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Retrospectives and New Beginnings

Retrospectives and New Beginnings RETROSPECTIVES AND NEW BEGINNINGS Nicholas Birns Sourcing Stravinsky. A dance performance by multiple choreographers.  Dance Theater Workshop, New York, April 20–22, 2006. Meg Stuart,  Benoît Lachambre, and Hahn Rowe, Forgeries, Love, and Other Matters.  Dance Theater Workshop, April 27–29, 2006. he  Sourcing Stravinsky  program  curated  by  Annie-B  Parson  at  Dance Theater Workshop raised  the issue of postmodern dance’s relationship to the heritage of traditional dance.  Stravinsky’s  long  life,  his  residence  in  both  Europe  and  America,  and  his  famous  association  with  Balanchine  all make him a reference point for this  kind of retrospective appropriation. Each  of  five  choreographed  works  made  its  individual response, both in idiom and  concept, to Stravinsky’s work. This provided  the  audience  with  a  wide  gamut  of imagery and movement. It also raised  questions  about  whether  Stravinsky’s  music, and the dance associated with it,  are,  as  symbolic  forms,  “period  styles”  and whether they can or should be reperiodized with respect to our own time.  The  first  performer,  Cynthia  Hopkins,  established  exactly  this  paradigm  for  Stravinsky in her extraordinary combination of speech, movement, and theatricality. Hopkins entered the stage in a  metallic, space-age costume and assumed  48    PAJ 84 (2006), pp. 48–55.  T the posture of a therapeutic analysand,  addressing the audience as “Dr. Cook.”  Hopkins  tells  Dr.  Cook  that  she  is  exploring  a  never-implemented  1953  collaborative  project  between  Stravinsky and Dylan Thomas concerning the  conquest  of  earth  by  space  aliens.  The  title  of  Hopkins’s  piece,  “Tsimtsum,”  referring to the Kabbalistic idea of God’s  self-constriction  in  order  to  create  the  world,  is  exemplified  by  the  confined  space, designed by Jeff Sugg, which took  up  about  one-fifteenth  of  the  available  stage. Hopkins’s performance, accompanied by her own music, largely consisted  of a spoken-word monologue. Yet, it still  was  dance,  as  dance  is  a  medium  that  puts  the  body  in  question.  The  effect  was a combination of Laurie Anderson’s  deadpan musings and Richard Foreman’s  hyperkinetic,  deliberately  alienating  imagism.  Hopkins,  whose  previous  large-scale work, the operetta Accidental Nostalgia, speculated on the delights and  sorrows of amnesia, is also performing a  memory play here. There is nostalgia for  the possibility of collaboration between  © 2006 Nicholas Birns two famous modernist creators (Hopkins  noted that Thomas died early of drink,  a few blocks to the south of where she  was performing) and the possibility of a  kind of space-age futurism that seemed  realizable then.  Yet Tsimtsum, with its sense of the apocalyptic collapse of this envisioned technofuture as expressed visually by Hopkins  casting off the metallic space costume for  more autumnal garb, seems a consciously  post-9/11 performance piece. Her musings on “responsibility and irresponsibility” indicate a more sober environment,  one in which creativity cannot, as a kind  of  utopian  predicate,  simply  assume  a  social vacuum. Tacitly, this argues for a  less charismatic conception of the artist,  though  Hopkins  does  clearly  admire  the bravado of Stravinsky and Thomas.  Hopkins’s  body  language  becomes  less  http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art MIT Press

Retrospectives and New Beginnings

Birns, Nicholas
PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art , Volume 28 (3) – Sep 1, 2006
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Publisher
MIT Press
Copyright
© 2006 Nicholas Birns
ISSN
1520-281X
eISSN
1537-9477
DOI
10.1162/pajj.2006.28.3.48
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Abstract

RETROSPECTIVES AND NEW BEGINNINGS Nicholas Birns Sourcing Stravinsky. A dance performance by multiple choreographers.  Dance Theater Workshop, New York, April 20–22, 2006. Meg Stuart,  Benoît Lachambre, and Hahn Rowe, Forgeries, Love, and Other Matters.  Dance Theater Workshop, April 27–29, 2006. he  Sourcing Stravinsky  program  curated  by  Annie-B  Parson  at  Dance Theater Workshop raised  the issue of postmodern dance’s relationship to the heritage of traditional dance.  Stravinsky’s  long  life,  his  residence  in  both  Europe  and  America,  and  his  famous  association  with  Balanchine  all make him a reference point for this  kind of retrospective appropriation. Each  of  five  choreographed  works  made  its  individual response, both in idiom and  concept, to Stravinsky’s work. This provided  the  audience  with  a  wide  gamut  of imagery and movement. It also raised  questions  about  whether  Stravinsky’s  music, and the dance associated with it,  are,  as  symbolic  forms,  “period  styles”  and whether they can or should be reperiodized with respect to our own time.  The  first  performer,  Cynthia  Hopkins,  established  exactly  this  paradigm  for  Stravinsky in her extraordinary combination of speech, movement, and theatricality. Hopkins entered the stage in a  metallic, space-age costume and assumed  48    PAJ 84 (2006), pp. 48–55.  T the posture of a therapeutic analysand,  addressing the audience as “Dr. Cook.”  Hopkins  tells  Dr.  Cook  that  she  is  exploring  a  never-implemented  1953  collaborative  project  between  Stravinsky and Dylan Thomas concerning the  conquest  of  earth  by  space  aliens.  The  title  of  Hopkins’s  piece,  “Tsimtsum,”  referring to the Kabbalistic idea of God’s  self-constriction  in  order  to  create  the  world,  is  exemplified  by  the  confined  space, designed by Jeff Sugg, which took  up  about  one-fifteenth  of  the  available  stage. Hopkins’s performance, accompanied by her own music, largely consisted  of a spoken-word monologue. Yet, it still  was  dance,  as  dance  is  a  medium  that  puts  the  body  in  question.  The  effect  was a combination of Laurie Anderson’s  deadpan musings and Richard Foreman’s  hyperkinetic,  deliberately  alienating  imagism.  Hopkins,  whose  previous  large-scale work, the operetta Accidental Nostalgia, speculated on the delights and  sorrows of amnesia, is also performing a  memory play here. There is nostalgia for  the possibility of collaboration between  © 2006 Nicholas Birns two famous modernist creators (Hopkins  noted that Thomas died early of drink,  a few blocks to the south of where she  was performing) and the possibility of a  kind of space-age futurism that seemed  realizable then.  Yet Tsimtsum, with its sense of the apocalyptic collapse of this envisioned technofuture as expressed visually by Hopkins  casting off the metallic space costume for  more autumnal garb, seems a consciously  post-9/11 performance piece. Her musings on “responsibility and irresponsibility” indicate a more sober environment,  one in which creativity cannot, as a kind  of  utopian  predicate,  simply  assume  a  social vacuum. Tacitly, this argues for a  less charismatic conception of the artist,  though  Hopkins  does  clearly  admire  the bravado of Stravinsky and Thomas.  Hopkins’s  body  language  becomes  less 

Journal

PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art – MIT Press

Published: Sep 1, 2006

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