Martha Graham's American Document: A Minstrel Show in Modern Dance Dress
1991; University of Illinois Press; Volume: 9; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/3051433
ISSN1945-2349
Autores Tópico(s)Theater, Performance, and Music History
ResumoAmerican Document, which received its premiere in Bennington, Vermont, on August 6, 1938, marked a significant shift in Graham's development as an artist. Commentators, from its inception, were generally agreed on its importance. Edwin Denby bluntly asserted, Martha Graham's American Document is a major work, as everybody knows. Lincoln Kirstein termed the production a dance-drama of the first importance, and many critics noted that the piece represented a radical line of departure for Graham.' The reputation of the piece is such that it has never been in danger of being forgotten, yet it vanished from the repertoire after 1944. The original choreography has been lost; the musical score composed by Ray Green has never been recorded, although it is still in his possession; two early films of selections from the dance are difficult to decipher, and the libretto itself, a later revised version of which was published in Theatre Arts Magazine in 1942, has been neglected in the literature about Graham. In 1989, the Graham company announced its intention to present a work with new music by a different composer, based on the original script and starring the great Russian ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov.2 One of the most obvious reasons why American Document was considered a turning point in Graham's development was that, for the first time, a man was invited to join the company. Erick Hawkins, a ballet dancer from Ballet Caravan, was featured as Graham's partner, and Housely Stevens, Jr., a young actor who moved like a dancer,
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