DANCING BOWS
posted by James Reel
OK, here’s one for a very small audience: my piece in the current issue of Strings about bowing technique:
The ancient Greeks knew of four elements: earth, air, fire, water. The periodic table of elements is a lot more crowded these days, but many dancers still reduce everything to four elements of their own: weight, space, time, flow. That’s what 20th-century dance theorist Rudolf Laban emphasized in his study of movement.If you have obscure interests, you can read the rest here.
These elements could apply to string playing, too. What is bowing but a dance on a wire by wood and horsehair partnered by your arm? Janine Riveire, an associate professor of music at Cal Poly Pomona, has adapted Laban’s theories to help you bow like a dancer.
