Daniel Nagrin

8/3/2019 Daniel Nagrin

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Leandro Almeida

12/11/11

Survey of Dance Final Project

Daniel Nagrin

Life

Daniel Nagrin was a famous

American choreographer, teacher,

dancer, and author. Nagrin was born

on 1917 in New York City, and for 91

years influenced the history of

modern dance until his death just

three years ago in 2008. He was very

lucky to have studied with famous

personalities in the dance business,

which some of them were Martha

Graham, Anna Sokolow and Hanya

Holm. Nagrins choreography was

known to be craggily innovative,

drawing on jazz movement and music

as well as traditional modern dance

and classical music in pieces that

incorporated words and images well

before mixed media became popular

in American dance. (NY Times).

Nagrins career as a choreographer,

teacher and dancer extended for more

than 50 years. His influences and

appearances were versatile, from

Broadway to movies, books and

teaching at universities like New York

University and Arizona State

University.

Aside from studying with one

of the founders of modern dance in

America, he married Helen Tamiris

and worked they together on six

Broadway musicals. One of the most

interesting aspects in my opinion of

Daniel Nagrin was his innovative and

modern view for what he was ahead of

his time. It is easy to see his modernity

outlook since he was an advocate for

video and sound designing, insisting in


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carrying heavy sound and taping

equipment anywhere he went.

http://www.linuxgreenhouse.org/blog/tim/midcom-

admin/ais/midcom-serveattachment-96343/lee_daniel.jpg

Nagrins obsession with videotaping

was beneficial since he recorded most

of his early dance and choreography

on film and pictures.

One thing that Nagrin was

really known for was his loner

personality. Some would call him The

great loner of American dance

(nagrim.com). What they meant with

that was that Daniel Nagrin did not

just danced alone, but he worked in

sound designing, lighting designing

and he manage his own set. He had no

need for a business manager, or a

stage manager. This was not a burden

for Nagrin, he enjoyed being able to

create something in the magnitude

that it was completely his, inside his

own world.

Work

Perhaps, the most famous

choreography by Daniel Nagrin was

that one by the name of Strange

Hero (1948).

Strange Hero

(1948)

Photo by

Marcus

Blechman

(nagrim.com)

This solo

is an interesting one because first of

all, it served as a model to many

younger choreographers during a time


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that these were struggling with the

basics of dramatic expression. Second,

the dance tries to fight against the

defamed and marked image of male

dancing during the 1940-1950s;

Nagrin portrays these macho types

who betrayed their vulnerabilities in a

street type of character.

Strange Hero (1948)

(nagrim.com)

It can be

seen in the

picture to the

left that Nagrin wanted to convey for

the fight of the stereotypical model of

male dancers. The suit, shoes and

especially the cigarette attributed to

the character are very characteristic

of a tough, alert man-in-the-street

type.

It is so impacting to watch the

solos of Daniel Nagrin. Although they

are solos, they seem more like duets

where others are not there. The music

and the space come together in

harmony with the character resulting

in a very coevolving feeling of

smoothness. The facial expressions

involve the drama necessary to

understand the macho figure to be

portrayed; it is not easy to tune to the

frequency and stay at that same

wavelength of his work, but if you are

able to identify with his characters the

result is striking.

Carl Flink perfoming in Daniel Nagrins

Strange Hero at the Joyce Theater.

(nagrim.com)

The pose of the

character in

Strange Hero

is almost


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awkward

since the

torso is

completely

straight but

the hips are

nonaligned. The movement of the legs

and arms are sharp and fast, and with

a few bold strokes a personality is

created. The character, a gangster,

plays around with imaginative victims

by shooting and stabbing them.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of

the dance is the way Daniel Nagrin is

able to convey the sexiness of a

criminal in a bad boy stereotype

manner.

Now, a fan of jazz

music myself, I

really enjoyed

watching Daniel

Nagrin at his solo

Jazz: Three Ways.

This was an interesting performance

and choreography. Here, there are

three jazz musicians that express

strong feelings of indifference,

cleverness, and a very defined sense of

humor. We can see once more Nagrin

trying to break that stereotype of that

time about male dancers, but now in a

slightly different way without so much

of a macho figure, but a more

elegant and classy one.

Jazz: Three Ways (1957, 1976)

Photo by Marcus Blechman

(nagrin.com)

Other famous solos by Nagrin

are The Man who did not Care


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(1963), Gratitude (1965) and

Spanish Dance (1948). Nagrins

unique style of movements is also very

coevolving in these solos. His

convulsing torso is very interesting,

since it does not mimic for example

the

melodrama of

Martha

Graham, but

it is a very

energetic and

violent expression of passion, which

starts from the groin and explodes

back and up towards the pelvis.

Modern dance pioneer, Helen

Tamiris was by any doubts the biggest

influence in Nagrins life and work.

Tamiris called her own work Living

Art since it was necessary to be

viewed so it could be meaningful. It

was with perseverance that she often

searched for new forms to express

human diginity, which was one of

her main concerns. Perhaps Nagrin

borrowed the concept of exploring

who you are, where you were, what

are you doing, and how you were

doing it from Tamiris. It is important

to understand that not only was

Nagrin influenced by Tamiris, but

Tamiris was too influenced by Nagrin.

Nagrin was not just inspired

but also influenced by jazz before it

was generally respected in the

modern world. Daniel Nagrin has been

the inspiration to many male and


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older performers; he formed in 1970

the Workgroup, which is an influential

improvisational training and

performance ensemble. Once asked to

comment on his contribution to dance,

he answered: I have a resistance to

articulate it, because on one level I

dont know, and on another, I do.

When I teach for instance, I tell young

dancers that I think its an error to

know what your style is. Once you

know what your style is, you are likely

to get locked into it. As for me, once I

try to define myself, I feel Ill be locked

into that definition. When I watch

myself on film, I have a fierce need to

forget what Ive seen, because what

Ive seen was a certain person with a

certain style, and I dont want to have

to deal with my memory of that.

(Dunnin)


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Bibliography

- Daniel Nagrin. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. .

- Gruen, John. "People Who Dance."A Dance Horizons Book. Web.

.

- Dunning, Jennifer. "Daniel Nagrin, 91, Modern Dancer and Choreographer, Dies -

NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 02

Jan. 2009. Web. 12 Dec. 2011.

.

Daniel Nagrin

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