Contemporary American Dance Theatre: Clarke, Goode and Mann

After two decades of American post-modern dances in which structure, abstract movement and kinetic energy were the principal content, we have entered a new era of expressiveness. The works of Martha Clarke are important examples of this new expressionism. However, she is not alone in making dances comprised of emotionally expressive images rather than formal ideas. Images imbued with emotional content are also important in the works of Pina Bausch and Susanne Linke in Germany, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and the Need Company of Belgium, Maguy Marin of France, Parco Butterfly of Italy, Second Stride in London and even the butoh dance companies of Japan. In the United States companies that share Clarke’s emotive interests include two in San Francisco — Contraband, directed by Sara Shelton Mann, and the Joe Goode Performance Group. All of these dance companies use narrative (although fragmentary), character, expressive costumes, decor, lighting, music and language; in fact, they use whatever materials serve to express the feeling of living in their culture. Is it any wonder that much of their work expresses violence in one form or another?