Classical Mythology, 7th Edition - obinfonet: dia logou

738 THE SURVIVAL OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY
Denishawn (with a cast of 170!) was a dance pageant (1916) that depicted first the
customs and then the concepts of the afterlife in Egypt, India, and Greece. Shawn
tells us about its hit number (for sixteen male dancers), the "Pyrrhic Dance:"
The first number I ever choreographed for an all-male ensemble... Pyrrhic dances which
date from ancient Greece, originally were part of military training and symbols of victory.
My interpretation was not a revival of the Greek classic form but an attempt to
capture the spirit of the original. Sixteen men dancers, leaping and jumping with power,
muscles, and virile strength, created an impact that thrilled the pageant's audiences and
won paragraphs of newspaper praise. Many years elapsed before I formed my own group
of men dancers but after the reception of the "Pyrrhic Dance" I always had in the back
of my mind plans, choreographies, and dance themes suitable for men dancers. 40
Shawn's choreography for Aeschylus' Persians perhaps offers the best example
of his devotion to his male dancers and his inspiration from ancient
Greece. The first chorus of Aeschylus' play was danced and sung by twenty-five
men. The music was by Eva Sikelianos, who taught the dancers to sing the text
(in a new stark English translation) to her music, composed in an ancient Greek
modal style. For Shawn this correct treatment of the chorus was an epicmaking
experience. The performers were all men, who sang with the power of
men's voices in the open air as they danced and offered the "best example of
what the real Greek chorus must have been like." A silent (very faded) film of
this performance and a separate audiotape of Shawn's remarks are to be found
in the Jerome Robbins Archive of the Dance Collection in the New York Public
Library, Lincoln Center.
Shawn would do for the male dancer what Isadora Duncan had done for
the female. In his own words he justifies fairly and succinctly the claim that he
and St. Denis are the true father and mother of American dance:
The Denishawn Dancers filled all the requirements to be called a Ballet, and the first
truly American Ballet: the Company were all American born, trained by Ruth St. Denis
and myself, who were American born; we were the first dance company to give a program
in which all the music was composed by Americans, the first to use indigenous
themes for choreographic treatment (American square dance, cowboys, Indians, negro
spirituals, the folk legends of America and dances about American historical characters).
Costumes and decor were all designed and executed by Americans. . . . We had the
courage to end Denishawn at its peak of success and world fame, so that we both could
again be free to explore. ... I set out to fight the battle of the legitimacy of dancing as
a profession for men, and to form my company of men dancers. With the ending of Denishawn,
I had bought an old farm house and barns in the Berkshire Hills in southwest
Massachusetts, which place had been called for over a century: Jacob's Pillow. Here . . .
I formed the company billed as "Shawn and his Men Dancers." . . . In 1942 [at Jacob's
Pillow] the first theatre ever designed, built and used exclusively for the art of the dance
opened its doors. . . . 41
And now after Shawn's death, Jacob's Pillow, this American shrine to dance
performance and education, continues to flourish and inspire year after year. 42