The double-entendre of "Current Events"!

Lately, events from all aspects of life seem to be breaking over our consciousness, and as I get older, the topics often feel familiar, if unwelcome, like an eddy of deja vu. I have always loved moving water and playing in the currents of a river or the open ocean. So it isn't a big leap when I imagine the news cycles to be like ocean currents circulating through time, natural disasters, political upheaval, infrastructure failures, technological advances, celebrity dramas, and all of it. The delivery might be different, but the only certainty seems to be that nothing stays the same. And yet we all live in the moment hoping that our singular existence might affect a future outcome, a sort of legacy.

I'm the blindfolded jumper! 1983 with Mario Alonzo at Oakland Ballet Company. Photo: Marty Sohl

If I accept that I can't predict the future, I might imagine myself to be leaping into each new adventure blindfolded and each step forward is an act of faith. The benefit of age and experience is knowing that I have lived through many unimaginable moments and events in my own life, and that my stories are just one perspective of multitudes. So how do I stay the course of taking on new ventures like re-staging an iconic work of performance art on a new generation, internationally?

I focus on the details. This can be tedious and time consuming work, and in looking at reconstructing a thirty minute dance, if I were starting from scratch, it might take upwards of three hundred hours of research, documentation, and implementation. And this is only looking at my specific role as principal stager and artistic representative of Paul Taylor's intellectual property, for just one dance.

Detail from a Labanotation score of about 5 seconds of choreography...

I do have my methods to address these projects knowing the amount of work to be done, and that there is no short-cut, because we are talking about how we learn as humans. Much of my preparation is about making sure that I can conceptualize each and every step, role, costume, lighting cue, sound cue, and everything for how I believe it was intended. This is a tricky statement, that is not intended as hubris, but rather as accepting the responsibility that producing dance as an Art is a form of an expressed intent. And if that intent is not clear expressed from me as the artistic representative, then the result may well suffer under public scrutiny. I would also like my diligence, and belief in detail and intent to somehow mark my legacy in times when I am no longer around. 

My rough notes for the same 5 seconds of choreography...

Setting an American choreographer's dance on a company of dancers in a completely different country is also about finding common ground with both the dancers' and the culture's embrace of the creative content. Dance is a language of communication, even though it may not speak in literal terms, yet it can be a touchstone for human emotions made visible, even evoking descriptions like "grotesquely beautiful" or "sublimely terrifying". 

My digitized version of my notes for the same 5 seconds of choreography...

I mentioned above the fact that for humans to repeatedly perform the same choreography with integrity, musicality, and conviction, rushing the process of how individual dancers learn is counter productive. To account for different learning styles (a whole other topic about which I love exploring), my preparation does need to be ready to answer the performers' questions, which generally start from making sense of how to conceptualize and execute the intended movement or patterns. Yet this is only the beginning of the process, and it often takes about an hour of concentrated work in a studio to just learn a single minute of choreography, whether working with an individual or with a group.

Technological advances in video make it infinitely easier to view and analyze choreography, both as it is being created, and in reconstructing a dance. However, like oral traditions that have been recorded and transcribed to a written document, the root of a word/idiom/phrase may still be missing, because its beauty may lie in its pronunciation/accent/lexicology. Most video replications highlight the exceptional and unique talents of the performers being filmed, and if those performers are truly exceptional, the viewer might be trying to replicate the performer rather than the intent of the choreography. 

2025 Programme booklet for performance in Vienna with dances by
George Balanchine, Merce Cunningham and Martin Schläpfer.
Audiences in USA may never see a dance by Schläpfer on account of what it takes to reconstruct a dance, but his work has been known in Europe for decades!
Dancers: Rashaen Arts, Javier González Cabrera. Photo: Ashley Taylor

I want every performance and performer involved to be building a new artistic experience. Videos of multiple interpretations, my written notes, interviews with dancers/choreographers/audiences all serve as references in my knowledge base to offer artistic choices with a unified intent.  Paul Taylor created his dances from his perspective with a specific cast of performers. His genius was in creating a visual language that can speak through generations of dancers with as much nuance and personality as the original cast. My responsibility is in helping to decipher ways to take advantage of Taylor's genius, so the craft, the finesse, the breadth of expression of future dancers and choreographers will support their inspirations to reach an audience.

Literacy in written language and music help us continue to learn and build on what came before!

Taylor was a unique choreographic voice who danced with and grew out of an earlier generation of maverick talents. As we struggle to experience some of those pioneers' works being performed today, I think of it like losing the chance to see a William Shakespeare play or listen to a Johann Sebastian Bach concerto. Just because we know it existed does not allow performance arts to drive the Art of expression and reflection of ourselves as individuals or representations of our current cultures.

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.