"A Necessary Facet of a Well-Lived and Open-Minded Life"

"Which meant that theirs was an image to emulate. Leotards, leg warmers, and rehearsal-room layering became seventies fashion statements, and on Seventh Avenue, stretch fabric came to the fore in wool, cotton, and new synthetics like Qiana. The message of all this, says dance historian Elizabeth Kendall, was to “relax and be a body. Pantyhose versus girdles. Physicalities were being reborn. Dance was the art in which the body woke up.” Ascendant design stars Geoffrey Beene and Halston created flowing dresses that had skinny belts much like the circle of elastic that dancers wore around their waists in morning class. In the sixties, life was a cabaret; in the seventies, A Chorus Line."

Laura Jacobs in City Journal considers dance in the 1970s.