Dance, Photography and E-bay

This item was purchased on E-bay some time ago.  More about E-bay, and much more about photography, later.  This item charmed me.  It represents Ted Shawn, a modern dance pioneer, in what I would describe as an "ecstatic moment."  More can be found about him here and here.  On a personal note, we share a birthday.

  
Ted Shawn was the founder of Jacob's Pillow and was a major influence on Martha Graham.  He brought male sensuality into modern dance.

 

The image and the back of the postcard seem at odds with one another. I note that the box for the stamp on the correspondence side is not closed and the type within the box, especially the word "here" is off-register.  That indicates to me that this was not a professionally printed item. 


The image is clear, but also note the airbrushing or other modification made to highlight the upper body in the image.  I don't think the sky so conveniently follows the contours of the human body usually.  This image is based on a photograph taken ca. 1940, so I believe the whole object has been "antiqued" to make it look older.  As they say in the E-bay business, caveat emptor.  Happily, I bought it for the image, not because it looked antique.


Why I like this piece:

Again, the "ecstatic nature" represented in this pose is why I like it.  The "joie de vivre" that dance brings into one's life is what is really on show.  Of course, dance consists of all human emotion, as art does in general.  I think the modifications made to the image are appropriate.  Photography is as subject to amendment and occasional refinement as any painting still on the easel. 


What it reminds me of now:


I first encountered modern dance on the Dance in America series on PBS in the 1970's.  I was between universities and living with my parents, holding on to a job in a factory.  PBS showed Dance in America once a week.  It was there that I first saw Paul Taylor, Martha Graham, George Balanchine and Merce Cunningham performed.  I had no idea at the time that I would be moving to New York and have the opportunity to see these companies.  I didn't have any kind of network of friends that shared my interest in modern dance, and I didn't really know why I enjoyed what I was watching so much.  

Dance was a foreign language to everyone I knew and to me as well.  But I watched because the movement and the music spoke to a new way of expression, and I needed to know what that was.  The commentary before and after the performances helped to some extent, but without someone as a sounding board to understand or echo my thoughts on the subject, I simply absorbed as much as I could.  This period of my life could be understood as a "fallow" period, before beginning life again in New York city.

And once in New York, I found like-minded people who could answer the questions I had and who were instrumental in exposing me further to modern dance.  I was very lucky.  After a few years, I knew who Ted Shawn was.  Not so many years after that, there was this image on E-bay.