Body impossible : Desmond Richardson and the politics of virtuosity

Author / Creator

Osterweis, Ariel, author

Available as

Online

Summary

"A virtuoso for the ages, Desmond Richardson (b. 1968) is a dancer renowned for delivering commanding performances over decades in contexts ranging from the stages of the Alvin Ailey American Dance...

"A virtuoso for the ages, Desmond Richardson (b. 1968) is a dancer renowned for delivering commanding performances over decades in contexts ranging from the stages of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Ballett Frankfurt to featured appearances with Michael Jackson and Prince. He was born in Sumter, South Carolina to a Caribbean mother from Barbados and an African American father, and was raised by his mother in Queens, New York, where he would dance at house parties with his family of artists. Richardson set his dance practice in motion as a B-boy, popping and locking in Queens before attending Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts (the "Fame" school) in Manhattan and earning a contract with Alvin Ailey in the 1980s. In 1994, he co-founded Complexions Contemporary Ballet with choreographer Dwight Rhoden. Richardson is one of the most visible and admired African American dance artists and played a significant role in inaugurating what I call in this book the "virtuosic turn" of 1990s and 2000s concert dance in the United States. He modeled his career after acclaimed Black dancers Alvin Ailey, Carmen de Lavallade, Arthur Mitchell, and Judith Jamison, continuing a tradition of soloism and individual artistry, and the height of his fame just preceded the popularity of ballerina, Misty Copeland. It is unusual, if not unheard of, for a dancer to possess the breadth of technical expertise necessary to dance with companies as rooted in classical ballet as are American Ballet Theater and San Francisco Ballet, and to also have the chops to breakdance, pop and lock, and star on Broadway in Fosse numbers with equal aplomb. The New York Times refers to Richardson as "one of the great virtuoso dancers of his generation." In addition, he has appeared as a guest artist on the television show, So You Think You Can Dance, reaching audiences who would not otherwise have access to concert dance. Richardson's personal style epitomizes the idea of virtuosity as-and of-versatility, allowing him to define and exceed the vast expanse that lies between the popular and the avant-garde. Especially before the ubiquity of social media, concert dancers who focused their time on proscenium stages (and not film and television) rarely attained star status. Indicated by the freedom and mobility to freelance and guest star with multiple major dance companies, he shares such status with a select group that includes the likes of Rudolf Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Sylvie Guillem in the 1980s and 1990s, and Copeland in the 2010s. As his repertoire expanded, Richardson gained more control over his career, seamlessly traveling between commercial and concert dance settings. For aspiring dancers training in a variety of institutions, from non-profit conservatories to for-profit studios, Richardson's dancing has become the prototypical example of a predominant contemporary strand of the stylistic mode that is virtuosity"--

Show More