DANCE AND SELF

All works of art bear the stamp of individual creation. Neither Martha Graham nor Yvonne Rainer escaped self in their dances. Yet they were both concerned, each in her own way, to transcend self-expression in dance. Rainerʹs efforts in this regard are well known, but it is too often forgotten that Graham openly rejected what she termed ʺself-expression dancing.ʺ Instead she sought a form of ʺcommunicationʺ adequate to her own time.¹ Dance is a form of expression – and communication – that necessarily involves the self. But how? Or under what conditions is self involved when dance is viewed as