rm | Graham and such

Mark Ryder, one of the more famous Graham dancers, died recently. I just came across this picture of him dancing from the NYT's obit, and I link it here because I find it so evocative not just of Graham's work (for those not in the know, I studied at her school growing up), but also, perhaps oddly (perhaps not) of many, many things Crowley. Part of it is the quality of the photo (although it's actually rather later than any of the Crowley photos I'm thinking of, mainly since Crowley was dead by 1952), but part of it is also the precision and placement of the flesh. Graham was very specific about the hands of her dancers in a way that western dance generally isn't (graceful and "neutral" being about the extent of it generally), and it was one of the things I always liked about it.

I never really knew until I stopped dancing the Graham work how dated the stuff looks to watch, but it is a language, very clearly, and that is important.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/07/21/arts/21ryder_450.jpg