Sunday, February 16, 2014
Biography
Robert Ellis Dunn was born in 1928 and died in 1996. Born in Oklahoma, Dunn toured the world as a tap dancer, however his first lessons in the arts was with music. Dunn was an American musician and choreographer, and had a contribution to the birth of the postmodern dance period in the early 1960s in New York. He studied music theory at the New England Conservatory, and then started to study dance from 1955-1958 at the Boston Conservatory of Music. During his time at the Boston Conservatory is where Dunn first started working with Merce Cunningham. When Dunn would teach he urged his students to experiment with phrasing, musicality, technique, and order of sequence to develop a new style of dance. Dunn always believed dance was an evolving process. Dunn was given a 'Bessie' New York Dance and Performance Award in 1985, along with the American Dance Guild Award in 1988.
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I enjoyed reading the detailed information about Robert Dunn and Steve Paxton. It was clear to me what their influences were and also how they were involved with dance and music. I am not too familiar with what their work looks like, or exactly what their work is so it would be nice to see videos of their work. Is there any way to make the blog site start with the biographies? Overall, great findings about both artists and it was nice to learn about choreographers that I am not very familiar with. -Brooke Bloedorn
ReplyDeleteRobert Dunn's work is actually not online. He mostly did composition work so there is no video of his choreography per se and his music and composition is not online to listen to.
DeleteYes, I agree with the fact that there is a very limited amount of information about Robert Dunn's work. I couldn't even find a picture of him! He was a great composition teacher who pushed his students to question where specific movements came from and why they came from that place. This caused his students to believe that every movement that comes from the body has a meaning! Thank you for your input Brooke!
DeleteI really enjoyed reading through your site. I thought the information was extremely detailed and nicely written. I agree with Brooke's comment about putting their Biographies first. It would make it easier to get to know them before you dive into the detailed information.
ReplyDeleteThank you Anne and Brooke. In regards to your suggestion about putting the biographies first, we origonally posted the biographies first and then the rest of the information. So all of the other information appears to be listed first because it is the newest information and posts about Paxton and Dunn.
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