An exercise in hindsight... informs culture of the future.

I recently read a dance review that opened with the statement, "All reviews of live performance are an exercise in hindsight." In context it was apt, for the performance in question was about dancing personal reflections of choreographers and dancers on their lives to that point in time. However, for me the statement spoke more broadly to the fact that I am in the thick of the chaos that leads into a live performance. 

2003 - starting to warm-up on the outdoor stage of the Spoleto Festival in Italy.

The very nature of reading words on a page is knowing that the intent has been considered and edited. The exposition is no longer an immediate, spontaneous response to something or someone in the moment of being read. Yet good writing can feel as though whatever the words are about is unfolding as we read. Watching a live performance is obviously unfolding in time as we perceive it, but its intent has been equally considered and edited; then it must be practiced and coached so that the event appears to be a spontaneous exposition unfolding in the moment of every performance.

Every bit of carved, painted or printed piece of writing preserves its moment in time through its replication, translation, and reading well beyond the lifetime of its author. It could be a physical document un-earthed by archaeologists, referenced in a library, or even replicated digitally with aid of electrical impulses coded in 1's and 0's. However, humans evolved a culture of communication long before they had words. And the most precious of age old non-verbal communication in the world lives mostly in an infinite number of moments that we might call Performance Art, and be lucky enough to experience such Art in our lifetime, knowing that future generations will never encounter the same. We can hope that future humans will have their own transcendent experiences with similar Performance Art within their cultures, but we know that their live performances cannot be the same as ours. That is the nature of live performance's ephemerability. 

2003 detail of Spoleto with ghost of performance.

So why bother to consider that which is past, especially ephemera? I don't think there is much doubt that if you are reading this, you have an interest in how words communicate events and history. And I add that those very words have evolved based on, and because of their own etymology. Within our own cultures words communicate in different ways, but they carry with them a very human history and evolution.

In the mid-1980's, when I took a course on modern (1850-1950) European history, my professor gave me the option to do my research based on the Art of the times, and to analyze how the Art reflected, subverted, and predicted the ethos of those times. Ultimately, Art helps us memorialize meaningful events, gives us voice when our individual existence seems insignificant, and helps us imagine a future of possibilities. Performance Art in particular, may well be the most defining voice of the zeitgeist of any era. The performers are people to whom their audience can relate, they speak, sing and dance in the vernacular of the culture. Yet what they perform may have originated in a near or distant past. 

Black Grace - current promo shot for upcoming performances, 2025.
Photo: Toaki Okano 

The gift of creatives who imagine and bring a live performance to fruition, is a combination of both being of their own time, and of creating Art that speaks to future generations as well. When an original performance work continues to engage and stand up to critical scrutiny through generations of different performing casts, I think of that as a work of genius. Not because I imagine the creative to have thought through every possible interpretation, but because their instincts and perspectives were not limited by their own human mortality. 

Black Grace in Esplanade - detail from current promo, 2025.
Photo: Toaki Okano

The responsibility of re-mounting dances of legacy choreographers, is to honor as best we can the essence of their intent, while acknowledging a contemporary perspective of how the dance is being seen. Fifty years of continuous performances, somewhere in the world, of Paul Taylor's Esplanade is evidence enough that the work itself has maintained meaning for its audiences. It's ongoing life, is in the humanity of this generation's performers to find themselves within the framework of the dance. It is my pleasure and honor to have the mantle of shepherding Black Grace Dance Company in New Zealand to perform Esplanade. In the spirit, and with the support of, Fulbright, this is just as much about international exchange as it is about furthering cross-cultural understanding through Art.

This blog (FNZdance25.blogspot.com) is not an official site of the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State. The views expressed on this site are entirely those of its author (Richard Chen See) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Fulbright Program, the U.S. Department of State, or any of its partner organizations.