The human body comes in many shapes and sizes, some scrutinized, some praised, some ignored.
Dr. Gill Wright Miller, visiting Whitman this semester as a Professor of Dance, studies women who have defied the stereotypical body type in their profession. Miller was brought in through the Edward F. Arnold program, which brings in professors at an advanced stage in their career, concerned with a line of study not normally offered at Whitman. Miller’s research focuses on the transition from the “typical” body type of a dancer to the pregnant form. Miller, who teaches two classes on dance, gave a lecture on her research on Tues., March 10.
Miller’s lecture focused on the concept of how to put personal movement on public display. She studied women who have defied the notion that in order to dance, one has to be tall, thin and move at lightning speed. Over the last 40 years, dance has experienced a movement that has, according to Miller, “reconstructed knowledge about female circumstances” and challenged ideas about the way certain types of bodies are supposed to perform by putting “unexpected bodies in unusual places.”
Miller said that by the end of the 1960s, dance had moved into the Fine Arts department of the academic framework. This location in the Fine Arts category allows dance to balance both physical movement and the beauty of art into its natural, theatrical and musical form. The mission of the Fine Arts is “to gain understanding of platforms from which visual and performative operations take place” and the study provides the “opportunity to explore and examine creative process” through means of visual and textual analysis, she said.
“The lecture provided an opportunity for the Whitman community to see how dance is treated in formal academic discourse. Just what I was hoping would happen, and what the Edward F.Arnold Professorship tries to make happen, happened in this lecture,” said Director of Dance Dana Burgess.
Miller’s research focuses on the art of dancing while pregnant. She discussed three different choreographers who chose to dance during pregnancy. These women show distinctly different ways of moving during their pregnancy, which Miller uses to define their style of dance.
Twyla Tharp’s pregnancy dance, titled “Confessional,” depicts the difference in proportions and movements during pregnancy. Jane Comfort’s “Diary” progresses through the nine months of pregnancy, with the same dance being performed every month to show how the movement and way in which Comfort used her body changed. In Jane Oberfelder’s “Memoir,” Miller discusses the “deep and true, unembarassed, unsentimental, but full of emotion” aspect of dance that appears in this piece.
Oberfelder danced completely nude, but shows command of her large body. The outcome of this dance video as Miller relates shows how the “very private [can be] made audaciously public.”
Miller uses these dances to consider the ways of the body in academic work ultimately stating that the dances of pregnant women provide a transformation from public to private performance of the body.
“Miller discussed a cultural phenomenon with these dances…Publication of the private body explores the boundary between public and private bodies, making the private, typically veiled body, revealed on stage. She shows how that publication of the private body can help create a work of art,” said Burgess.
Currently at Whitman, dance is offered in multiple technique classes. Burgess, who is also the Director of Dance, believes that incorporating academic dance into the Whitman curriculum would provide a wonderful opportunity for students.
The Arnold Professorship, he said, often aims to integrate a similar type of program into the curriculum, and educates the community about the specific aspects of the program.
