IN MODERN DANCE PRINT MEDIA: LOÏE FULLER, ISADORA DUNCAN, MAUD ALLAN by Emma

353 Pages·2014·7.08 MB·English

“FEELING” IN MODERN DANCE PRINT MEDIA:
LOÏE FULLER, ISADORA DUNCAN, MAUD ALLAN

by

Emma Doran, Master of Arts

A dissertation

presented to Ryerson University and York University

in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

in the Program of

Communication and Culture

Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2014

©(Emma Doran) 2014
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“Feeling” in Modern Dance Print Media: Loïe Fuller, Isadora Duncan, Maud Allan
Emma Doran
Doctor of Philosophy, Communication and Culture Program
Ryerson University, June 2014

Abstract
Between 1890 and 1920, modern dancers such as Isadora Duncan, Loïe Fuller, and
Maud Allan presented a new performative aesthetic in dance. Breaking from the narrative
storytelling that dominated nineteenth-century vaudeville and ballet, these dancers advanced
non-narrative movement, thereby encouraging a new aesthetic engagement from the audience,
namely, one that was rooted in notions of corporeal sensation rather than narrative telos or
(melo)dramatic pathos. These new responses, this dissertation argues, are reflected in the new
tactics for writing the dancing body, which at once render problematic the putative objectivity
of journalistic criticism and reveal the limits of traditional dance criticism’s focus on intricate
technique and plot line. This dissertation pursues its argument by studying over 300 print
reviews of dances performed by Fuller, Duncan, and Allan between 1890 and 1920 culled
from North-American archives and representing a spectrum of print media—from mainstream
national media, such as The New York Times, to regional newspapers, to more specialized
theatre magazines—to reveal compelling insight into hermeneutic entanglements of language
and movement.
Informed by the work of recent performance studies (e.g. Phelan; Schneider; Taylor), this
dissertation approaches this body of dance reviews from an inverse perspective from that
represented by traditional dance history scholarship. That is, instead of reading reviews as
documentation in order to understand these dances, the study explores how
reviewers perform criticism, thus framing our understanding of modern dance in specific ways.
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This dissertation engages with the correlation between media and performance as either
documentary or performative, arguing that writing performance offers promises for both types of
engagement with the live event. Collectively, these reviews reveal that dance criticism involved
a metacritical reflection on the significance of the critical writing act itself, and advanced a style
of synesthetic metaphor to describe novel kinesthetic experiences of spectatorship. Ultimately,
the new tactics to modern dance criticism not only revealed a crisis in articulation but prompted a
performative style of writing dance criticism that went in tandem with the development of the
dance review genre itself, whose placement in popular print media was mounting to become a
regular feature by the 1930s.

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Acknowledgements
This dissertation was inspired by my own experience as a dancer and a dance reviewer; it
was also fuelled by my passion for scholarship. I am immensely grateful to the scholars who
have mentored me in this journey. First and foremost, I offer my heartfelt gratitude to my
dissertation supervisor, Dr. Irene Gammel, for going above and beyond in her expert guidance,
her unwavering positivity, and her generosity in providing me a “room of my own” in which to
write within a community of kindred spirits. She welcomed my ideas in ways that I never
thought possible and gave me space to dream.
I am grateful to Dr. Danielle Robinson for her wealth of knowledge, her committed
presence throughout my doctoral degree, and her outstanding supportive spirit. Dr. Kym
Maclaren offered keen philosophical insight, clarity, and depth in engaging with my ideas, for
which I am thankful. I extend my warmest appreciation to the other members of my defense
committee: Dr. Paul Moore, who has taught me much about communication and culture
methodologies, when I was his research assistant, and thereby helped shape my thinking and
work; and Dr. Marlis Schweitzer, who has helped deepen my knowledge of performance theory
and celebrity culture. I am extremely grateful to my external examiner, Dr. Carol Simpson Stern
(Northwestern University), whose ideas about the relationship between performance and
literature have been inspirational, and whose comments will continue to resonate.
This page would not be complete without a mention of my appreciation to Professor
Emerita Dr. Selma Odom, who generously loaned me her collection of Loïe Fuller reviews and
articles, which she collected from the United States and Europe. Her generosity throughout my
years of graduate studies continues to inform my writing and teaching in more ways than I can
express.
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I am indebted to the Jeffrey family for granting me the Liss Jeffrey fellowship and for
offering encouragement and support; it is a true privilege to be included in this distinguished
lineage of scholars. I am grateful to the Communication and Culture Program for generous
support throughout my doctoral studies. In the Faculty of Arts, the Modern Literature and
Culture Research Centre (MLC) generously provided funds to purchase archival images used in
my dissertation, as well as supporting my conference travels. The staff and students at the MLC
have been a collegial community throughout the writing of this dissertation, as has been PUBZ:
The MLC Writing and Publishing Zone. In addition, I am grateful to the archives I consulted,
notably Dance Collection Danse (DCD) archives in Toronto, which presented a vital resource for
this study; my thanks go to archivists Amy Bowring and Miriam Adams for facilitating the
research of the Maud Allan archival materials.
Finally, heartfelt thanks go to my study friends and colleagues Aleksandra Bida and
Niomi Cherney, and to my pep-talking esprit fort Dr. Laurie Bertram. My most deeply felt
thank you goes to my partner Robbie Harman, not only for his unfailing computer expertise
throughout the writing of this dissertation, and his remarkable patience, but for his unstinting and
inspirational support in all my endeavors.
I dedicate this dissertation to my parents, Melva Widdicombe and Harold Doran, who
have fuelled my desire for education and learning.

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Contents

Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... v

Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... vii

Contents ........................................................................................................................................ ix

List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. xii

Introduction - Print Media, Modernity, and the Dancing Body .............................................. 1

I.1 Modern Dance Reviews: Corpus and Theoretical Context ................................................... 3

I.2 The Subjects: Loïe Fuller, Isadora Duncan, and Maud Allan ............................................... 8

I.3 Description of Chapters ....................................................................................................... 14

Part One - Toward a Theory of the Dance Review .................................................................. 19

1.1 The Review as Genre .......................................................................................................... 20

1.2 Publics, Modernity, and Criticism ...................................................................................... 25

1.3 The Critic’s Body ................................................................................................................ 37

1.4 Other Key Terms ................................................................................................................ 49

Part Two - Surveying “Feeling”: The Body as Frame ............................................................. 55

2.1 Between Nostalgia and Anticipation .................................................................................. 60

2.2 Temporality and Emotion ................................................................................................... 75

2.3 Gender and Physical Practice .............................................................................................. 89

2.4 “Feeling Without Effort” .................................................................................................. 103

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Part Three - At a Loss for Words: Authenticity, Imitation, Metacriticism ........................ 121

3.1 The Performative Pause .................................................................................................... 125

3.2 Imitation, Authorship, and Pedagogy ............................................................................... 132

3.3 Gesture and Language ....................................................................................................... 158

3.4 “Un-dreamt of Places” ...................................................................................................... 173

Part Four - “Poetry of Motion”: Writing Synaesthetic Metaphor ....................................... 181

4.1 Synesthesia as Metaphor ................................................................................................... 182

4.2 Modernism and Synesthesia ............................................................................................. 188

4.3 “Rocked in the Waves”: Synesthesia and Consciousness ................................................. 213

Conclusion - Critical Paradigms: Memory and Possibility ................................................... 235

Appendix .................................................................................................................................... 239

Note on Transcription: ............................................................................................................ 239

Transcription Samples: ........................................................................................................... 239

1. Isadora Duncan. “Oh! Shame on America!” The Washington Post 14 Mar. 1913: 4. .... 239

2. Sterling Heilig. “Nature Dancing a Revolt Against Art.” The Kansas City Star 31 Oct.
1909..................................................................................................................................... 245

3. Clive Marshall. “To Rear a ‘New, Clean, Healthy Race’.” Oakland Tribune 13 Jan.
1918..................................................................................................................................... 251

4. Henry Carr ("The Lancer"). “A Cynic on Maud Allan.” Los Angeles Times 13 Apr.
1910..................................................................................................................................... 256

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