When Ted Shawn selected his original Men Dancers from the athletes he taught at Springfield College in 1933, his stated purpose was to forge a new performance style for men, and to prove that dancing could be an honorable profession for the American male. By the time of the performance seen here, the company had already appeared hundreds of times in cities around the U.S. and Canada, as well as conducting foreign tours to London and Havana. Although much of the company’s repertory (such as the iconic Kinetic Molpai) was performed with live piano accompaniment, Shawn created Finale from The New World especially for performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra. The work was seen only twice, and the film has been reconstructed and synchronized with the original vintage recording to which it was created.
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