Making its West Coast debut at the 61传媒 Clark Humanities Museum, Dr. Carol Halstead’s personal collection of dance photography, “The Power and Passion of Dance,” represents a magical array of both photographers and dance impressarios from the late 1890s through present day.
The Halstead Collection is unique, not only because it beautifully illustrates the evolution of dance鈥攂oth ballet and modern dance forms鈥攂ut also chronicles the transformation occurring in dance photography as captured by artists Edward Steichen, Henri Cartier Bresson, Edward Weston, and Annie Leibowitz, among others.
From the early stills used for publicity, posed and pretty but stagnant, to the later samplings taken of Martha Graham and Isadora Duncan, which somehow covey in still imagery the freedom of movement and emotion allowed by the modern dance genre, there is evidence that dance photography has significantly changed in purpose and theme.
As Halstead herself noted in a lecture she gave at the exhibit’s opening on September 24, it is particularly in these later photographs that the emphasis becomes less about capturing the personality of the artist and more about creating a unique conceptualization of the dancer’s body as art form. A torso, a face, an unguarded moment captured in time and space that evokes鈥攁lmost demands鈥攁n emotional response from the audience. Essentially, this is interactive art.
And an exhibit not to be missed.
Also on display is the Ruth St. Denis Collection from Scripps’ own Permanent Collection. St. Denis, a premiere figure from the modern dance genre, is shown in a variety of dramatic dance poses and soft, romantic stills by 1920s photographer Edward Weston, a personal friend of St. Denis who used her as subject for a photographic series. This exhibit is curated by Lis Du Bois, Scripps’ Wilson Summer Intern, and along with the Halstead Collection will be on display through October 18.
For exhibition hours and directions to the Clark Humanities Museum, please call 909.607.3606.