Ecstasy of Being: Mythology and Dance

ISBN-13: 9781608688890

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: New World Library

Publication Date: 07-18-2023

Pages: 264

Product Dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d)

Joseph Campbell (1904 –1987) is widely credited with bringing mythology to a mass audience. His works, including The Masks of God and The Hero with a Thousand Faces, are bona fide classics. Dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker Nancy Allison is the artistic director of Jean Erdman Dance.

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Excerpt from Editor’s Foreword

“Art is the funnel through which spirit is poured into life,” Joseph Campbell often said.[i] It was his deeply held belief that art, like mythology, has the power to open the contemporary, individual mind to a direct experience of the timeless, transcendent, wisdom of the universe; a wisdom based in the body and visited in our dreams. According to Campbell, it is the artist’s job to create “significant forms” that stir the modern, fractured psyche, “offering to consciousness an esthetic object while ringing, simultaneously undertones in the unconscious.” [ii]

Campbell’s philosophy of art was deeply shaped by his travels in Europe from 1924 to 1929 where he was introduced to the literature of James Joyce and Thomas Mann; the paintings of Cezanne, Picasso and Paul Klee; the work and teaching of the sculptor Antoine Bourdelle; and the groundbreaking psychological theories of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. It was through this heady brew of different, yet related influences that Campbell eventually came to his belief that “the individual artist must study the psychological effects produced by the various devices of his particular craft” and that “these devices must then be associated with their appropriate elements of myth” [iii] in order for the artist to fulfill the task of pitching the individual psyche beyond fear or hope to the “wonder of the world harmony that keeps in circulation (whether sorrowful or gay) the spheres of outer space, the electrons of the atom, and the juices of the living earth.” [iv]

Throughout his life he patiently explicated the rigorous standards and defining characteristics of what he, following James Joyce, called “proper art,” art that stills the chattering mind and by means of its wholeness and harmonic rhythm illumines the arrested mind with the radiance of beauty. [v] With wit and warmth he inspired generations of young writers, poets, painters, sculptors, musicians, composers, actors, directors and filmmakers to seek radiance in their artistic meditations. But, as can be seen in this small volume, he had a special passion for choreographers and dancers.

We know very little about Campbell’s earliest musings on the art of dance. We do know that as a child of just five or six, he had a life-altering experience when his father took him and his brother, Charley to Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show at Madison Square Garden. There, Campbell “became fascinated, seized, obsessed, by the figure of a naked American Indian with his ear to the ground, a bow and arrow in his hand, and a look of special knowledge in his eyes.” [vi] Did he perhaps also get his first glimpse there of the spiritually organized colors, forms and rhythms of Native American dance?

Campbell Sr. also enjoyed what he called “good shows” and perhaps took Joe and Charley to these vaudeville style shows, too. [vii] More than likely the young boys saw amazing African American tap dancers, as well as female chorus line dancing typical of the era. It is well documented in Stephen and Robin Larsen’s biography, A Fire in the Mind: The Life of Joseph Campbell that Campbell was a very good musician and a wonderful social dancer, but we don’t know if he picked up the steps and style of the various dances by watching, or learned them through instruction thereby developing an appreciation for some of the formal aspects of dance.

He never mentions in his voluminous journals, or correspondence, that he saw a ballet, either as a boy in New York, or as a young man on any of his European trips between 1924 and 1929. During that time Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and the students of Rudolph von Laban, most notably, Mary Wigman, the leading figure of German Expressionist dance, were performing regularly. So too, were the Americans, Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis, yet there is no record of his having seen them, or any of the other dance artists who were revolutionizing the art form during this period.

But in 1937, something happened that was to change his understanding of dance altogether. At that time, Campbell was living the life he had dreamed up for himself, teaching comparative literature at the all-female Sarah Lawrence College with plenty of time on the side to continue his reading and study of world mythology. The same year he arrived, a young co-ed named Jean Erdman began her studies there, too.

Born and raised in Honolulu, Erdman grew up dancing hula at family parties and picnics almost as soon as she could walk. The daughter of Dr. John Pinney Erdman, a Protestant minister and Marion Dillingham, a member of one of the major industrialist families of Hawaii, Jean attended the exclusive Punahou School where she learned Isadora Duncan style interpretive dance.[viii] After a year spent at Miss Hall’s School for Girls in Pittsfield, MA, where her intellect was ignited but her mind was troubled by the prevailing Puritanical attitude towards dance— she was disciplined for teaching hula to her classmates, she arrived at Sarah Lawrence full of youthful enthusiasm and a questing mind. [ix]

She dove into the dramatic, percussive dance technique taught there by modern dance pioneer, Martha Graham and members of her company, continuing her study at the Bennington Dance Festival during the summers. She also studied comparative religion and Irish culture and theater. [x] By her junior year, Erdman was committed to a life in dance and wanted to expand the breadth of her studies to include philosophy and aesthetics. Judging by her friends’ descriptions of his classes, she thought that Professor Campbell, heartthrob of the campus, seemed the ideal tutor for her interests and decided to ask him for a private conference course. Self-selected private tutorial courses were a distinguishing feature of the program at Sarah Lawrence.

A chance encounter at the library on a rainy night turned into an interview at Campbell’s office where, as the story goes, Campbell asked her, “What do you want to study?”

“I want to study aesthetics. I want to study Pluto.” she replied.

“Pluto?” he asked. “You mean Plato!”

Despite her error, (or Freudian slip), Campbell agreed to the tutorial as long as Erdman also attended his lecture course on Thomas Mann, which included reading assignments on Schopenhauer, Kant and Nietzche. Erdman was happy to comply. [xi]

So, much to the envy of the entire campus, the dashing scholar and the beautiful dancer met every Tuesday from 12:30 to 1:30 to discuss art and philosophy. By the end of the semester, neither wanted the relationship to end. But Erdman would not be returning to campus the next year; instead she would take a trip around the world with her family. As a parting gift, Campbell gave her a copy of Oswald Spengler’s The Decline of the West, knowing that she would need to stay in touch with him in order to understand it. As her parting gift, Erdman invited Campbell to see her perform at Bennington later that summer. [xii]

What he saw there was not only the talent and beauty of his special student, but a whole new evolving art form, rooted in a glorious exploration of the possibilities of the human body. Here was a whole cadre of young choreographers (Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, Hanya Holm) searching for original aesthetic forms through which to express their keen observations of the human condition, both inner and outer. Here was a field where Campbell could explore his burgeoning theory of the relationship of myth to aesthetic form and psychological structures. [xiii]Here was a dancer, Jean Erdman, with whom he could share his passion for art, myth, and a soul-directed life.

By the time Erdman left to join her family in Honolulu the two were already continuing their dialogue through a correspondence that grew ever more intimate as Jean traveled around the world. While Erdman experienced physically all the forms of the world, both natural and man-made, Campbell, traversed the planet through the power of his imagination, elucidating for his beloved, as he would for so many others, the life-enhancing magic of the mythic symbols of the peoples and places of the earth. By the time they had completed the journey, they had imagined together a life dedicated to love where “the walls of separateness are completely surpassed, and the embrace yields not pleasure but fulfillment, not children but self-realization, not the satisfaction of desire, but the experience of eternity, not passion and possession but power and control.”[xiv]

The couple married on May 5, 1938 in a simple ceremony officiated by Erdman’s father in New York City. After a weekend honeymoon in Woodstock, NY, Erdman began rehearsing as a member of Martha Graham’s company and Campbell returned to teaching at Sarah Lawrence. They rented a two-room apartment in Greenwich Village that would be their primary residence for the rest of their lives

At first, Jean toured frequently with Graham, returning to Bennington for intensive rehearsal periods and choreographic study with Graham’s musical director, the composer Louis Horst. Campbell was a welcome addition to the artistic exchange there, stimulating Graham with his profound insights. The friendship he forged with Horst, who was also the founding editor of the Dance Observer magazine, resulted in Campbell’s first published writing on aesthetic philosophy.

Campbell had also formed a friendship with the composer John Cage. According to Erdman, they were all at a New Year’s Eve party in 1942, when Cage suggested, somewhat coyly to Campbell, that she and Merce Cunningham, also a member of Graham’s company at that time, collaborate on a concert together at the Arts Club of Chicago. Eager to help Erdman develop her own creative voice, Campbell encouraged the project. Despite a negative reception by the local press, the project had the desired effect of launching Erdman into a life as an independent creative artist. [xv]

Freed of the demands of Graham’s creative process, the couple adopted their own rigorous schedule that allowed them plenty of time to work independently and also time together to share their discoveries and questions. Breakfast became a sacred ritual where Joe read aloud to Jean every word he wrote. She responded to the content, rhythm and flow of his text. [xvi] When Jean was creating new work, Joe visited her studio to respond to her physical explorations from his deep well of mythological associations, often suggesting names for her dances.

As Campbell continued his studies of comparative mythology, Erdman began a comparative study of Western theatrical dance forms and the traditional dance styles she had seen on her trip around the world along with new ones she continued to learn. Through this study she developed her own approach to dance technique, one that aimed to “give each dancer a completely articulate instrument, not limited by personal style.”[xvii] She began teaching and performing and was soon touring again throughout the U.S., now in her own concerts and teaching residencies.

Meanwhile, Campbell began to be published; first, his introduction to the first title in the Bollingen series, Where the Two Came to Their Father: A Navajo War Ceremonial Given by Jeff King, illustrated by Maude Oakes in 1943; then, A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake with Henry Morton Robinson in 1944; and finally, his first complete statement of his long-gestating theory of the hero’s journey, The Hero with A Thousand Faces (1949). He also edited Heinrich Zimmer’s posthumous works, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art (1946) and The King and the Corpse (1948); as well as three Eranos yearbooks for the Bollingen series. Somehow between 1944 and 1950, he also found time to write the seven articles for the Dance Observer that form the first section of this book.

This highly productive period in Erdman and Campbell’s lives culminated in 1954-1955 with Campbell’s yearlong tour of India and the Far East. It was his first physical experience of many of the places he had described to Jean on her world tour with her parents seventeen years ago. That same year, Erdman, now also the director of the dance program at Bard College, went on her own solo world tour, intersecting with Campbell’s for just five weeks in India and a month in Japan before returning to New York together. [xviii] They both embraced the hectic, busy life style that often kept them miles apart, but wherever they were, they continued, through letters and telegrams, their intense dialogue that so nourished them both.

As time went on, they collaborated ever more directly. Beginning in the mid 1950s, they worked together to transform James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake from a novel told from the perspective of the male barkeeper Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker, into an avant-garde dance theater piece from the perspective of the main female character, Anna Livia Plurabelle, Joyce’s modern incarnation of the divine feminine principle. Erdman choreographed, directed and danced all the aspects of Anna Livia from young woman to old crone to the rain itself that becomes the River Liffey flowing through the heart of Dublin. The Coach with the Six Insides, as they called her dance theater piece premiered at the Village South Theatre in Greenwich Village on November 26,1962. It ran for 114 performances and received the OBIE and Vernon Rice Awards for Outstanding Achievement in theater. Following the first New York season, it began a world tour including engagements at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, the Théâtre des Nations in Paris, the Dublin Arts Festival in Ireland, and the Sogetsu Kaikan Theater Center in Tokyo. Three other North American tours as well as another New York season in 1967 followed. In 1964 the work was featured on the CBS Camera Three series. In 1966 WNET Channel 13 produced an interview with both Erdman and Campbell called, A Viewer’s Guide to the Coach with the Six Insides.

In 1972 when Campbell retired from Sarah Lawrence and Erdman had just gained greater artistic and financial success from her Tony-nominated choreography for Joseph Papp’s Broadway production of Two Gentlemen of Verona, they founded the Theater of The Open Eye together. Taking the Egyptian Eye of Horus, the eye to the eternal realm, as its symbol, The Open Eye was to be a home for mythopoetic dance-based theater incorporating arts and culture from around the world. Moon Mysteries, three Irish Noh plays for dancers by W.B Yeats was their first production. Over the next fifteen years The Open Eye would present or produce over one hundred works of traditional and experimental dance and theater; some directed and choreographed by Erdman, others by the dancers, actors, musicians and designers of The Open Eye company or invited guests. It was also the home for Realms of The Creative Spirit, a series of weekend lectures by Campbell that became wildly popular with the whole company and the general public.

I joined The Open Eye in 1976 and remember vividly being mesmerized by Joe’s incantatory voice as images of mythological symbols danced on the walls of the studio during those magical weekend lectures. Being part of that company was to be part of an artistic family that was on a constant tour of the world. I danced en pointe as an attendant to the Virgin Queen in A Full Moon in March and barefoot as a nymph, manipulating a silk “ocean,” in The Only Jealousy of Emer, two of the three plays that comprised Moon Mysteries. I danced and played the ogan as a congregant in Teiji Ito’s, Haitian Suite and was tormented by monsters as Wahini O’mao, the spirit of woman, in The Shining House: A Dance-Opera of Pagan Hawaii, the last of Jean’s total theater works. Company members were also encouraged to create our own works. Jean and Joe were always available to watch a rehearsal and offer insightful feedback.

I was just as mesmerized by the experience of dancing the role of the Youthful Virgin, the role Erdman had originally choreographed for herself, in her 1945 trio, Daughters of The Lonesome Isle when she remounted it in 1977.The inventiveness and rhythmic complexity of the choreography, an amalgam of world dance from Hawaiian hula to Brazilian samba, set to John Cage’s score on fully prepared piano, was simply breathtaking. For the next sixteen years, I worked closely with Jean recreating her early dance repertory for concerts and for the three-part video archive, Dance & Myth: The World of Jean Erdman.

During the last years of his life Campbell remained active as a guest lecturer and teacher, often at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA or leading groups to important cultural sights abroad. By that time, he and Jean had bought another two-room apartment on the Diamond Head end of Waikiki Beach where life was quieter and he could concentrate on writing his final major opus, The World Atlas of Mythology (Alfred van der Mark Editions, 1983 - 88) and the short book The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: Metaphor as Myth and as Religion (Alfred van der Mark Editions 1986). At the same time he was the subject of Stuart Brown and Phil Cousineau's independent film, The Hero's Journey. On their many trips between Hawaii and New York, Campbell and Erdman often stopped in San Anselmo, CA where Campbell and Bill Moyers sat for hours at a time at George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch filming the interviews that would become the PBS television series, The Power of Myth.

With a schedule like that, it's no surprise that the second part of this volume, the short book, Mythology and Form remained unfinished at his death in 1987. And it’s no surprise that this small volume on modern dance, his final elucidation of the inter-relationship between mythology, psychology and aesthetic form, is a kind of love poem to Erdman, his muse and life partner during the glorious journey of an inspired and inspiring life.

A lot has changed in the dance world since 1987. I have no doubt that Campbell would be even more amazed to see a modern dance concert today than he was when he saw his first in 1937. But I also have no doubt that Campbell’s prose contained in this small volume is not only an elegant account of the early days of modern dance by an ardent admirer participating fully in the struggles and triumphs of its unfolding, but also will be an enduring source of fructifying wisdom for generations of artists yet to be born.

This collection is divided into two parts. Part I contains seven articles and one transcribed lecture previously published between 1944 and 1978. Information concerning the specific date and place of publication for each can be found in the endnotes. Spelling, references and footnotes appear exactly as they were originally published.

The second half of the book, Mythology and Form is an unpublished manuscript. With the exception of two paragraphs at the beginning of Chapter 13, it was generally a clean manuscript, with very few discernable typographical errors. How much Campbell may have wanted to change it is not known, so, with the exception of the two aforementioned paragraphs and obvious typographical errors, I have left it unchanged. All of Campbell’s footnotes and references have been checked.

Many facts, particularly those related to Jean Erdman and her colleagues’ careers probably remained unchecked at the time of Campbell’s death. I have changed any incorrect dates and titles that I was able to verify from research in published sources and primary source material at the New York Public Library Dance Research Collection. Where multiple interpretations appeared, I have included the possible variations in the endnotes.