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Preface ARDC and the Art of Reconstruction |
Of all the performing arts, dance has uniquely depended on an oral tradition, and its continuity has relied on the mentor teaching the movement and the why or motivation to the student. The
critic and dance historian, Walter Terry, states that his expectations of reconstructions are colored by remembrances of initial performances of the creators themselves.
As senior critic, I had seen, with the exception of Isadora, the originals and their companies perform. These old timers did not have today's highly developed techniques but they were intensely gutsy and they communicated what Martha Graham has called that 'urgency to action'...A step was not just a step. It could be a stride or a progression, hesitant, determined or insinuating, or the planting of feet solidly upon the earth, or a caress, or an inexorable advance or tragic retreat - it was not just locomotor tracery. (Smithsonian, Oct. 1980)Terry's statement encapsulates the challenge in reconstruction or rebuilding dances from the past. A successful reconstruction depends on many components, not the least of which is casting the right dancer. American Repertory Dance Company's eminent artists bring their craft to the process of exhaustive research into investigating and selecting resources such as film, notation, oral history, photographs, writings, and selecting the most knowledgeable former dancers for invaluable coaching. From these methodologies, the impact and richness of the choreographer's intention comes alive in powerful performances. As a performing art, dance must be experienced. If the dances from the past cannot be seen in live performances, they will retreat into distant memory - except for the occasional fragment shown on an arts channel. ARDC's works fall into the following categories of reconstruction:
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