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Study in Contrast
“To me one of the most valuable assets in dance composition is the formula of contrast. In painting, this formula is used in the contrasts of darks against lights, of cool colors against warm ones, of plain surfaces against highly decorative ones. In movement this is done with contrasting a soft movement against a hard, moving the body or body parts from a closed contracted position to an explosive one, or moving vertically to horizontally.”
– Charles Weidman
On February 1st, modern dance soloist, Jennifer Conley, will be performing ‘Study in Contrast’ as part of the 92nd Street Y’s Fridays at Noon series. She will be accompanied by the incomparable Pat Daugherty on piano. This will be Study in Contrast’s first solo concert performance.
Jennifer Conley performing En Dolor choregraphed by Ethel Winter
In the early 1930s, Weidman created ‘Study in Contrast’ as a way to teach principles of dance composition. It concisely shows contrasts between:
sustained and sharp movements,
bent, curved and straight lines,
symmetry and asymmetry,
vertical and horizontal,
drawing inward and expanding outward,
the body being pulled off center/equilibrium and returning to center,
internal and external rotation,
“parallelisms” and “oppositions.”
Composed in ABA form, the study contains myriad variations of the initially stated “bent limb” theme which recurs in an extraordinary variety of angles and rotations. As the body responds to lateral and spiral forces, the dancer is eventually swept from his/her fixed position in space and then finally returns to equilibrium and stability.
Carol Mezzacappa & Craig Gabrian performing Study in Contrast at a lecture demonstration at Hunter College 1994
Early on, Weidman presented lecture demonstrations devoted to the basics of choreography. Initially they were part of the lecture demonstrations that he and Doris Humphrey began in 1929. Then, starting in 1935, Weidman and his Men’s Group presented lecture demonstrations devoted entirely to composition studies. ‘Study in Contrast’ dates from this period. First performed by the Men’s Group, ‘Study in Contrast’ was later incorporated into Weidman’s technique demonstrations which he continued to present throughout his career.
Jennifer Conley performing En Dolor choregraphed by Ethel Winter
Jennifer Conley is a former member of the Martha Graham Dance Company and Pearl Lang Dance Theatre. As a soloist, she has performed the work of modern dance luminaries Martha Graham, Charles Weidman, Jane Dudley, Ethel Winter, Yuriko, and Stuart Hodes. She has received commissions to choreograph original GeoDance repertory on university dance programs across the country and has also staged her work in New York City venues such as HERE, Merce Cunningham Studios, and Lark Theatre. As a regisseur with the Martha Graham Dance Center, Jennifer has staged ten productions of Martha Graham’s ballets in the United States and United Kingdom. She has served on faculty at Laban, Brown University, Franklin and Marshall College, Temple University, and the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. She holds an MFA in Dance from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and is a Doctoral Candidate at Temple University.
For more information on the February 1st performance, visit the 92nd St Y website here: http://www.92y.org/tickets/production.aspx?performanceNumber=87759&source=8587
Words by Nadira Hall
Post by Julia Jurgilewicz
Carry On Newsletters 88-91
If you’re reading this, you already know and love our blog, but did you know the name “Carry On…” comes from the Foundation’s newsletters that used to be sent to our Weidman followers? Here are a few copies of Carry On, the original way of getting our news out to Weidman enthusiasts.
Featuring the welcoming of Margaret O’Sullivan , the foundation’s now acting President, to the board of directors! Time flies when you’re reconstructing Weidman dances!
Announcing the completion and first screening of the documentary Charles Weidman: On His Own! Order your copy of the documentary here!
Updates on the major projects we worked on in 1991, including the preservation through the teaching, filming, and recording in Labanotation of Weidman’s “On my Mother’s Side” and “David and Goliath”.
Enjoy these gems of Weidman history!
Opus 51 in 2012
Last Spring, Margaret O’Sullivan worked with dancers at Montclair State University to stage the Opening Dance of Weidman’s fifty-first creation Opus 51. The process culminated in showings at the University as well as a Friday’s at Noon performance at the 92nd St Y. In May, Margaret worked with a handful of NYC dancers to teach a technique class and some of the Opus 51 Opening Dance. With so many of today’s modern dancers taking a turn at Opus 51, it’s time to give some background information on the piece!
Opus 51 was first performed on August 6, 1938 to music by Vivian Fine (also entitled Opus 51). The performance was held in the Vermont State Armory in Bennington, VT. Costumes were created by Pauline Lawrence, a former Denishawn alumnus who worked for many years with Weidman and Humphrey as an accompanist, costume and lighting designer. During the time Charles created Opus 51, modern dance had not been focusing on what we like to call “movement for movement’s sake” dancing and Charles decided to go ahead and do just that. He created Opus solely on the principle of finding elation and enjoyment in the movement. The Opening Dance was created on five women clad in long green skirts swinging their limbs in attitude positions while crossing through each other. Like all Weidman dances, the movement is incredibly musical, following the swing and accents of Fine’s music with traditional modern dance shapes.
NYC dancers Liz Montgomery, Brighid Greene, Phoebe Sanford, Sarah Hillmon, and Michael Gonzales- Cameron rehearsing Opus 51
Photo by Julia Jurgilewicz
Following the Opening Dance, men and women came together to perform the next section”Commedia”. While Weidman often formed his dancers into characters, this section focused on the exaggeration of movement performed by each character, for example “there were gestures drawn from … daily tasks of sweeping and gardening all linked together in a blizzard of movement that did not attempt to tell a history but just to present kinetically related gestures” (Don McDonagh The Complete Guide to Modern Dance 1976).
After an interlude of bizarre Mazurkas performed by men and women, the finale “Spectacle” culminates in a circus-like performance of understated gestures and modest bows. After all this miming and unexpected grotesque movement, the Opening Dance seems out of place with its normalcy, leading one to believe that he set the stage with a conventional modern dance to make his audience feel comfortable before exposing them to his crazy collection of pantomiming oddities.
Opus 51 exemplifies Weidman’s new take on what modern dance could be as well as introducing us to his incredible use of “kinetic pantomime”. Kinetic pantomime left representational miming behind by taking normal, human gestures and continuing them throughout the rest of the body. “He simply followed the trajectory of a gesture as it metamorphosed into a whole skein of movement that suggested bits and fragments of characterization as it progressed but did not tarry or linger over any” (McDonagh 112). In the video documentary “Charles Weidman On his Own”, Charles is shown teaching a group of dancers kinetic pantomime. They start with “picking strawberries” to the left and right of themselves and then suddenly switch to sitting, legs splayed playing a violent game of jacks. In retrospect, Weidman’s kinetic movement is what contemporary and theater dance is leaning towards in today’s dance world; spontaneity, unpredictability, character play, and enough normal or pedestrian movement to be recognizable to audiences.
Charles Weidman
After learning and performing the Opening Dance, I asked MSU dancer Marissa Lynne Aucoin about her experience with Weidman repertory. After expressing her enthusiasm with learning the dance and the challenges of Weidman technique I asked her the million dollar question: “Is it important to continue the teaching of Weidman technique to today’s dancers and if so, why?” to which she responded “clearly I am very adamant about the continued teaching of Weidman technique. It is such an integral part of the history of modern dance and holds a direct relation to many of the principals used by choreographers today. Continued teaching not only ensures that Weidman’s technique and repertory are preserved but provides moderns dancers with a stronger technical foundation and more humanistic approach towards movement.”
Marissa Aucoin performing Opening Dance of Opus 51 at MSU
What surprised and thrilled me about studying Weidman’s Opus 51 is how similar it is to the work I want to both dance and create: mixing character studies with strong technique; however, what made we want to applaud Charles myself was that it’s creation created controversy and discussion. Among his odd caricatures of “Commedia”, he also threw in some mocking of what American Modern Dance was at the time which was applauded by some and looked down on by others. “Opus 51 caused a controversy between one faction who took it as an insult and another which delighted in this ribbing of Modern Dance, but it …restored the American contemporary dance to its original exuberance– the joyous rebellion rather than the propaganda tool” ( Olga Maynard American Modern Dancers: The Pioneers 1965).
It goes without saying that Opus 51 is relevant and relate-able to the modern dance we see today, and that it did what most contemporary choreographers strive for: to surprise it’s audience and spark them into discussion. Thumbs up Mr. Weidman. The fifty-first one is apparently the charm.
MSU Dancers performing Opening Dance from Opus 51
Photo by Mike Peters
References:
American Modern Dancers: The Pioneers by Olga Maynard, 1965 (New York Library for the Performing Arts)
The Complete Guide to Modern Dance by Don McDonagh, 1976
To purchase the video documentary “Charles Weidman On his Own” go to http://www.dancehorizons.com.
Post by Julia Jurgilewicz
Review of Mary Anthony Dance Theater Showing by Board Member Thomas McNally
The CWDF Board of Directors is comprised of Weidman alumni from various moments on the timeline of the Weidman legacy. One of our beloved members, Thomas McNally, has built quite the resume in his years involved in the modern dance, art, and culture scene. In addition to performing with the Humphrey Weidman Group in the early 1930’s, he has been an accompanist for Martha Graham, Erick Hawkins, Jose Limon, May O’Donnell, and at the Humphrey Weidman studio. In recent years he has taught music at LaGuardia Community College and the Brooklyn School of Music, played organ at Lower East Side Trinity Church, sung with with the Collegiate Chorale, and participated in poetry readings.
Board Members Margaret O’Sullivan and Thomas McNally May 1, 1994 at the Humphrey-Weidman Gala at the Sylvia & Danny Kaye Playhouse. Photo by Larry Hall.
This past June, Tom saw the reconstruction of Charles Weidman’s Fables for our Time performed in the Mary Anthony Dance Theater Studio Showing. This is what he saw.
A Review of Mary Anthony Dance Theater Studio Recital
June 23, 2012
On a recent June evening of an unseasonal New York City hot spell, a recital in Mary Anthony’s studio confirmed the vitality of Charles Weidman’s unique endowment as dancer and mime. There were even echoes of the Denishawn tradition that spawned the establishment in New York City of his choreographic style along with that of his partner, Doris Humphrey and the revolutionary technique and performance of their fellow at Denishawn, the incomparable Martha Graham.
The program opened unconventionally with Alexandra Len’s Where the Light, with emphasis on the “where” of the title for before dancing in the dark, Miss Len distributed miniature flashlights to the audience who not only participated in the performance, but defined the dance at whim. Within the first half of the program, there were two echoes of Denishawn. The first was a piece called Dual, implying duet, by Amelia Dawe Sanders to music of Philip Glass. The Denishawn feature was a bolt of scarlet cloth in which the two principal dancers were at times separately enwound. Occasionally free of the cloth and tussling to claim it, the piece echoed the famous Soaring of Doris Humphrey- her opus involved a large square of colored fabric as a constraint in a charming dance for a quartet of females.
This dramatic Dual was followed by two excellent solos, each danced expertly. Incident, danced and choreographed by Delia Cadman to the music of David Lang, was economical and intense like all effective modern solos and commanded the audience’s attention. The equally fine and effective solo which followed was entitled Soft Shock by choreographer Emma Lee and danced by her to the music of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Following these solos in the first half of the program were two small group dances. Cross Currents, choreographed by Lina Dahbour to an extended piece by Beethoven, was the second echo of Denishawn, acknowledging composition with props. The props consisted of several pieces of wood placed on stage before the dance began. In the course of the dance, any of these props were picked up by one of the three dancers and disposed of choreographically. Finally, one dancer left alone on stage incorporated a number of the props, acquiring them and then freeing herself while dancing. Perhaps this movement came from a study in abstraction? Speaking of abstraction, the second of these group dances, I Would (excerpts) choreographed by Rachel Cohen, exploited every conceivable movement of the five dancers on stage. Considering the elaborate vocabulary, one would like to see the complete work of which this was a selection.
Performed Saturday night were three of the four programmed 1947 Fables for our Time, inspired by James Thurber’s similarly titled collection and choreographed by who else–the outstanding, preeminent genius, the American mime and dancer, Charles Weidman. The music was by Freda Miller, the narration by Kian Ross and Mary Anthony, costumes by ex-Denishawn dancer and pianist, Humphrey-Weidman moral support, spouse of Jose Limon- Pauline Lawrence.
“The Unicorn” featured Jennifer Deckert as the wife, Andre Megerdichian moving lyrically in a fine approximation of Charles’ role as the Husband, Mary Staub as the Psychiatrist and our own Craig Gabrian as the Policeman. In “The Moth and the Star” Daniel Lupo played the young Moth and Fred Timm the Old Moth. In” The Courtship of Arthur and Al”, a jarring production for 1947, the Pretty Little Beaver was Rachel Cohen, Arthur was portrayed by Fred Timm and Al’s Playmates were Eva Hansson, Olga Mikhaviova, and Stephanie Van Dooren. The role of Al was danced very well by one of the tallest (is not the tallest) of male modern dancers Pascal Rekoert, doubling as videographer for the night. On this occasion the spirit of Charles was alive and one could almost see him, wearing handsome, formal, 19th century garb and hear him chanting his hail and farewell “Carry On!”
Fables for Our Time 1947
The last piece of the evening was a delightful surprise- a reconstruction choreographed by our presiding hostess, Mary Anthony. It was entitled Lady Macbeth, to music of Debussy and danced by Mary Ford who, for herself and the applauding audience, profusely acknowledged the choreographer. All these years, Mary Anthony has been working to preserve the tradition of early modern dance in our capital of much modernity in the arts. All the performances of the night were excellent and contributed to the glimpse of Charles’ characteristic deft and penetrating evocation in miming and dance. Thank you Mary Anthony!
-Thomas McNally
Interested in reading James Thurber’s “Fables for our Time”? Browse here.
To find out more about Mary Anthony Dance Theater you can visit the website here.
Post by Julia Jurgilewicz
Charles Weidman Dance Foundation 