SONG AND DANCE | PRESS RELEASE

L. Parker Stephenson Photographs is pleased to announce the opening of a group exhibition, Song and Dance, featuring vintage and later prints from 1926 to 1992 by photographers from around the world. Please join us for the opening reception this Thursday, May 26th, 2011 from 6-8 pm.

The primal acts of song and dance transcend age, race, sex, geography and social standing. From Paris’ Moulin Rouge to the sweaty dancehalls of Mali, the famous and anonymous are linked by the desire to raise their voices and move their bodies to music. This exhibition celebrates all who allow their souls to soar and let loose.

Included are famous figures such as the choreographer and early proponent of modern dance, Mary Wigman, seated on the floor performing her Hexentanz in 1926; Elvis Presley, Andy Griffith, Steve Allen and Imogene Coca concealed by their sheet music while practicing for the Steve Allen Show; and Sammy Davis Jr. ensconced in the darkness of an LA stage.

Portrayals of the anonymous are equally intriguing. An example from 1931 is Ilse Bing’s photograph where she deftly shot the dizzying spin of a Cancan girl in a polka dot dress. In the 1940s, Lisette Model angled her camera up at a performer belting out a tune in a Bowery bar; and Wayne Miller photographed a man in tails and boots stomping to the beat at a Hoedown on Chicago’s South side.

In the 1960s, song and dance reflected the political and social changes taking place in much of the world. This is exemplified in the vintage prints by Malick Sidibé of post colonial Bamako youth boogying down and Jan Yoors’ photograph of a crowd twisting to Dizzy Gillespie’s tunes at a CORE fundraiser in Yoor’s New York loft. The sexual revolution was also part of this movement. An early print from Susan Meiselas’ Carnival Strippers gives clues to the seedy side of seductive dancing while women in bathing suits at Jones Beach flaunt their power in Joseph Szabo’s 1980 photograph.

The traditional and classical end of the dance spectrum has also been documented in a variety of ways. Issei Suda photographed a ritual Japanese dance where Kimono clad woman in straw hats which concealing their faces simultaneously bend together and apart. Zdeněk Tmej, better known for the photographs he took in a forced labor camp during the Second World War, also photographed the Czech Song and Dance troupe for over 30 years. In his vintage print, a dancer kicks her bright slippered foot straight out at audience (and viewer). Paul Himmel, who photographed for Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar in the late 1940s through the 1960s caught two ballet dancers mid flight. Blurred, they resemble an explosion of fireworks. Elliot Erwitt presents a group of well-dressed proper young children learning the art of the Foxtrot, while Larry Fink shows a seasoned socialite firmly gripping his wife to his chest while he grins with glee at a Museum of Modern Art fundraiser. Bruce Davidson’s East Harlem couple sways to the sounds from a jukebox while Yuichi Hibi’s pair intimately embraces in a slow dance. Finally, a woman, praising the Lord with eyes closed, offers hope to all in the cover image from Thomas Roma’s Come Sunday series.

The Gallery, located at 764 Madison Avenue (65-66th streets), is open from Wednesday – Saturday 11am-6pm. For more information or additional visuals please contact the Gallery at (212) 517-8700 or email info@lparkerstephenson.nyc.