Museum Piece?

Installation view of "Lucinda Childs: Dance" exhibition at the Whitney Museum of Art. Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins. From the Whitney Museum of American Art Web site.

On a recent trip back to New York, I was surprised to come upon the installation, Lucinda Childs: Dance, in the galleries of the Whitney Museum of American Art.  This small exhibition brought together (what are now) archival materials created by choreographer, Lucinda Childs, composer, Philip Glass, and artist, Sol LeWitt, in the process of collaborating on the 1979 piece,  Dance, originally commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music.  It was easily the most mesmerizing display in the museum at the time.

The restored work itself has been touring recently with a new company of eleven dancers under Childs’s direction and it will receive one more set of performances, from 15-17 October, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.  If you are not able to make it to one of these shows, you can read a thoughtful review of the company’s appearance at New York’s Joyce Theater by Evan Namerow on the blog, Dancing Perfectly Free.  If you happen to be in New York, you can view the installation at the Whitney through the 8th November.

 

Nijinsky: Fact or Fiction?

Dust jacket of Romola Nijinsky's biography

Interesting little item in this week’s New Yorker in which Joan Acocella shines a light on some purported contemporary footage of Vaslav Nijinsky dancing that has been circulating on YouTube over the past year.  Perhaps not surprisingly, Acocella reveals these short film clips to be the work of a French animator, Christian Comte.  Not exactly intended as an archival hoax, but is it art?  You decide.

Image credit: NYPL Digital Gallery ID #1103814

 

DHC Fair Use Project Report

The Dance Heritage Coalition recently announced that its two-year project on fair use and copyright issues is now complete.  The results will be published in a booklet, Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use of Dance-related Materials: Recommendations for Librarians, Archivists, Curators, and Other Collections Staff.  Hard copies of the publication will be available after today by contacting DHC project director Libby Smigel, (202) 223-8392 or  LSmigel@danceheritage.org.  A pdf version also will be available at http://www.danceheritage.org/fairuse.

 

Ballets Russes Festival in Utah

Although this announcement is coming late, there still is a little time left to catch the final performances of Ballet West’s Treasures of the Ballets Russes program, if you happen to be in the Salt Lake City area.  The company has received rave reviews from the Dance Critic of the New York Times, but Ballet West also has been sponsoring a very elaborate festival, which has brought together several local organizations, to celebrate the Ballets Russes centennial since 4 March.  Check out the extensive calendar of events and the Ballet West blog for more information.  Sorry we didn’t notice sooner!

 

Celebrate Michael Kidd

In an event that sounds like mondo fun for you lucky New Yorkers,  Dancers Over 40 is presenting an evening devoted to exploring the life and work of the late dancer and choreographer, Michael Kidd.  Featuring a star-laden lineup of participants, the program is scheduled for April 6, 2009 at 8:00 at St. Luke’s Theater on 308 West 46th Street.

Can’t make it?  Fear not, DO40 videotapes these performances and gives a copy to the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.  Cool.  Oops.  Wrong choreographer.

Image credit: Gjon Mili publicity photograph of Michael Kidd rehearsing dancers on the set of the film, “Guys and Dolls” (1955) for LIFE Magazine, LIFE Images on Google

 

Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes Centenary Symposium at Harvard

Program cover from first American tour

Checking the mailbox this afternoon we found a timely reminder of this much anticipated event (sorry we didn’t mention it sooner) and related exhibition.

Full information about it all here.

Image credit: NYPL Digital Gallery ID#16122501

 

Royal Ballet School Opens Museum

Margot Fonteyn scrapbook opened to pages documenting her sensational debut in "The Sleeping Beauty"

Playing catch-up here as usual, amidst the by-now ceaseless barrage of dire economic reports, comes some happier news of a performing arts organization actually opening a new museum — one which spotlights its archival holdings and artifacts.  In a recent article in the Guardian, Maev Kennedy visits the just-opened museum at White Lodge, the home of the Royal Ballet School.

Among those documents and objects currently on display in its galleries are costumes, journals, letters (including those of — we could use him now — economist John Maynard Keynes, better known in these circles as the  husband of Lydia Lopokova), Darcey Bussell’s school reports, and scrapbooks compiled by Margot Fonteyn.  To view the full slideshow, go here.

Congratulations to curator, Anna Meadmore, and all involved in this exciting endeavor.  Let’s all book a restorative visit as soon as possible!

Image credit: Photograph by Sarah Lee/Guardian

 

Secure Media Network Pilot Project

A press release from the Bay Area Video Coalition received today formally announces the  “Secure Media Network” pilot project, which it is undertaking in collaboration with the Dance Heritage Coalition.  The goal is to create “a searchable, digital repository of historic dance media that can be easily accessed by scholars, artists and educators.”  We look forward to more news about this innovative and important initiative.

 

Celebrate Mary Neal Day!

No time to really digest this information, but I wanted to get the news out there while you still have a little time left to celebrate the actual occasion.  A fascinating story about Mary Neal (1860-1944) appears in today’s Guardian.  It is well told by her descendant, Lucy Neal, who has been researching the life of the great-great-aunt, who was “a suffragette, social reformer and morris dance revivalist who has been almost written out of history.”  Equally compelling and filled with great content is the Web site of the Mary Neal Project, which I look forward to exploring in more depth.

 

Jerome Robbins Exhibit at Performing Arts Library

As part of the all-encompassing Jerome Robbins celebration in New York City, the NY Public Library for the Performing Arts is hosting an excellent exhibition devoted to Robbins’ life and work. Letters, posters, photos, paintings and drawings (many by Robbins himself), ticket stubs, programs and playbills, costumes, news articles, and a variety of video monitors featuring clips of works by Robbins. It is a tremendous array of materials and, although the maintenance of the exhibit seems to be somewhat troubling (dust may be found in display cases, some description cards are dangling from the wall, and captions are often placed far away from the exhibition pieces), the breadth and scope of the show is quite breathtaking.

The primary focal point for many exhibit-goers (especially dancers, scholars, and dance fanatics) is the bank of six tv monitors, each of which broadcasts a looping series of differing performance or rehearsal or interview clips, making for a kaleidoscope of Robbins images. I found the broadcast of NY Export: Opus Jazz from the “Ed Sullivan Show” (with dancers from Ballets: USA, including the fabulous John Jones and Patricia Dunn) to be especially exciting. And it is also extremely thought-provoking, since the exhibition also includes McCarthy-era newspaper clippings written by Ed Sullivan (in the years prior to the appearance of Ballets: USA on his tv show) that accuse Jerome Robbins of being a Communist sympathizer. Indeed, the exhibition does not shy away from presenting materials related to Robbins’ testimony before the HUAC and the controversy that followed his naming of names.

Also fascinating is the incredible collection of photos, programs, flyers, drawings, and letters that relate to Robbins’ early career with the Federal Dance Project and Gluck-Sandor, as well as his performances at Camp Tamiment. And, of course, his Broadway, Ballet Theatre, and NYC Ballet years are all generously represented (in particular, West Side Story fans will find plenty to keep them busy and happy, as will fans of such wonderful dancers as Tanaquil Le Clercq, Nora Kaye, and Patricia McBride). It is also possible to view a segment from a brand new staging for film of the aforementioned NY Export: Opus Jazz, a project being undertaken by two current NYC Ballet Soloists, Ellen Bar and Sean Suozzi (who are acting as co-producers). All-in-all, a must-see.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that the Jewish Community Center in NYC (on West 76th Street and Amsterdam Avenue) will be presenting a Jerome Robbins Celebration this coming Monday, June 23, at 7:00pm. Highlights will include a conversation with Ellen Sorrin and Jock Soto, film clips, and performances by members of the NYC Ballet.