Funny how fitness fashion often leaves little to be desired. Athletic wear might be a trend for Spring 2012, but we’ve yet to see Anna Della Russo sporting workout wear on the streets of Milan. And yet, despite its lack of fashion sense, women’s sporting wear has made major impacts on how we dress today, from work attire, to the perfect cocktail dress. Here are a few historical sportswear facts that highlight the fitness impact on the fashion world:
Leotard
The first skin tight bodices were crafted by Jules Leotard during the Victorian era of the late 1800s. The leotard was made solely for men, namely circus performers, while women performers kept to inflexible and rather dangerous corsets. While men still wear leotards, or “biketards”, for cycling, swimming, rowing, etc, the name will forever be synonomous with women and dance fashion.
Shoes
One of the first pair of rubber soled, canvas shoes was created by Charles Goodyear – yup, the same name associated with tires. In 1916 the shoes, called Keds, were mass-marketed as the first sneaker. The name “sneaker” was bequeathed by advertising man Henry Nelson McKinney, because the rubber sole made the shoe so quiet.
Golf
The fabric of choice for women who golfed in the early part of the 20th century was tweed. Hmm…sounds heavy.
Tennis
While long layered skirts slowly became long wide-leg plants, it wasn’t until 1932 that Alice Marble made waves walking out onto the tennis court in shorts at Wimbleton. The world was aghast, but thankfully, we never looked back.
Swimsuits
In the 1800’s women wore skirts and pantaloons made of heavy fabrics that would not become see-through in the water. They also came with weights sewn into the fabric to keep the fabric from floating up. It took decades of fighting for women’s rights coupled with the invention of Lycra around the 1930’s that brings us to the swimwear and bikinis we know today.
From the ethereal to the awkward, all movement has a place in the human psyche. In Los Angeles, there is a troupe that’s not afraid to dance it all.
bodycity (all lowercase) is a democratic dance collective based in Los Angeles, dancing the in-between spaces of conceptual art, traditional performance, and social event. The group is democratic in that no dance is the brainchild of just one person, each dancer must both choreograph and perform every piece – becoming both teacher and student in an ongoing, collaborative cycle.
The level of dance training in bodycity varies from formal education, to none. And there is no ideal body type or style. Only when each dancer’s unique shape, size and movement pattern is expressed together, does the dissonant vision emerge as a singular piece of art.
The themes of bodycity dances are time and site-specific. One example is Summer Solstice Session. Each member performed and chronicled a five-minute dance outside, at the exact time of the summer solstice. At that moment, the performers were spread out all over the world, from Belgium to Colorado. The videos were collected and shown at the California Film Festival in September.
An epic piece titled Overpassages, converged at one of the busiest transportation intersections in the United States: between the 110 highway, the 5 freeway, the LA River, and the Los Angeles railroad tracks. Each dancer stood throughout the odd wilderness, “in-between” spots, and communicated by relaying energy and movement – like a telephone game across great expanses of cars, trains, and life on the go. It literally brought traffic to a halt. A two-minute video of the performance may soon be viewable through the Los Angeles Metro Arts program.
Their latest piece End Trails was performed on October 16th, at the High Desert Test Sites of Joshua Tree. It explored the space between Los Angeles and Joshua Tree, the journey into the desert, and the road back home again.
The origins of dance are tribal by nature, celebrating a time and place, celebrating a community, and celebrating ourselves. For whatever reason, dance fulfills a human need to creatively and physically, self-express. bodycity reminds us dance is for everyone, at any time, and anywhere.
KISS might have been the final blow that killed dancing as a socially acceptable thing to do. Noting the temporary outcroppings of dances surrounding music videos and movies, we still never fully recovered from the backlash against disco. And only a few years later were computers born, keeping us complacently docile and more susceptible to head bobbing as a form of musical appreciation.
It’s a shame we don’t dance in America. We tend to view it as a spectator sport.
Breaking it down into two categories, we have the art of dance and social dance. Over an extended period of time, I’d argue, social dance has all but disappeared, while perceiving dance as an art form, reserved for those with skill, has grown…mainly through reality show competitions. And no doubt it is an admirable and beautiful thing to behold, but socially, as a nation we don’t embrace dance as something we all can do. Blame it on KISS, blame it on technological evolution; blame it on the Puritans; blame it on a lack of rhythm; whatever the reason, we generally scoff and say, “Yeah, right. No. Way.”
From an evolutionary perspective, dance let us show off to potential mates. Like peacocks strutting their feathers, it displayed physical capabilities and breeding skills, the remnants of which can still be unearthed in dance clubs today, however, online dating is taking the opportunities and fun away. The most colorful peacocks today have 1000+ friends and a killer Facebook profile.
From a social perspective, dance is a way to celebrate, congregate, and enjoy community. Almost every culture in the world has a social dance that is crucial to their heritage. In plenty of places, dancing is still an important way of getting together and letting loose in everyday life. Brazil has it down, as does India. There is no dancing like in a Bollywood film, and it only mirrors the societal importance of dance in celebration for men and women, young and old.
Finally, from the physical perspective, dance is a way to stay healthy and in shape, getting the heart pumping, and the brain lapping up all those feel-good neurotransmitters. Dance helps balance intrinsic muscles and joints, and our mental capacities in ways we now use somatics, pilates, and yoga, to try and do. Researchers at Washington University have even found evidence of dance helping to control movements in patients with Parkinson’s Disease.
So we get it. Dance is good. It all makes sense, but we still can’t help but cringe at the thought of jumping up moving around. Generally, the places one feels safest dancing are – the hidden underground belly of a dance club (with the aid of alcohol or recreational drugs), at a wedding, (with the aid of alcohol or recreational drugs), at home with the XBox game, or regulated to a sterile gym fitness class.
Unfortunately, our motives are deeply ingrained, and “cold dancing” is a tall order. The larger the group of people dancing, the easier you’ll find it to be….that’s why it’s social. Try releasing a hangup or two, grab a bunch of friends, and in the immortal words of Swing Out Sister “Break Out”. It could become infectious. And if it’s not, who cares, you and your friends will feel great. Maybe we need office Spotify dance breaks, where every few hours a song comes on, encouraging movement within the entire office, from receptionist to CEO. I like that picture. You’d be surprised what camaraderie will ensue when dancing next to your boss or the IT personnel. Until then, I dare you to try and bust a move this week.
Next post we’ll look at a dance troupe breaking down the barriers between, social and artistic dance. Until then, I leave you with Bollywood:
If you are in Los Angeles, I highly recommend catching the Beauty Culture Exhibit at the Annenberg Space for Photography before it departs on November 27th. And if you aren’t so close to Los Angeles, you can still experience the viewpoint of photographers and some of their images on the Annenberg website. It’s thought- provoking, stunning, and horrifying, all at once. In a word – intense. Photographer Lauren Greenfield created a 30 minute documentary for the exhibit which runs in a loop in the center of the gallery. It displays the highs and lows, the grace and pain, and everything in between that is modern beauty. I only hope Greenfield is able to publicly showcase the documentary after the exhibit. Beauty is so intertwined with our lifestyle and society, it can neither be all good or bad, and Greenfield does a great job walking the line between both extolling its virtues and being all too aware of its devastating traps.
In conjunction with the exhibit, throughout the month of October there is a great speaker series, discussing the topics of beauty and society. Here are the dates and schedules, but for more information, click here.
Thursday Evenings 6:30 to 8:00PM
Thursday, October 6, Peter Fetterman and Lizzie Himmel -“Women In Photography”
Thursday, October 11, Randall Slavin with Charlize Theron -“The Making of 24 Portraits”
Thursday, October 13, Lauren Greenfield
Thursday, October 20, Mona Kuhn -“Beauty Without Apologies”
Thursday, October 27, Elaine D’Farley and Philip Gefter – “Beauty: The Real vs. the Ideal“
The first skin tight bodices were crafted by Jules Leotard during the Victorian era of the late 1800s. The leotard was made solely for men, namely circus performers, while women performers kept to inflexible and rather dangerous corsets. While men still wear leotards, or “biketards”, for cycling, swimming, rowing, etc, the name will forever be synonomous with women and dance fashion.
The Mind Body Moderate 