Page "Jean Erdman" Paragraph 8

Originally an exploration of primitive style or archaic style, The Transformations of Medusa developed from a short study of the two-dimensional form into a complete dance of three sections.

Erdman described the yearlong evolution of the piece as the process through which she came to understand that every posture contains " a whole state of being or attitude toward life.

" The dance evolved as she attuned herself to the physical sensations of the stylized positions and followed where they led her.

It was Campbell, informed by his deep well of mythological imagery, who identified the psycho-spiritual transformations of the dance as the inner life of Medusa, the beautiful Greek virgin raped by Poseidon and then condemned for her own defilement to life as a snakey-headed Gorgon by Athena.

Throughout her career, Erdman pointed to this experience to demonstrate her aesthetic process of exploring the dynamic rhythms inherent in a seed movement idea to create a unique, organic form.