“No to spectacle” (Yvonne Rainer, 1965). How might acts of refusal and rejection engage critically with the frameworks of spectacle and artistic production?
1.0 Introduction
Yvonne Rainer is an American filmmaker, choreographer and dancer, famous for her experimental attempts in dancing and filmmaking. Throughout her life as an artist, Rainer has been a proponent of minimalist art. This form of art represents the revolutions and major metamorphosis in art and design, where the artwork embodies the basic essence of the subject being portrayed, by rejecting the conventional and non-essential forms, structures and concepts.
Rainer introduced some major changes in the basic patterns of choreography in the year 1964. She was the first choreographer of her time who expressed dubiety about the necessity of entertainment in dance. In her opinion, the “drama” element in dance compromised with the expressive qualities supposed to be present in the dance movements. Rainer, therefore, invented a form of neutral dance which would do more than satiate the visual, psychological, social, or formal motives of the spectator. Through this form of dance, Rainer showed more inclination towards an objective presence of the dancer’s body and movements than narrating a particular theme.
In the year 1965, Rainer wrote “No Manifesto”, which fully described the changes introduced by her in traditional dance forms. It had a list of different strategies which were meant to break the stereotypes of dance and present it in a more objective form. The core principles stated in this manifesto were- “No to Spectacle, No to Virtuosity, No to transformations and magic and make-believe, No to the glamour and transcendency of the star image, No to the heroic, No to the anti-heroic, No to trash imagery, No to involvement of performer or spectator, No to style, No to camp, No to seduction of spectator by the wiles of the performer, No to eccentricity, No to moving or being moved.”
This essay will discuss the integration of the refusal and rejection strategies within the framework of spectacle and artistic production. It will present a critical analysis of the works of different authors and critiques of art works that have digressed from the conventional forms by adopting refusal principles similar to Rainer’s “No Spectacle”.
2.0 Predominance of “spectacle art” form
A spectacle art is a form of art that is meant to please the eye through its striking features and narrative patterns. It is more of a superficial manifestation of the impressive features of the artwork rather than its core essence. Three distinct types of spectacles have been described in the works of Debord
