Sally Banes
Encyclopedia
Sally Banes is a notable dance historian
, writer, and critic
.
, a suburb of Washington, D.C., Banes studied dance, and particularly ballet, throughout her childhood. She attended the University of Chicago
and graduated in 1972 with an interdisciplinary degree in criticism, art, and theater. While at college she worked as a lighting assistant and wardrobe mistress. She also belonged to a group known as The Collective. Joining in 1970, Banes became one of several actors who met several times a week to collaborate on work. These collectively written theater pieces were performed in workshops as well as public performances.
After graduating college, Banes continued to live and work in Chicago. In 1974 she founded the Community Discount Players which was a loosely organized company of actors, dancers, filmmakers and visual artists. Like The Collective, the Community Discount Players focused on collaboration to produce work and performances. She also founded MoMing, which was a collectively owned theater where actors and dancers could come to teach one another class. It also provided an environment for further collaborative efforts and the performance of these partnerships. This is where she first performed for Kenneth King
. She also performed in ‘’Paris/Chacon’’, a dance-theater collaboration by Meredith Monk
and Ping Chong
.
In 1976 Banes moved to New York City. She continued exploring the post-modern world and attended workshops with members of Judson Dance. She also performed for Simone Forti
, Kenneth King
, and Meredith Monk
. As she grew older, Banes continued to take dance classes in both Chicago and New York City. She studied ballet with Ed Parish and Peter Saul. She also studied modern with Jim Self, Maggie Kast, and Shirley Mordine as well as taking class at both the Martha Graham
and Merce Cunningham
studios. At one point she raised $70,000 for an alternative multicultural bicentennial celebration.
While in New York she continued her education by enrolling in NYU’s Department of Graduate Drama. She earned her PhD with a dissertation on Judson Dance Theater. This dissertation was later published as ‘’Democracy’s Body: Judson Dance Theater, 1962–1964’’. While doing her doctorate work she studied from and with some of the biggest names in dance research. Her doctoral advisor was Michael Kirby and she also learned from Deborah Jowitt
, John Mueller
, Dale Harris, Gretchen Schneider, David Vaughan
, and Selma Jeanne Cohen
. Some of her classmates were Sally Sommer, Barbara Barker, Brenda Dixon-Gottschild and Joan Acocella
.
Banes is married to fellow art and film philosopher Noel Carroll
. In May 2002 Banes suffered a massive stroke, from which she never recovered. She remains cognitively and physically severely handicapped.
and ending at a popular local bar, Jimmy's. The audience followed the performers from the lagoon and down 57th Street while listening to a Charlie Parker
record on repeat and having soy beans thrown at them. On the way, the performance traveled through Banes' apartment, conveniently located on 57th Street, where they were greeted by her grandmother. They exited onto her back porch and continued on. When it became dark nightgown-clad dancers appeared in the large lighted windows of the Regenstein Library
as the performance continued to its end at Jimmy's. This work was meant to be a celebration of Hyde Park as well as the blurring lines between everyday life and art.
Banes also collaborated with Ellen Mazer on a series of works about an imaginary 19th century woman named "Sophie", who was "sometimes a ballerina, sometimes a communist." In the piece Sophie Eats Shrimp, Banes and Mazer load cartons on and off a rental truck. In another piece an old fashioned washing machine and pieces of broken glass litter the stage. Banes continued to explore "Sophie" upon reaching New York in her piece Sophie Heightens the Contradiction which was performed at P.S. 122 in 1983.
. Sweet Home Chicago: The Real City Guide, coauthored by Banes, was her first published book. One day, a colleague approached her with a proposition. This colleague had been commissioned to write a book about modern dance, but was claustrophobic and therefore could not sit through shows. Banes took over the project and decided that the best way to learn how to write about dance was to practice. Thus, she convinced her editor at the Chicago Reader to allow her to write dance critiques, and eventually became the Dance Editor. This book eventually became Terpsichore in Sneakers: Post-Modern Dance, published in 1980. She stayed at the Reader until 1976 when she moved to New York City.
Upon reaching New York she continued working as a dance critic for the Village Voice, the Soho Weekly News and Dance Magazine
. as well as working as editor for the Dance Research Journal from 1982 to 1988. Since these times she has authored eight major books about dance, frequently of the post-modern era.
On top of an extensive written portfolio, Banes has taught at various institutions. She was an assistant professor at Florida State University
in 1980. From 1981 to 1986 she taught at SUNY Purchase. From 1986 to 1988 she taught at Wesleyan University
and from 1988 to 1991 she taught at Cornell University
. Finally, starting in 1991 she began teaching at University of Wisconsin – Madison where she is currently the Marian Hannah Winter Professor of Theater and Dance Studies. She was also the chair of the dance program at UW – Madison from 1992 to 1996.
Banes is a past president and Honorary Fellow of the Society of Dance History Scholars
. In 1989 and 1998 she presented at the Society of Dance History Scholars Conference. The first time her lecture was titled "Merce Cunningham's Story". The second conference she presented "The Last Conversation: Eisenstein's Carmen Ballet".
Terpsichore in Sneakers: Post-modern Dance (1987)
This work is a history and critical study of post-modern dance. It specifically focuses on certain choreographers and their styles, motivations, goals and works. The choreographers include Simone Forti
, Yvonne Rainer
, Steve Paxton
, Trisha Brown
, David Gordon, Deborah Hay
, Lucinda Childs
, Meredith Monk
, Kenneth King
, Douglas Dunn
and The Grand Union
.
Democracy's Body: Judson Dance Theater, 1962–1964 (1993)
A history of the revolutionary Judson Dance Theater
, whose choreographers and works represented the beginning of the post-modern movement, it not only tells the story of Judson Dance Theater but describes the dances produced by those in the group and the dynamics of the group's working relationships.
Greenwich Village 1963: Avant-garde Performance and the Effervescent Body (1993)
This book focuses on the year 1963 and the changing face of the art world. It specifically focuses on Greenwich Village
and the performing arts.
Writing Dancing in the Age of Postmodernism (1994)
This book is an anthology of published and unpublished essays and talks about dance since the 1970s. Through this collection, as well as the evolution of her own writing and style of analysis, Banes explores the evolution of postmodern dance throughout the 60s, 70s, and 80s.
Dancing Women: Female Bodies on Stage (1998)
Banes' attempts to retell the familiar dance canonical history from the purely feminist perspective. She covers everything from mid nineteenth century Romantic ballet
in France and Denmark
to historical modern dance
of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s in Germany and the United States to contemporary ballet
from the 1930s to the 1950s in Europe and the United States.
Subversive Expectations: Performance Art and Paratheater in New York 1976–1985 (1998)
This book is a collection of Banes’ reviews and articles concerning New York performance art
and paratheater from 1976 to 1985. These articles were published chiefly in the Village Voice and the Soho Weekly News, two alternative publications based in New York City. This time period was the height of the performance art genre, which had surpassed other forms of avant-garde to become “the preeminent form of avant-garde art.” This volume contains 90 articles and reviews including those of Yvonne Rainer
, Meredith Monk
, The Ringling Brothers
, and Whoopi Goldberg
.
Reinventing Dance in the 1960s: Everything was Possible (2003)
This book is a collection of essays analyzing the revolutionary and experimental art world of the 1960s. It consists of eleven essays, including one by Banes herself and a section of choreographer's statements from the White Oak PASTForward project, organized by Mikhail Baryshnikov. These choreographers include Trisha Brown, Lucinda Childs, Simone Forti, David Gordon, Deborah Hay, Steve Paxton, and Yvonne Rainer.
Before, Between, and Beyond: Three Decades of Dance Writing (2007)
This book is a collection of Banes' reviews encompassing and incredible history of dancers and choreographers. These reviews feature everything from very early Bill T. Jones
/Arnie Zane
performances, to the beginnings of Pilobolus, to the discovery of breakdancing, to the world's introduction to Elizabeth Streb
, as a performer.
. The Society of Dance History Scholars has also given her a similar lifetime achievement award and Banes has won a Bessie Award for her Lifetime Contribution to Dance Criticism.
There is also a Biennial Sally Banes Publication Prize in her honor. This prize awards $500 to the publication that best explores the intersection of theater and dance or movement and has been published within the previous two years. The nominees are judged based on the innovation and rigor with which they explore their topic and the intersection therein. The first Publication Prize will be awarded in 2009.
Dance History
Dance History is a compilation album by hip-hop duo The Outhere Brothers, released in 2005.-Track listing:#"Don't Stop "#"Boom Boom Boom"#"La La La "#"Mami Te Quiero" #"Bring That Ass Over Here"#"Fuk U"...
, writer, and critic
Dance criticism
Dance criticism is the act of writing or speaking about a performance dance .Most major national newspapers of first world countries cover the arts in some form and dance criticism may be included as a part of this arts coverage....
.
Sally Banes is recognized as an expert on the current dance scene and the new trends that are continually appearing in the art. She is one of the few people who, by studying the politics, theory, and techniques of dance, is able to distill and make sense of the power and force this present generation of dancers and choreographers exerts on society. – Charles Flachs, Associate Professor of Dance, Mount Holyoke CollegeMount Holyoke CollegeMount Holyoke College is a liberal arts college for women in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It was the first member of the Seven Sisters colleges, and served as a model for some of the others...
Although she was only ten years old when the decade began, Sally Banes was a child of the 1960s. She believed in its liberatory promise and the idea that everything was possible, above all for artists who stood at the vanguard of both social and artistic change. – Lynn Garafola, Before Between Beyond: Three Decades of Dance Writing
Life, education, and performance career
Growing up in Silver Spring, MarylandSilver Spring, Maryland
Silver Spring is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It had a population of 71,452 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth most populous place in Maryland, after Baltimore, Columbia, and Germantown.The urbanized, oldest, and...
, a suburb of Washington, D.C., Banes studied dance, and particularly ballet, throughout her childhood. She attended the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
and graduated in 1972 with an interdisciplinary degree in criticism, art, and theater. While at college she worked as a lighting assistant and wardrobe mistress. She also belonged to a group known as The Collective. Joining in 1970, Banes became one of several actors who met several times a week to collaborate on work. These collectively written theater pieces were performed in workshops as well as public performances.
After graduating college, Banes continued to live and work in Chicago. In 1974 she founded the Community Discount Players which was a loosely organized company of actors, dancers, filmmakers and visual artists. Like The Collective, the Community Discount Players focused on collaboration to produce work and performances. She also founded MoMing, which was a collectively owned theater where actors and dancers could come to teach one another class. It also provided an environment for further collaborative efforts and the performance of these partnerships. This is where she first performed for Kenneth King
Kenneth King (dancer)
Kenneth King is an American post-modern dancer and choreographer who is best known for his experimentations with dance and multimedia...
. She also performed in ‘’Paris/Chacon’’, a dance-theater collaboration by Meredith Monk
Meredith Monk
Meredith Jane Monk is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, filmmaker, and choreographer. Since the 1960s, Monk has created multi-disciplinary works which combine music, theatre, and dance, recording extensively for ECM Records.-Life and work:Meredith Monk is primarily known for her...
and Ping Chong
Ping Chong
Ping Chong is an American contemporary theater director, choreographer, video and installation artist. He was born in Toronto and raised in the Chinatown section of New York City...
.
In 1976 Banes moved to New York City. She continued exploring the post-modern world and attended workshops with members of Judson Dance. She also performed for Simone Forti
Simone Forti
Simone Forti , a postmodern American choreographer and musician, was born in Italy but moved to the United States at a young age. Throughout her career she became known for a style of dancing and choreography that was largely based on basic everyday movements, such as games and children's...
, Kenneth King
Kenneth King (dancer)
Kenneth King is an American post-modern dancer and choreographer who is best known for his experimentations with dance and multimedia...
, and Meredith Monk
Meredith Monk
Meredith Jane Monk is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, filmmaker, and choreographer. Since the 1960s, Monk has created multi-disciplinary works which combine music, theatre, and dance, recording extensively for ECM Records.-Life and work:Meredith Monk is primarily known for her...
. As she grew older, Banes continued to take dance classes in both Chicago and New York City. She studied ballet with Ed Parish and Peter Saul. She also studied modern with Jim Self, Maggie Kast, and Shirley Mordine as well as taking class at both the Martha Graham
Martha Graham
Martha Graham was an American modern dancer and choreographer whose influence on dance has been compared with the influence Picasso had on modern visual arts, Stravinsky had on music, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.She danced and choreographed for over seventy years...
and Merce Cunningham
Merce Cunningham
Mercier "Merce" Philip Cunningham was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of the American avant-garde for more than 50 years. Throughout much of his life, Cunningham was considered one of the greatest creative forces in American dance...
studios. At one point she raised $70,000 for an alternative multicultural bicentennial celebration.
While in New York she continued her education by enrolling in NYU’s Department of Graduate Drama. She earned her PhD with a dissertation on Judson Dance Theater. This dissertation was later published as ‘’Democracy’s Body: Judson Dance Theater, 1962–1964’’. While doing her doctorate work she studied from and with some of the biggest names in dance research. Her doctoral advisor was Michael Kirby and she also learned from Deborah Jowitt
Deborah Jowitt
Deborah Jowitt is an American dance critic, author, and choreographer. Her career in dance began as a performer and choreographer. Jowitt has received several awards for her work, including a Bessie for her work in dance criticism.Beginning in 1967, she wrote a weekly dance column for the Village...
, John Mueller
John Mueller
John E. Mueller is a political scientist in the field of international relations as well as a scholar of the history of dance. He is recognized for his ideas concerning "the banality of ethnic war" and the theory that major world conflicts are quickly becoming obsolete.-Career:He received his A.B...
, Dale Harris, Gretchen Schneider, David Vaughan
David Vaughan (dance archivist)
David Vaughan is the archivist for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, as well as a dance writer and critic, and a scholar on the work of choreographer Frederick Ashton...
, and Selma Jeanne Cohen
Selma Jeanne Cohen
Selma Jeanne Cohen was a dance historian, editor, and teacher who devoted her career to advocating dance as an art worthy of the same scholarly respect traditionally awarded to painting, music, and literature...
. Some of her classmates were Sally Sommer, Barbara Barker, Brenda Dixon-Gottschild and Joan Acocella
Joan Acocella
Joan B. Acocella is an American journalist who is the dance and book critic for The New Yorker. She has written several books on dance, literature, and psychology....
.
Banes is married to fellow art and film philosopher Noel Carroll
Noël Carroll
Noël Carroll is an American philosopher considered to be one of the leading figures in contemporary philosophy of art. Although Professor Carroll is best known for his work in the philosophy of film, he works in general on philosophy of art, theory of media, and also philosophy of history...
. In May 2002 Banes suffered a massive stroke, from which she never recovered. She remains cognitively and physically severely handicapped.
Artistic work
Banes' first work, A Day in the Life of the Mind: Part 2, was created in collaboration with dancer Ellen Mazer. It was a day long performance beginning at the lagoon in Hyde ParkHyde Park, Chicago
Hyde Park, located on the South Side of the City of Chicago, in Cook County, Illinois, United States and seven miles south of the Chicago Loop, is a Chicago neighborhood and one of 77 Chicago community areas. It is home to the University of Chicago, the Hyde Park Art Center, the Museum of Science...
and ending at a popular local bar, Jimmy's. The audience followed the performers from the lagoon and down 57th Street while listening to a Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
record on repeat and having soy beans thrown at them. On the way, the performance traveled through Banes' apartment, conveniently located on 57th Street, where they were greeted by her grandmother. They exited onto her back porch and continued on. When it became dark nightgown-clad dancers appeared in the large lighted windows of the Regenstein Library
Regenstein Library
The Joseph Regenstein Library is the main library of the University of Chicago, named after industrialist and philanthropist Joseph Regenstein. Holding over 7.9 million volumes, it is one of the largest repositories of books in the world, and is noted for its brutalist architecture.-History:The...
as the performance continued to its end at Jimmy's. This work was meant to be a celebration of Hyde Park as well as the blurring lines between everyday life and art.
Banes also collaborated with Ellen Mazer on a series of works about an imaginary 19th century woman named "Sophie", who was "sometimes a ballerina, sometimes a communist." In the piece Sophie Eats Shrimp, Banes and Mazer load cartons on and off a rental truck. In another piece an old fashioned washing machine and pieces of broken glass litter the stage. Banes continued to explore "Sophie" upon reaching New York in her piece Sophie Heightens the Contradiction which was performed at P.S. 122 in 1983.
Writing and research
Banes first worked for the Chicago Reader starting in 1973. Initially she was in charge of theater and restaurant reviews. She also wrote book reviews for the Chicago TribuneChicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
. Sweet Home Chicago: The Real City Guide, coauthored by Banes, was her first published book. One day, a colleague approached her with a proposition. This colleague had been commissioned to write a book about modern dance, but was claustrophobic and therefore could not sit through shows. Banes took over the project and decided that the best way to learn how to write about dance was to practice. Thus, she convinced her editor at the Chicago Reader to allow her to write dance critiques, and eventually became the Dance Editor. This book eventually became Terpsichore in Sneakers: Post-Modern Dance, published in 1980. She stayed at the Reader until 1976 when she moved to New York City.
Upon reaching New York she continued working as a dance critic for the Village Voice, the Soho Weekly News and Dance Magazine
Dance Magazine
Dance Magazine is an "influential" American trade publication for dance, currently published by the Macfadden Communications Group. It was first published in June 1927 as The American Dancer. William Como was its editor-in-chief from 1970 to his death in 1989. Wendy Perron became its editor-in...
. as well as working as editor for the Dance Research Journal from 1982 to 1988. Since these times she has authored eight major books about dance, frequently of the post-modern era.
On top of an extensive written portfolio, Banes has taught at various institutions. She was an assistant professor at Florida State University
Florida State University
The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
in 1980. From 1981 to 1986 she taught at SUNY Purchase. From 1986 to 1988 she taught at Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
and from 1988 to 1991 she taught at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
. Finally, starting in 1991 she began teaching at University of Wisconsin – Madison where she is currently the Marian Hannah Winter Professor of Theater and Dance Studies. She was also the chair of the dance program at UW – Madison from 1992 to 1996.
Banes is a past president and Honorary Fellow of the Society of Dance History Scholars
Society of Dance History Scholars
The Society of Dance History Scholars is a professional organization for dance historians in the United States and worldwide. Founded in 1978, it became a non-profit organization in 1983...
. In 1989 and 1998 she presented at the Society of Dance History Scholars Conference. The first time her lecture was titled "Merce Cunningham's Story". The second conference she presented "The Last Conversation: Eisenstein's Carmen Ballet".
Terpsichore in Sneakers: Post-modern Dance (1987)
This work is a history and critical study of post-modern dance. It specifically focuses on certain choreographers and their styles, motivations, goals and works. The choreographers include Simone Forti
Simone Forti
Simone Forti , a postmodern American choreographer and musician, was born in Italy but moved to the United States at a young age. Throughout her career she became known for a style of dancing and choreography that was largely based on basic everyday movements, such as games and children's...
, Yvonne Rainer
Yvonne Rainer
Yvonne Rainer is an American dancer, choreographer and filmmaker, whose work in these disciplines is frequently challenging and experimental. Her work is classified as minimalist art.- Early life :...
, Steve Paxton
Steve Paxton
Steve Paxton is an experimental dancer and choreographer. His early background was in gymnastics while his later training included three years with Merce Cunningham and a year with José Limón. As a founding member of the Judson Dance Theater, he performed works by Yvonne Rainer and Trisha Brown...
, Trisha Brown
Trisha Brown
Trisha Brown is a postmodernist American choreographer and dancer.Brown was born in Aberdeen, Washington, and received a B.A. degree in dance from Mills College in 1958. Brown later received a D.F.A. from Bates College in 2000. For several summers she studied with Louis Horst at the American Dance...
, David Gordon, Deborah Hay
Deborah Hay
-Life and work:Deborah Hay was born in 1941 in Brooklyn. Her mother was her first dance teacher and directed her training until she was a teenager. Hay moved at age 19 to Downtown, Manhattan in the 1960s, where she continued her training with Merce Cunningham and Mia Slavenska...
, Lucinda Childs
Lucinda Childs
Lucinda Childs is an American postmodern dancer/choreographer. Her compositions are known for their minimalistic movements yet complex transitions. Childs is most famous for being able to turn the slightest movements into an intricate choreographic masterpiece...
, Meredith Monk
Meredith Monk
Meredith Jane Monk is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, filmmaker, and choreographer. Since the 1960s, Monk has created multi-disciplinary works which combine music, theatre, and dance, recording extensively for ECM Records.-Life and work:Meredith Monk is primarily known for her...
, Kenneth King
Kenneth King (dancer)
Kenneth King is an American post-modern dancer and choreographer who is best known for his experimentations with dance and multimedia...
, Douglas Dunn
Douglas Dunn (Choreographer)
Douglas Dunn is an American postmodern dancer and choreographer. He is considered a highly eclectic and minimalist postmodern choreographer, who uses humor, props, and text in his dances.-Training and education:...
and The Grand Union
Grand Union (dance group)
The Grand Union was an improvisational dance group based in New York City from 1970 to 1976. It grew out of Yvonne Rainer's piece Continuous Project - Altered Daily. Rainer's sole authority as choreographer began to slip in early 1970 when the dancers, at her invitation, began to bring in their...
.
Rainer, Simone Forti, Steve Paxton, and other post-modern choreographers of the sixties were not united in terms of their aesthetic. Rather, they were united by their radical approach to choreography, their urge to reconceive the medium of dance. – Sally Banes, Terpsichore in Sneakers: Post-modern Dance
Democracy's Body: Judson Dance Theater, 1962–1964 (1993)
A history of the revolutionary Judson Dance Theater
Judson Dance Theater
Judson Dance Theater was an informal group of dancers who performed at the Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village, Manhattan New York City between 1962 and 1964. It grew out of a dance composition class taught by Robert Dunn, a musician who had studied with John Cage...
, whose choreographers and works represented the beginning of the post-modern movement, it not only tells the story of Judson Dance Theater but describes the dances produced by those in the group and the dynamics of the group's working relationships.
The choreographers of the Judson Dance Theater radically questioned dance aesthetics, both in their dances and in their weekly discussions. They rejected the codification of both ballet and modern dance. They questioned the traditional dance concert format and explored the nature of dance performance. They also discovered a cooperative method for producing dance concerts... Attracting a grassroots audience of Greenwich VillageGreenwich VillageGreenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
artists and intellectuals, the Judson Dance Theater affected the entire community and flourished as a popular center of experimentation. – Sally Banes, Democracy's Body: Judson Dance Theater, 1962–1964
Greenwich Village 1963: Avant-garde Performance and the Effervescent Body (1993)
This book focuses on the year 1963 and the changing face of the art world. It specifically focuses on Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
and the performing arts.
A distinctively twentieth-century, postwar, postindustrialist American avant-garde art: democratic yet sophisticated, vigorous and physical, playful yet down-to-earth, freely mixing high and low, academic and vernacular traditions, genres and media. There was a feeling – so unlike the early 1990s – that all things were possible... and permitted. – Sally Banes, Greenwich Village 1963: Avant-garde Performance and the Effervescent Body
Writing Dancing in the Age of Postmodernism (1994)
This book is an anthology of published and unpublished essays and talks about dance since the 1970s. Through this collection, as well as the evolution of her own writing and style of analysis, Banes explores the evolution of postmodern dance throughout the 60s, 70s, and 80s.
Perhaps to some readers this collection simply will appear to be a mélange. But I am convinced that it is emblematic of postmodernism, in a number of ways. It is, first of all, concerned with crossovers between 'high' and 'low' dance cultures – the avant-garde, the popular, the commercial, and the vernacular. Moreover, it analyzes relationships between mainstream dance and its counterstreams, which contest, challenge, subvert, and undermine the mainstream traditions. In terms of methodology, my approach is postmodernist in that it has a tendency toward the contextual, historical, and ethnographic. It is also concerned with bringing the margins to the center. – Sally Banes, Writing Dancing in the Age of Postmodernism
Dancing Women: Female Bodies on Stage (1998)
Banes' attempts to retell the familiar dance canonical history from the purely feminist perspective. She covers everything from mid nineteenth century Romantic ballet
Romantic ballet
The Romantic ballet is defined primarily by an era in ballet in which the ideas of Romanticism in art and literature influenced the creation of ballets. The era occurred during the early to mid 19th century primarily at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique of the Paris Opera Ballet and Her...
in France and Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
to historical modern dance
Modern dance
Modern dance is a dance form developed in the early 20th century. Although the term Modern dance has also been applied to a category of 20th Century ballroom dances, Modern dance as a term usually refers to 20th century concert dance.-Intro:...
of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s in Germany and the United States to contemporary ballet
Contemporary ballet
Contemporary ballet is a form of dance which incorporates elements of both classical ballet and modern dance. It takes its technique and use of pointework from classical ballet, although it permits a greater range of movement that may not adhere to the strict body lines set forth by schools of...
from the 1930s to the 1950s in Europe and the United States.
In each chapter I focus on one or several dances, in order to retell the story of Western theatrical dancing from a woman-centered perspective. I analyze of representations of women are constructed in major works of the theatrical dance canon written by both men and women. Setting the creation of these works in socio-political and cultural context, I show that choreographers have created images of women that are shaped by – and that in part shape – society’s continuing debates about sexuality and female identity. I argue that the dance stage has often reflected and reinforced, but has also formed and in some cases criticized cultural conceptions of corporeality – in particular, conceptions of women’s bodies and identities – and that through dance, men’s attitudes toward women and women’s attitudes about themselves are literally given body on stage. – Sally Banes, Dancing Women: Female Bodies on Stage
Subversive Expectations: Performance Art and Paratheater in New York 1976–1985 (1998)
This book is a collection of Banes’ reviews and articles concerning New York performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
and paratheater from 1976 to 1985. These articles were published chiefly in the Village Voice and the Soho Weekly News, two alternative publications based in New York City. This time period was the height of the performance art genre, which had surpassed other forms of avant-garde to become “the preeminent form of avant-garde art.” This volume contains 90 articles and reviews including those of Yvonne Rainer
Yvonne Rainer
Yvonne Rainer is an American dancer, choreographer and filmmaker, whose work in these disciplines is frequently challenging and experimental. Her work is classified as minimalist art.- Early life :...
, Meredith Monk
Meredith Monk
Meredith Jane Monk is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, filmmaker, and choreographer. Since the 1960s, Monk has created multi-disciplinary works which combine music, theatre, and dance, recording extensively for ECM Records.-Life and work:Meredith Monk is primarily known for her...
, The Ringling Brothers
Ringling brothers
The Ringling brothers were seven siblings who transformed their small touring company of performers into one of America's largest circuses in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in McGregor, Iowa and raised in Baraboo, Wisconsin, they were the children of Heinrich Friedrich August Ringling...
, and Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg is an American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won...
.
Unlike mainstream theater productions, which can flourish or die according to critical reaction, performance art – usually operating on a shoestring budget or with funding subsidies – did not depend on a critical mass of spectators for economic well-being. And alternative press critics like me certainly did not wield the make-or-break power of the mainstream press. In any case, most of the performances were one-night stands or short runs and had ended by the time my reviews were published. So I felt a certain freedom in knowing that my role as a critic was not that of a judge, arbiter of taste, or consumer guide. Rather, my role was to join a longer-term conversation about performance art in a public yet immediate way. – Sally Banes, Subversive Expectations: Performance Art and Paratheater in New York 1976–1985
Reinventing Dance in the 1960s: Everything was Possible (2003)
This book is a collection of essays analyzing the revolutionary and experimental art world of the 1960s. It consists of eleven essays, including one by Banes herself and a section of choreographer's statements from the White Oak PASTForward project, organized by Mikhail Baryshnikov. These choreographers include Trisha Brown, Lucinda Childs, Simone Forti, David Gordon, Deborah Hay, Steve Paxton, and Yvonne Rainer.
The 1960s was a decade of ferment in the arts, society, and politics. So many things that had been viewed complacently, in a world that seemed always to be the same as it ever was, were suddenly cast in a new light. And this led to a desire to cast off the old ways, to break all the rules, to find new directions and new freedoms. There were no limits, nothing that could not be tried, from rising up to protest injustices like racism, sexism, and the Vietnam War to ingesting mind-expanding drugs to sexual experimentation. – Sally Banes, Reinventing Dance in the 1960s: Everything was Possible
Before, Between, and Beyond: Three Decades of Dance Writing (2007)
This book is a collection of Banes' reviews encompassing and incredible history of dancers and choreographers. These reviews feature everything from very early Bill T. Jones
Bill T. Jones
Bill T. Jones is an American artistic director, choreographer and dancer.-Early life:Jones was born in Bunnell, Florida and his family moved North as part of the Great Migration in the first half of the twentieth century. They settled in Wayland, New York, where Jones attended Wayland High School...
/Arnie Zane
Arnie Zane
Arnie Zane was an American photographer, choreographer, and dancer. He is best known as the co-founder and co-artistic director of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company.-Early years:...
performances, to the beginnings of Pilobolus, to the discovery of breakdancing, to the world's introduction to Elizabeth Streb
Elizabeth Streb
Elizabeth Streb is an American choreographer, performer, and teacher of contemporary dance.-Background:Streb was born and raised in Rochester, New York and, after graduating from the dance program of State University of New York at Brockport in 1972, she was interested in experimental works and...
, as a performer.
Many of the emerging artists Banes reviewed are now luminaries of the historical canon... Like all collections of dance reviews, this one not only provides a valuable register of dances and dancers, it also points out the importance and responsibility of dance criticism as it engages with an art form whose history largely exists in movement, in a culture that privileges what can be written down. &nash; Andrea Harris, Before, Between, and Beyond: Three Decades of Dance Writing
Awards and honors
In 2003, Banes won the Lifetime Achievement Award for her Outstanding Contribution to Dance Research from the Congress on Research in DanceCongress on Research in Dance
Congress on Research in Dance is an international non-profit interdisciplinary society for dance researchers, artists, performers and choreographers. CORD publishes the Dance Research Journal, and sponsors annual conferences which distribute annual awards...
. The Society of Dance History Scholars has also given her a similar lifetime achievement award and Banes has won a Bessie Award for her Lifetime Contribution to Dance Criticism.
There is also a Biennial Sally Banes Publication Prize in her honor. This prize awards $500 to the publication that best explores the intersection of theater and dance or movement and has been published within the previous two years. The nominees are judged based on the innovation and rigor with which they explore their topic and the intersection therein. The first Publication Prize will be awarded in 2009.