Dance Today

An essential volume in the history of dance and its critical literature

 

The French dance criticism of the Russian émigré André Levinson (1887–1933) set a new standard for the genre, regaling readers with a heady mix of formalist acumen, historical erudition, and aesthetic theory. Dance Today, first published in 1929, is Levinson’s most important book. A dazzling chronicle of dance performance in Paris from 1923 to 1928, it covers not just ballet, the linchpin of his critical vision, but the full gamut of the city’s offerings, from variety show numbers, “orientalist” programs, and “interpretive” modern dance to presentations by exponents of the rich Indigenous traditions of Spain, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia.

 

Levinson’s celebrated pages on Anna Pavlova, Isadora Duncan, Josephine Baker, and La Argentina are here, together with his gimlet-eyed takes on Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, the Ballets Suédois, and German modern dance, then dominated by a struggle for influence between Rudolf Laban and Mary Wigman. This English translation, the first unabridged edition in any language since 1929, features a substantial introduction that reframes Levinson’s French career, as well as annotations that identify obscure works and clarify his many recondite allusions. Also included, as an appendix, is the first translation of Levinson’s pioneering essay on Mallarmé’s dance criticism, which greatly influenced his critical thinking.