SOCK MONKEYS
In many of the arts, the term “postmodern” has been used in so many ways that it may have little meaning left. The dance world is so small that postmodern dance can be traced to a single class in choreography taught by Douglas Dunn at Merce Cunningham’s New York studio in 1960. Dunn’s students experimented wildly, staging concerts at New York’s Judson Church starting in 1962; this group is often collectively called the Judson Church choreographers. They led an artistic revolution–against modern dance’s theatrical conventions and for “honest,” “natural” dance. This meant dance without gimmicks, without virtuoso technique, and without meaning beyond the dance itself.
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The strongest work is Guild, created by the entire troupe. The title is apt: before a journeyman was accepted into a guild, he had to produce a masterpiece, a piece that demonstrated he was a master of his craft. The modern equivalent might be a PhD dissertation. Guild is the Sock Monkeys’ dissertation, and they quote from almost every postmodern choreographer of note. Toward the end, after singing a beautiful a cappella version from the musical Hair of Shakespeare’s soliloquy “What a piece of work is man,” they start to make their own contribution. The movement, slow rolls for three people, is suddenly lovely–from themselves rather than from a teacher. During a moment of suspension and timelessness, the dancers quietly leave the stage.
