danceviewtimes

Dunas's Denby

Book: Edwin Denby – His Life, His Dance Essays, His Poetry
Author: William Dunas
Publication: 2008 in Woodside, NY, USA

by George Jackson
(copyright 2020 by George Jackson)  

This home-made book is a proposal for producing a professionally printed book. The proposal consists of many un-numbered pages of text contained in a black 3-ring folder. The text is photocopied only on the frontside of each sheet of firm white paper. On the cover is the basic bibliographic information and a 1964 drawing by Red Grooms of Denby in profile - he is typing. Dunas calls the book a “publishing fellowship proposal manuscript”. It is unlikely that the proposed book will ever become actual, yet the proposal serves as an autobiography of Dunas and a biography of Denby. The Dunas portion is amusing, somewhat confusing and ultimately sad. The Denby part is substantial. Who was Dunas and who was Denby?

Everything Dances

Everything Dances
Book: “Alles tanzt” issued by Andrea Amort
Published in 2019 by Vienna’s Austrian Theater Museum and Berlin’s Hatje Cantz

This big, weighty volume (almost 380 pages, 10.7 x 8.5 x 1.7 inches) has a German text with English summaries. In addition to the summaries, its plentiful and plush illustrations are proving to be of interest to those who do not read German. The book  served as catalog for the exhibit “Cosmos of Vienna Dance Modernism”. As a self-contained item, “Alles tanzt/(Everything dances)” tackles many aspects of modernism in addition to dance and does so from the late 19^th Century to nearly today. There are 3 forewords, 29 chapters and 4 addenda.  The main chapters are divided into 3 sections: the structure or anatomy of the modernist scene (Part 1), the rupture of that scene (Part 2) and aftermaths (Part 3). Topics in addition to dance that are  especially explored by the book’s diverse authors include women’s emancipation, psychology and psychoanalysis, and the political landscape.