Dance Writings and Poetry [Paperback]

Edwin Denby (Author), Mr. Robert Cornfield (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 10, 1998

Edwin Denby, who died in 1983, was the most important and influential American dance critic of this century. His reviews and essays, which he wrote for almost thirty years, were possessed of a voice, vision, and passion as compelling and inspiring as his subject. He was also a poet of distinction -- a friend to Frank O'Hara, James Schuyler, and John Ashbery. This book presents a sampling of his reviews, essays, and poems, an exemplary collection that exhibits the elegance, lucidity, and timelessness of Denby's writings.

The volume includes Denby's reactions to choreography ranging from Martha Graham to George Balanchine to the Rockettes, as well as his reflections on such general topics as dance in film, dance criticism, and meaning in dance. Denby's writings are presented chronologically, and they not only provide a picture of how his dance theories and reviewing methods evolved but also give an informal history of dance in New York from the late 1930s to the early 1960s. The book -- the Only collection of Denby's writings currently in print -- is an essential resource for students and lover of dance.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Denby (1903-83), a major dance critic as well as a poet, wrote for Modern Music (1936-42), the New York Herald Tribune (1942-45), and many dance magazines. In his writings, he passionately reflected on the art form, observing the emergence and development of many seminal figures, including George Balanchine, Martha Graham, Leonide Massine, and Frederick Ashton. When read chronologically, his observations on specific performances, dance criticism, and the meaning of dance amount to the creation of a dance aesthetic that he shared with readers for more than 30 years. His literary talents also found an outlet in the writing of librettos and poetry. Although Denby's writings have been compiled before, most notably in Dancers, Buildings, and People in the Street (1965), this volume is the only one currently in print. Denby's significant voice should be added to all collections in which he is not already represented.AJoan Stahl, National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

...the selection of dance pieces is very good, and for anyone who has not yet read Denby, this book is a godsend. -- The New York Times Book Review, Rick Whitaker

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; First Edition edition (September 10, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300069855
• ISBN-13: 978-0300069853
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,023,985 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A necessary book: among the best critics, beautiful poems., October 24, 1998

By 

Silex Juicit (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dance Writings and Poetry (Paperback)

Don't be buffaloed by Times reviewer: Denby's poems are American treasures, not "quaint" in any way; they are densely wrought, large scale beyond their compact sonnet formats, piquant. & yes, as critic, Denby is among the topmost immortals -- meaning he ranks with Diderot, Shaw, Baudelaire. Poems & dance writings both put forth companionable, no-nonsense, strict, generous urbane attitude: "Dance criticism has two different aspects: one is being made drunk for a second by seeing something happen; the other is expressing lucidly what you saw when you were drunk." And: "Actual events are obscure/ Though the observers appear clear."

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Edwin Denby defines the terms of dancewriting., February 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dance Writings and Poetry (Paperback)

Denby's Vocabulary

Frank O'Hara wrote of dancewriter Edwin Denby in his poem 'Edwin's Hand', that he was 'Easy to love, but/difficult to please,he/walks densely as a child/in the midst of spectacular/needs to understand.' A glimpse of Denby the man and the myth peek through in a new book of his prose DANCE WRITINGS AND POETRY, Edited by Robert Cornfield, (Yale University Press, $40 hard, $18 soft). Cornfield notes in an introductory short-bio, that Denby had a background in art history, music, gymnastics, theater and began his career in the 20s as a dancer. This is the only book now in print of Denby's influencial dance articles. For almost thiry years Denby's eye was deftly focused on the evolution of dance in this century.

Denby's ability as a dance interpreter has a dramatic authority, if dated abstractness. His encylopedic knowledge of the history and connotations of every type of dance is always evident in his essays. This spectrum, as presented in the uneven 'Dance Writings', builds as a symposia on the world of dance, invovling complete aspects of academic, physical and aesthetic interrogation. And, to credit his anti-eliteism, his work, even at it most studied, has a conversational lightness. It is obvious that his evaluative powers were distinctive and unique. But you cannot help but wonder why he doesn't employ the economy in his writing that he would expect on the dance stage. Or red flag his own indulgences of style, something that he was obviously fond of doing when critiquing other artists.

Denby's mission was to define the terms of dancewriting and make it vital to the art form. To achieve "disentangling the pretensions of a ballet from it achievements." as he put in the essay 'Dance Criticism'. Often his method of dissection reads as too accurate and overstated, like that of a sharpshooter killing a faun and mounting it on the hood of his car. Denby himself sites a great reason for choreographers to be concise in a review of the first mounting of Balanchine's Apollo where he cites lines by Richard Howard on poetry, that advise, "...Always halve the line so that a rest is heard." But frequently fails to apply the tenet himself.

In his time and now, Denby enjoys a reputation as 'the final word' as a dance-theater historian. He was no doubt given broad licence by his editors at his reviewing posts for The Times Herald and Modern Music, among other publications. More theoretical in approach than descriptive, Denby often veers from dance reporting to his own conceptual impressions and emotional responses. Now, completely detached from the performances, his analysis is comes off as obtuse, sometimes even funny. Take for example a description of Martha Graham's company in her piece 'Chronicle', Denby writes, "Even her so-called angularity springs partly from a feat that the eye will be confused unless every muscle is given a definite job. The eye will be confused. But our bodily sense would not. Our bodily sense needs the rebound from a gesture, the variation of hard and soft muscle, of exact and general." Etc. Etc. Etc. I'll attempt to translate- Graham's pained looks and overwrought extentions detracted from her artistry. Denby gets so carried away with his themes that he can't resist stating the obvious, as in this observation, .."the musician exists not only as an instrument but also as a person." Deep.

Still, there is no doubt that Denby is a journalist with potent instincts. You get the sense that he is engaging in a broad discussion of dance as a vital human condition. In Brad Gooch's biography of O'Hara ('City Poet'), he is described as, "soft spoken, reserved and gentlemanly" and "that sitting next to Denby at the ballet felt like sitting next to a lightning rod."

The poetry section of the book is a curious and frustrating inclusion- intriguing, but decorative. Denby's character peeks through in his poems, with at times, a diarist's intimacy. In an introductory essay titled 'The Thrities', Denby describes his process in interpreting painting academically and emotionally. He speaks of the immediacy of a canvas and its after-image- the lingering affect. This quality can be said of many of his poems. In between frequent casualness, forced imagery and veiled homoerotica, unexpected clarity and lyrcism appear, particularly in his 'Mediterrean Cities' poems, demonstrated hauntingly in the sharp-faceted 'Delos'- Glistens a vivid phallus; marsh-born here before At a palm, cleft-suckled, a god he first came Who hurts and heals unlike love, and whom I fear; Will he return here? quickly we pluck dry flowers The sailor blows his conch; Delos disappears

With all of its faults 'Dance Writing and Poetry' still has great value as a reference for dance students, artists and writers. Read selectively, Denby can render a kinetic reality to the performance and performers with provocative imagery. And the essays about ballet history, neoclassicism, Nijinski and, most pointedly, the Balanchine revolution, remain invaluable contributions.

Lewis Whittington