Outside Effects

Varone started forming his pieces in a time when modern dance had been well established. He lived through changes in America that could have influenced his choreography. He is not an Anna Sokolow, making direct political statements, but he does create pieces that have a powerful effect on the audience.

The attack on the World Trade Towers is an event that happened during his time, and I believe may have influenced his reason why he has created some pieces that have focused on the American lineage. The piece he created for "Dance in America: Wolf Trap's Face of America" video, was about pioneers and where we came from. The relationship people not only have with each other, but have with the land and space they were given. This brings up another thing that happened during Varone’s time and that is, dance on video. Dance on video has not been around for a long time and Varone is one of the people to began to explore what could be done. Varone choreographed a piece in Mammoth Cave, the one for "Dance in America: Wolf Trap's Face of America." Dance boomed in pop culture during his time also. Varone’s company started in 1986, right around the time dance was being done by people such as Michael Jackson on music videos, on TV, and in concerts.
This does not mean Varone started to have his dancers moonwalk their way across the concert dance stage, but the high energy and theatrics this new discovery brought to pop culture could also have influenced some of his more theatric work.