MEDIATHEK

FOREWORD: "Choreographers do not make out of words. They compose them in the vocabulary of movement. Dr. Ellfeldt has long demonstrated her command of that vocabulary in her own dance compositions. Now. in "A Primer for Choreographers", she has undertaken the difficult task of explaining its alphabet to beginning students. Well aware that his alphabet is meaningful only in its own movement terms, she has used words sparingly. Rather than verbalizing about the properties of movement as a medium for communication, she has made it possible for students to discover the ABC's of dance in a series of movement experiences. In this way, she has provided functional answers to the persistent questions of all would-be choreographers: How do I start? How do I find a movement-provoking idea? How do I find a movement? How do I put the idea and the movement together to make a dance? And so on through all of the troublesome questions about spatial relationships, visual images, settings, accompaniment, and other considerations that enter into a meaningful dance composition. The sense of these discoveries is well illustrated in the series of drawings prepared by Sue Powell, for the illustrator is also a choreographer who has worked with many beginning students in the dance studio. By calling this book a "Primer", the writer and the illustrator have identified it as an elementary textbook for students who are just beginning to compose their own dances. But this exposition of the basic principles of choreography is much more than an elementary text. It is also a substantial contribution to the choreographic literature and to the growing body of literature dealing with the meaningful properties of movement in all its forms. As such, it may well be read with profit by experienced choreographers and dancers, and by anyone interested in movement as a source of meaning in human life." Eleanor Metheny Los Angeles, California May, 1967 Source: Ellfeldt, Lois (1975): A Primer for Choreographers. An Introduction to Modern Dance Composition. London: Dance Books Ltd, foreword.