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. Labor Symphony was created for the company’s second touring season, and its first three sections depicted “Labor of the Fields,” “Labor of the Forests,” and “Labor of the Sea” in a pantomimic style. This section exploring “Mechanized Labor” starkly reveals Shawn’s feelings about the possible pitfalls of moving away from manual labor. Labor Symphony was in and out of repertory throughout the 1930s, performed hundreds of times in cities around the U.S. and Canada, as well as on foreign tours to London and Havana. Like the iconic Kinetic Molpai, this dance was set to a commissioned score that was composed and performed live by Jess Meeker.
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