Dances of José Limón and Erick Hawkins

By James Moreno

Dances of Jos Lim n and Erick Hawkins examines stagings of masculinity, whiteness, and Latinidad in the work of US modern dance choreographers, Jos Lim n (1908-1972) and Erick Hawkins (1908-1994).

Focusing on the period between 1945 to 1980, this book analyzes Lim n and Hawkins' work during a time when modern dance was forming new relationships to academic and governmental institutions, mainstream markets, and notions of embodiment. The pre-war expressionist tradition championed by Lim n and Hawkins' mentors faced multiple challenges as ballet and Broadway complicated the tenets of modernism and emerging modern dance choreographers faced an increasingly conservative post-war culture framed by the Cold War and Red Scare. By bringing the work of Lim n and Hawkins together in one volume, Dances of Jos Lim n and Erick Hawkins accesses two distinct approaches to training and performance that proved highly influential in creating post-war dialogues on race, gender, and embodiment.

This book approaches Lim n and Hawkins' training regimes and performing strategies as social practices symbiotically entwined with their geo-political backgrounds. Lim n's queer and Latino heritage is put into dialogue with Hawkins' straight and European heritage to examine how their embodied social histories worked co-constitutively with their training regimes and performance strategies to produce influential stagings of masculinity, whiteness, and Latinidad.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1138300470
• ISBN13: 9781138300477
• Release Date: April 2020
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 124 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.6" x 8.6"