From: William To: Dance

William Forsythe’s greatest contributions to the dance field would be mainly from his choreography and choreographic systems that he’s developed. The way he views choreography as an organization mechanism and thinks of this in choreography aside from dance. William see’s everything as choreography and with that believes everything can be an organized structure. He has always seen himself as a problem solver and says there is a structure to figuring any problem out. William has also said that he understands philosophy, mathematics, and architecture through dance and understanding movement. His choreographic approach and intent really reflects this. His concepts and systems of choreography have really made him a very distinct choreographer. His concept of a body moving in terms of creating movement, like his folding and unfolding of the body, how the body relates to space, and using ballet as a vocabulary to build from. These concepts that he’s created have led to the creations of some of the most important contributions of his career and also to the field of dance. His system of ways to connect or relate the body to space with lines, points, relationships, and possibilities through improvisation called Improvisation Technologies: A Tool for Analytical Dance Eye is used by many schools and companies world wide. Synchronized Objects for One Flat Thing, reproduced is a system that breaks down or can alter the structure of something, choreographically, or for data, or even objects; this can be found online. He founded the European program D.A.N.C.E. which takes students to experience all different types of dance and choreographers. In 2010, he launched a four year project with his company to further his research in choreography and to also publicize on-line digital scores. His choreographic developments would be the biggest contribution, if not the most important contribution to the field of dance from William Forsythe.

The Bigger Picture

To talk about what was going on around the world that could have been significant to William Forsythe and his work, I would like to focus on a specific time frame; 1980 till now, because he is still producing work.  There were a few importances’ to mention before this time frame however, that need to be mentioned. During the time William was in high school, there were a lot of dance crazes going on in the mid 1960’s; “the twist,” “the swim,” and the “mashed potato,” in which Forsythe won a high school dance-off with. American band stand was very popular during this time as well. These were Forsythe’s first experiments with moving and dancing. Also during the 60’s was a lot of protesting and need for change, with John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King.  William experienced this while he was in high school and is also experiencing it now.  In the 1970’s William was in college, briefly joined the Joffery Ballet, and then joined the Stuttgart Ballet and also start choreographing for the Stuttgart Ballet. The Vietnam War came to a close, the Feminist movement was in full effect, and the great Mikhail Baryshnikov was in the height of fame. In 1981, William left the Stuttgart ballet to travel around the world and choreograph for many schools and companies. What happened during this time in the world is the most important because the work that William produced during this time and till now is the work that that influenced the dance world the most. In 1981 the first personal computer was introduced. William has made some very important contributions through the computer and technologies such as the computer program Improvisation Technologies: A Tool for the Analytical Dance Eye. 1981 the epidemic known as AIDS was very prevalent in society. In 1989 the Berlin wall falls, William Forsythe is living in Germany off and on during this time. Throughout the 1980’s some great work came from major choreographers such as Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, and Mark Morris. In 1990 the World Wide Web is created and the unification between east and West Germany happens. The rise of technologies begins with the start of DVD’s, cell phones, and many versions of computers and computer programs. In 2001 the 9/11 attacks occur and the War on Terrorism happens.  William Forsythe was in and out of New York at this time and felt the effects of this time with a lot of other choreographers and dancers in New York. William starts his own company in Germany in 2004. During this time Germany recently makes a currency switch to the Euro. In 2005 women start making a political impact on German society with is Angela Merkel becoming the first woman chancellor. In 2008 a great financial crises occurs putting Germany in a recession, for only a year. Most recently in January of 2011, the economy is at its highest it’s ever been.  This is all great news for the art’s supporters and contributors like William Forsythe.