Answer 3

Restaging and Reimagining Dance Art from Converging Moments in History

         How to approach a piece of Choreographic work that has since been 'lost' or is historically iconic within the dance community is a question that many academics, like myself, find of the utmost importance. There is a compulsion I feel for preserving the honor of artists who have pioneered before us such as Pearl Primus, Paul Taylor, Martha Graham, among countless others. I desire a reflection or rehashing of artistic responses to politics and people in moments of convergence prior to my life's timeline as a source of learning, a marker for growth, and depth of heritage for the dane community and world beyond. For instance, Kim Jones, previously a Martha Graham dancer and now an associate professor at North Carolina University, Charlotte, has reimagined Paul Taylor's 1962 work 'Tracer' with set and costume design by Rauschenberg (Solender). This piece was a product of a moment of convergence, a particular historical point influenced by art, politics, and people. We learn Paul Taylor's choreography, but we also rehash the world around him in that particular moment. In looking at the choreographer as the creator and ethical owner of the piece he/she creates a choreographer desiring to remake or reimagine a piece must always first look to them.

          The question of copyright, who owns a particular choreographic work, becomes only one piece to a larger ethical puzzle within the dance community. Dances made prior to 1978 that were not published through federal formalities forfeited copyright protection (Kaufman). According to Linda Murray, curator for the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, a choreographic work becomes public domain 70 years after the choreographer's death or 120 years after it is created. According to her correspondence, this doesn't nullify ownership but does negate licensing or any monetization around the piece, but this is only considered if the ownership of the piece has already been legally determined. In the early 2000s a long, arduous, and expensive legal battle was fought over the rights to Martha Graham's choreography between her heir, Ron Protas, and the Martha Graham Dance Company center. The court ruled that the majority of Graham's works were owned by the center as she was an employee of her own company commissioned to create these works. While it was comforting to many performative artists that her choreographic works would continue to be performed by a company of dancers most closely trained by her and her technique legacy, it was also alarming to some artists who owned their own companies like Taylor or Cunningham that they may not be the owners of their own creations (Maynard). There is a public catalogue from the United States Copyright Office that lists copyrights for choreographic works among other materials from 1978 to the present.

          So then, finding how "messy" as multiple sources have stated, choreographic copyright and ownership is it is up to us in the dance community to create a kind of ethos or expectation on an ethically responsible way to approach historical pieces. I would approach a piece of choreography as though it is intertwined or a part of the choreographer, to view their creation as something that has a lineage, and then dig around to trace that lineage. It honors the choreographer by finding out who they entrusted their work to as the most important resource. I would try to uncover, if possible, their own stance on their choreography, whether or not they would desire their work to be restaged or reimagined. It is important to dialogue with other artists in the field and to hold ourselves accountable to making sure our intent in restaging their piece is inline with their own personal ideology surrounding the piece. I would view their creation as a work that was formed at a particular converging point in time. Asking questions such as: what was the choreographer's history, their life philosophy? What were the politics of the world sphere in which they were engaging?

        In her reimagining of Paul Taylor's 'Tracer', Jones shares that she found photos taken from the piece which she distributed copies to the dancers in her rehearsals along with reviews of the piece when it was performed, using these as prompts to begin to breathe the number back to life. The goal wasn't to try to create a carbon copy, that would be impossible, but to recreate its essence. She was able to read from Taylor's cryptic notes and ask dancers who had previously been in his company to help interpret Taylor's own written script in to actionable form, understanding as closely as she could, what he meant in his personal notes about the movement, what he was trying to convey. Previously in her career, Jones reimagined Graham's work, 'Imperial Gesture.' "When Graham created 'Imperial Gesture,' the work was in response to many factors including the rise of fascism in Europe, workers' rights, and the emergence of American expressive dance," she said. "With 'Tracer,' it's the beginning of the Vietnam War. Rauschenberg is finding value in using found objects. Why? I want to bring these historical elements to my students and an audience" (Solender). Her approach is to rescue work that has been 'lost' by using whatever she is able to find, still images, reviews, choreographer's notes, and the memories of original performers. Though it is debatable what qualifies dances as 'lost' the most general understanding is dances that have neither a record in labanotation, a written for for scribing dances developed by Rudolf Laban in the 1920s, or video footage. Labanotation and the two dimensional quality of a video record still leaves much room for interpretation when restaging a piece. Arguably, the best source for handing down material is person to person, artist to artist.

          Some pieces don't need to be detected, dug up, and reimagined in the same way that Jones' choreographic projects have needed. Some pieces are purposefully handed down. Revered choreographer and performer, Pearl Primus, took part in American Dance Festival project initiative called 'The Black Tradition in Modern Dance.' A project pointed at preserving important works by black choreographers. According the John Perpener with Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival Inc. Primus' artistic vision included "her love of performing, her commitment to social and political change, and her desire to pass her knowledge and her artistry on to later generations." As an early student of the "New Dance Group" beginning in 1941, Primus embraced the collective's motto 'Dance is a weapon,' that dance artists were to use their awareness of current political and social realities and create works that impacted individuals in their audience on a conscious level (Perpener). Primus' desire for her choreography was clearly defined and intended. She taught her 1943 work 'Strange Fruit' to Kim Bears, a dancer from the Philadelphia Dance Company, who restaged and performed the work at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in 2011.

         For me, the answer to the question hinges on a single word, respect. All questions considered for the restaging or reimagining of previous works must begin with this word and its depth and nuance. What does it look like to respect this choreographer and this particular piece of their collective work? What would their desire or opinion be in my undertaking it? How can I research their choreography in the most authentic and respectful way? Who are the people that I need to confer with? This is the starting point, the ground breaking moment of, what could be, an exciting and excellent feet, believing the past is relevant to the present, and bringing it forward the most authentic way dance artistry can be presented, through performance.