNTY DANCE CO-OPERATIVES:
TEACHING DANCE TO CHILDREN
I began to teach dance to children in 1940 as a student intern at the University of Wisconsin where I was getting my undergraduate degree. In Boston (1942-43) I taught children again, both at a settlement house for impoverished youth and at a private school for children from wealthy families. I learned an important lesson during these years about the environmental influences on movement, socialization, and childhood development. When I moved to Marin County I became instrumental in developing the Marin County Dance Co-operatives (1947), and through the Dance Co-op I taught dance for the next twenty-five years to children in the community where I lived. I loved teaching children, although I did not value it in the same way I valued my life as a performing artist, and I learned many things about creativity and spontaneity from children, which later found their way into my work as a performer and teacher of other artists.
The following text is excerpted from my writings of 1949-57.
THE MARIN COUNTY DANCE CO-OPERATIVES
The Marin County Dance Co-operatives are a collective enterprise, fueled by the energy of the parents, children, and all the communities involved. The mothers assume the responsibility of management. Together, they design exhibits and posters and plan special events to keep the whole community informed of the activities of the dance co-operatives. The purpose of the Dance Co-ops is to give Bay Area children and adults an experience in creative dance and an awareness of the potential of rhythm and movement as they are manifest in daily life. The co-operatives are entirely independent organizations functioning under the management and supervision of community members. The Dancers’ Workshop faculty provides qualified instruction and assures the maintenance of the highest possible educational standards, but it is the voluntary participation of the parents and friends which makes these classes possible at a minimum cost and well within the means of the average family group.1 At this time, there are fifteen dance co-ops functioning in various communities in the area and it has been estimated that these co-operatives provide direct opportunities for dance training to more than two thousand people each year.
The children are fully participating on all levels: they’re making music; they’re in their own circle; they are supporting one of their playmates; they’re being given responsibility to create their own experience.
Photo by Ernest Braun, 1953.
From the response of the children, the teacher gets her cue whether to dance about fairies and flowers or fire engines and scribbly houses.
Photographer Unknown.
The Marin County Dance Co-operatives are a fascinating and successful example of the organic development of dance within the life of a modern community. To my knowledge, these co-operatives constitute a unique experiment in the United States. After three years, they have grown in size, number and general community acceptance. Every indication exists that they fulfill a real need in the life of this California community. We believe the story of the Marin County Dance Co-operatives is applicable to other communities and other areas of life.
The immediate stimulus for beginning the co-operatives was a children’s demonstration of dance that I coordinated. Some Marin County parents were present and pounced on the idea of dance classes with great enthusiasm. They decided at once that Marin should have dance classes of that sort and determined to organize the classes themselves. Meetings were called by the parents, and almost overnight, a space was allocated for classes, which started naturally enough with the little girls. Soon there were demands for boys classes, and the mothers bought themselves leotards. Classes grew and grew, and the co-operatives became more active. Soon dance concerts and demonstrations were sponsored and dance literature was made available to the community. The moving force behind the whole organization are the hardworking mothers who, having organized the classes, collected tuition, checked on attendance, and arranged for classrooms, keep the co-operatives functioning. They have not only kept the classes active and alive, but have made the whole idea an important element in the life of the community. Through them, dance has extended its influence throughout the whole fabric of Marin County.
What is the significance of the Marin County Dance Co-operatives? First, they are symbolic of the possibility of re-establishing a community’s direct participation in an art form. Second, the dance artist and teacher has been given the dignity of place within her own community. Third, because of the non-profit element of the co-operative, large numbers of people can afford dance classes. This will, it is hoped, raise the level of excellence in the dance product.
Probably the most exciting aspect of this experiment is to see art fuse with the life of a community, to watch its influence on children and adults, and to see it grow from something alien and esoteric to something very alive and close and fun to be part of—truly a co-operative, communal enterprise.
