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| 25th Biennial Conference of ICKL | |
| Escuela
Nacional de Danza Clásica y Contemporánea, Mexico July 29 (Arrival Day) - August 5 (Departure Day) 2007 |
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SESSIONS Paper Lester Horton’s The Beloved: Changing Views of Domestic Violence MARION, Sheila - USA Descriptions of Lester Horton’s The Beloved usually focus on Horton’s program notes about “sexual chauvinism” or “fanatic bigotry” (1). Critics have noted that “savagery imbues every moment of the dance, from its repressed opening to its brutal ending” (2). The dance is based on “a macabre tale of a religious fanatic who falsely suspects his wife of infidelity and murders her” (3); influenced, according to original cast member Bella Lewitzky, by a newspaper article Horton read about a man who “bludgeoned his wife to death with a bible” (4) In the U.S., throughout the 1800s, the period referenced by the dances’ costumes and minimal set, state laws and cultural practices supported a man’s right to discipline his wife, following the old British common law “rule of thumb”—the instrument with which he “chastised” her could not have a larger diameter than his thumb. Not until 1895 could a woman divorce her husband on grounds of abuse (5). In 1948, when Horton choreographed The Beloved, domestic violence, usually hidden, was considered a family problem in which society and the legal system were not expected to intervene. The crime was rarely recognized as the product of long-term abuse; instead, headlines often read “Husband Goes Berserk and Shoots Estranged Wife” (6). Not until 1994 was the federal Violence Against Women Act adopted, to provide legal and social services to support battered women (7). Today, following research by Lenore Walker in 1979 on cycles of violence, we recognize that domestic abuse follows a repeated and escalating pattern of tension building, explosion, and often loving contrition. A number of years ago, two Ohio State graduate students, Gina Jacobs and Kate Monson, staged Lester Horton’s The Beloved for my Directing from Score class. In their directorial choices and interpretation, they were determined to show a more contemporary understanding of domestic violence, and not present the dance as one long, unrelieved episode of stalking, brutality and fear. This started my thinking about the dance in relation to our changing understandings of domestic violence. Through this paper, using examples from Ray Cook’s Labanotation score (1971 and 1993) of The Beloved, I will demonstrate that a cyclical building and ebbing of tension can be found in the work; and further, that a choreographic emphasis on circular patterns supports a contemporary reading of the dance as representing the cycle of violence that we understand today. Notes 1) Cook, Ray, “Quote for Program,” The Beloved: Labanotation Score, Choreography by Lester Horton (New York: Dance Notation Bureau, 1971 and 1993), p. iii. 2) McDohagh, Don. The Complete Guide to Modern Dance (New York: Popular Library, 1977), p. 3) Light, Janet. “Cincinnati Ballet Company: In America’s Heartland,” in Dance Magazine, May, 1978, p. 70. 4) Lewitzky, Bella. “Keynote Address,” in Proceedings, Society of Dance History Scholars, 12th Annual Conference at Arizona State University, 1989, p. 5. 5) http://www.emedicinehealth.com/domestic_violence/article_em.htm , viewed 11/26/06 6) “Herstory of Domestic Violence: A Timeline of the Battered Women's Movement http://www.mincava.umn.edu/documents/herstory/herstory.html, viewed 11.26.06, and referencing Martin, Del. Battered Wives (New York: Pocket Books 1976). 7) “The Violence Against Women Act of 1994” http://www.endabuse.org/vawa/display.php?DocID=34005 viewed 11.26.06 Sheila Marion is an Associate Professor in the Department of Dance at The Ohio State University, and Director of the Dance Notation Bureau Extension at Ohio State. She received her MA in Dance from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her Ph.D. in Performance Studies from the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. She is an ICKL Fellow and currently serves as Chair of the Research Panel.
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