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The Myth of Modern Dance

This program explores performance artist Douglas Dunn's version of the way in which dancers have stepped their way through history. Dunn's theme here is that man has evolved through dance rather than through the physiological routes proposed by archeologists. Dunn begins by emerging from the mud prehistorically, does an interpretative dance to music of the English Renaissance, rises up from beneath a large drop cloth, walks and poses through a paint-splattered world, dances in aviator attire amid the clouds to the aria "Nessun Dorma" from the opera "Turandot," chants in a non-language while focusing on certain parts of his body, moves to Baroque cello music in quasi-period garb, talks about knowledge gleaned from fossil records, dances to a Mozart piano score, and closes the program with a dance to a traditional Hawaiian song while an English translation is spoken.

English
  • Originally Aired August 16, 1990
  • Runtime 25 minutes
  • Network PBS
  • Created July 15, 2021 by
    poopbucket
  • Modified July 15, 2021 by
    poopbucket