Jean Erdman
| Jean Erdman | |
|---|---|
| Born |
February 20, 1916 Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S. |
| Occupation | Choreographer, dancer |
| Spouse(s) | Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) |
| Awards | Vernon Rice Outstanding Achievement in Theatre 1963 The Coach with the Six Insides, Outstanding Choreography 1972 The Two Gentlemen of Verona |
| Website | www |
Jean Erdman (born February 20, 1916) is an American dancer and choreographer of modern dance as well as an avant-garde theater director.
Erdman's father, John Piney Erdman, a doctor of divinity and missionary from New England, settled in Honolulu as a minister at the non-denominational Protestant Church of the Crossroads where he preached, in both English and Japanese, to a multi-ethnic congregation. Her mother, Marion Dillingham Erdman, was a member of one of the founding industrialist families of Hawaii.
Erdman's earliest dance experience was of the hula, the indigenous Hawaiian dance whose lyrical swaying hip movements and hand gestures combine to create a polyrhythmic style that is both narrative and abstract. She attended the Punahou School in Honolulu where she learned, as a form of physical education, Isadora Duncan interpretive dance. Reflecting on her early dance training Erdman said these two influences taught her that dancing is an "expression of something meaningful to the dancer, not a mere series of lively steps."
From Hawaii, Erdman went to Miss Hall's School for Girls in Pittsfield, Massachusetts from which she graduated in 1934. There her intellect was ignited, but she was troubled by the attitude towards dancing that caused her to be disciplined for teaching the hula to her classmates. Later, in the open intellectual atmosphere of Sarah Lawrence College that she attended from 1934 to 1937, she was able to explore more freely her multiple interests in theater, dance, and aesthetic philosophy.
At Sarah Lawrence she encountered her two greatest influences: Joseph Campbell and Martha Graham. Campbell, a professor of comparative literature who later became one of the world's foremost authorities on mythology, was her tutorial advisor. This began a dialogue about the process of individual psycho-spiritual transformation and the nature of art that was to continue throughout their lives. Erdman was also captivated by the modern dance technique she learned in Martha Graham's classes at Sarah Lawrence and at the Bennington College Summer School of Dance that she attended during the summers of 1935–44.
In 1937 Erdman joined her parents and younger sister on a trip around the world during which she saw the traditional dance and theater of many countries including Bali, Java and India. Speaking of her experiences on this trip and of her later study of world dance cultures inspired by it Erdman said, "by studying and analyzing the traditional dance styles of the world, I discovered that the particular dance of each culture is the perfect expression of that culture's world view and is achieved by deliberate choices drawn from the unlimited possibilities of movement". Shortly after Erdman returned to New York she married Campbell on May 5, 1938 and following a brief honeymoon began rehearsal as a member of the Martha Graham Dance Company.
...
Wikipedia