Erick Hawkins was really concerned with how the body was used in opposition to how his was used in the Martha Graham Dance Company and in the ballet form. He used influences from his ballet career with Balanchine, his time with Graham's company and the Indian dancer Shanta Rao. He said, "Ballet was too much like a diagram." This is why he took so much to Rao who was fierce and reckless seeming in her movement which he did not find in ballet. He believed that ballet had unsensuous attitudes towards the body and did not like that the culture of ballet leaned towards that. Hawkins' attitudes towards the body were anything but with his simple costumes and showing of the legs he was all about showing how the human body was very sensuous.
Classic Kite Trails shows this simple and sensuous movement. He said “Beautiful dancing,” is always
about the “physical and psychological delight of men and women
together.” This quote is definitely exploring this. He used the soft, fluid, serene and effortless look although his dancers were very athletic. Taking
a released and sustained approach to the basics of Graham technique, he
created a technique known for its “directed, free flow of movement
initiating from the center,” according to Renata Celichowska, author of
The Erick Hawkins Modern Dance Technique. Putting these
qualities together is Hawkins’ great contribution to dance training.”
Hawkins was interested in the classics and “pure movement
poetry” as far as theme. Powerful, theatrical, modernized and many times ritualistic, his works reflect the iconography of the American West, Greek Classics and Asian Cultures. Classic Kite Tails, 1972, plays on the floating and darting elements of flying kites. Plains Daybreak, 1979, was where the dancers were masked and abstracted the Great Plains of America. Both of these links are found on this page. Hawkins' really paid attention to the production values including live music and original, artist-made sets and costumes which led to many relationships with famous 20th-century artists.
Erick Hawkins was influenced by Martha Graham but was distinctive from her. The choreography of Hawkins focused on simple movements, which combined psychological and physical elements, and male and female characteristics. He didn't only pay attention to the dance itself, but also emphasis on the sets and costumes. Overall, he paid a lot of attention on details.
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