American Document

Last updated

American Document is a modern dance work choreographed by Martha Graham in response to rising Fascism in 1930s Europe. The piece premiered on August 6, 1938 at the Vermont State Armory in Bennington, Vermont. The ballet features spoken word excerpts from the Declaration of Independence and Emancipation Proclamation, among other texts. The set was created by Arch Lauterer; the costumes were designed by Edythe Gilfond. The original music was written by Ray Green. [1] Graham extensively reworked the choreography in 1989. John Corigliano's Oboe Concerto replaced Green's music for the revised version. [2] [3]

Contents

Theme and characters

The idea for the ballet came to Graham as she listened to the Axis nations' "vicious and terrifying" propaganda on the radio. It occurred to her that American democracy had a repository of words with "the power to hearten men and move them to action." [3]

The original program notes state," Our documents are our legends - our poignantly near history - our folk tales." The notes also include the quotations from historical documents and figures that are spoken throughout the performance. The text is excerpted from The Declaration of Independence, Song of Songs , Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural Address, the Emancipation Proclamation and the writings, speeches or sermons of Jonathan Edwards, Thomas Paine, John Wise, Francis Fergusson and Red Jacket, the Seneca orator. [4]

Both set [5] and costumes subtly used a red, white and blue motif. [6]

The ballet is patterned after a minstrel show, although Graham was careful to avoid degrading racial stereotypes. Green's original music was scored for piano and drums. It borrowed from American and African folk tunes and incorporated the fanfares and drum rolls characteristic of minstrel shows. The characters and structure are also derived from minstrelsy. [6]

The roles are: [4]

The Interlocutor introduces the show and addresses the audience directly, reading excerpts from the chosen documents. Although unnamed, the End Figures are the equivalent of Mr. Tambo and Mr. Bones, minstrel show characters who traditionally interact with the Interlocutor in "Cross-Fire." The chorus also is a feature of the theatrical form. [6]

At the first performance, Graham and Erick Hawkins danced the roles of Two Principals, May O'Donnell and Jane Dudley played the End Figures, and Sophie Maslow led the chorus. Actor Houseley Stevens, Jr. appeared in the role of Interlocutor. [7]

Structure

The action takes place in six sequences, an entrance and five "episodes:"

Entrance

In the opening scene, the company struts and cakewalks, a dance also known as the walk-around. They bow to one other and to the audience, gathering in a semi-circle at the rear of the stage in conventional minstrel show fashion. Once all of the performers are present, the Interlocutor introduces the action. [8] "Ladies and Gentlemen, good evening. This is a theater. The place is here in the United States of America. The time is now-tonight." [4]

Each of the subsequent episodes is introduced by the Interlocutor; each concludes with a walk-around that ends in an empty stage.

Declaration

The first episode begins with the Interlocutor asking, "An American-What is an American?" The End Figures enter, running diagonally across the stage accompanied by a drum roll. They cross three times, then stop as the Interlocutor recites from the Declaration of Independence. As he speaks, the chorus members enter singly, slowly walking to positions in a line downstage. After a Dance of Declaration, featuring the chorus leader and male principal, all performers leave the stage.

Occupation

The second episode celebrates the country's Native American heritage. As the Interlocutor crosses from stage right to left, he asks, "America-What is America?" The sequence features a solemn solo, Native Figure, for the female principal accompanied by texts from Fergusson and Graham. An all-female ensemble then performs Lament to the Land with spoken words excerpted from a letter by Red Jacket mourning the native peoples' loss of country.

The Puritan

The scene's narration begins in similar fashion to the first episode with the Interlocutor querying, "An American-What is an American?" The focus of the sequence is a duet for the principals, ostensibly meant to show the conflict between the Puritan wish to lead "a simple life or an angry life of denial." [4] While the narration weaves the sensual Song of Songs with a fiery sermon from Puritan pastor Jonathan Edwards, the choreography tells a tale of unrepressed passion.

Emancipation

The fourth episode begins as a dance for the entire ensemble and concludes in a duet for the principals. The section begins with the Interlocutor onstage alone, "The United States of America-What is it?" The spoken word excerpts are taken from the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address, and Graham's own writings. As described in the program notes, the ensemble dance and duet are "ecstatic." The company ends the episode with outstretched arms and upturned faces. [4]

Hold Your Hold!

The fifth episode, originally named the After Piece, later renamed Hold Your Hold!, brings the audience up to the present day. From 1938 through 1944, the Interlocutor introduced the piece by proclaiming the current year. Three women, speaking as "three million women" intone a "lament for the living." One man, a surrogate for "one million men," voices his hopes and fears. A Dance of Invocation brings the performance to a climax as the Interlocutor speaks, "America! Name me the word that is courage. America! Name me the word that is justice. America! Name me the word that is power. America! Name me the word that is freedom. America! Name me the word that is faith. Here is that word - Democracy!" The company exits with the exception of the Principals, who stand on opposite sides of the stage as the Interlocutor recites the famous words from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address "That government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth." The company enters in a final walk-around. The Interlocutor bids the audience goodnight. [4]

Post-premiere changes

Graham frequently altered her work after their initial debuts. [9] She modified the choreography of American Document from 1938 through 1944, years in which the country had also seen many changes. Bits of text were also added or deleted, although it is not clear in exactly what ways. [6]

1989 Version

Graham overhauled American Document in 1989 with almost all new choreography, revised narration and minimization of the minstrel show aspect. [2] The world premiere of the work featured two guest artists, Mikhail Baryshnikov, as the male principal, and Cecilia Peck, as the Interlocutor. Baryshnikov danced the Native Figure solo, a dance Graham made for herself, in the Occupation episode. The new American Document also included men in the previously all-female chorus. [3] New narrative passages included quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy.

2010 Version

In 2010, director Anne Bogart and playwright Charles L. Mee reinvented American Document for 21st century audiences. Though not one of Martha Graham's dances, the work is closely tied to the original and poses the same question, "What is an American?" Bogart and Mee's American Document was staged for six SITI Company actors and ten Graham dancers. The dance/theater piece incorporated text from such sources as the free verse of Walt Whitman, the spontaneous prose of Jack Kerouac and the blog posts of American soldiers stationed in Iraq. [10]

Critical reception

Following the premiere and Carnegie Hall performance that occurred shortly after, American Document was called "a moving testimonial to the greatest of American traditions-democracy." [7] Another critic gushed, "If there is any American who can witness Martha Graham's new dance composition American Document without emerging from the experience a finer prouder citizen, that person is impervious to reason, numb to emotion, insensible to art." [11] Some notices were more nuanced, praising the work for its honesty in pointing out the bad as well as the good in the American experience. [12]

Reviewers noted the premiere marked the first appearance of a male dancer with the Graham company. Erick Hawkins performed courtesy of Ballet Caravan, a precursor of the New York City Ballet. Critics praised the inclusion of Hawkins and favorably reviewed his efforts, although many noted he came from a ballet tradition rather than one of modern dance. His duets with Graham were especially well received. [12]

From its 1938 debut through 1944, as Graham made changes to the ballet, the notices became less complimentary. New York Herald Tribune critic Edwin Denby pronounced a 1944 version "a complete failure," adding that the work originally seemed to show America's history "as much for its disgraces as for its strengths. At present it seems intended merely as a smug glorification." [13]

American Document is now recognized as one of the most important works of Graham's Americana period, a phase that includes American Provincials (1934), Frontier (1935), Panorama (1935), Horizons (1936), El Penitente (1940), Letter to the World (1940), Salem Shore (1943) and Appalachian Spring (1944). [14]

1989 Reviews

Reviews of the 1989 version, for the most part, were not favorable. The dance was called "disassociated", "pretentious" "gibberish" in which the words did not illuminate the choreography and vice versa. [15] [16] One critic with a more positive impression described the piece as "an extreme distillation of her original distillation" that maintained the integrity of her subject matter, "an affirmation of belief in freedom and democracy." [2]

2010 Reviews

Critics noted the American Document of 2010 was more provocative than the original, demanding "what it means to be American in an age of foreign wars that kill innocent people, government-sponsored torture, immigrant bashing and the ongoing challenge posed by feminism." [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Choreography</span> Art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies

Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies in which motion or form or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who creates choreographies by practising the art of choreography, a process known as choreographing. It most commonly refers to dance choreography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martha Graham</span> American dancer and choreographer (1894–1991)

Martha Graham was an American modern dancer and choreographer. Her style, the Graham technique, reshaped American dance and is still taught worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Sokolow</span> American dance artist (1910–2000)

Anna Sokolow was an American dancer and choreographer known for the social justice focus and theatricality of her work, and for her support of the development of Modern Dance in Mexico and in Israel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lar Lubovitch</span> American choreographer (born 1943)

Lar Lubovitch is an American choreographer. He founded his own dance company, the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company in 1968. Based in New York City, the company has performed in all 50 American states as well as in more than 30 countries. As of 2005, he had choreographed more than 100 dances for the company. In addition to the company, Lubovitch has also done creative work in ballet, ice-skating venues, and musical theater, notably Into the Woods. He has played a key role in raising funds to fight AIDS.

<i>Episodes</i> (ballet) Ballet by Martha Graham and George Balanchine

Episodes is a ballet choreographed by Martha Graham and George Balanchine, to compositions by Anton Webern. The ballet was a co-production between the Martha Graham Dance Company and Balanchine's New York City Ballet (NYCB). Though it was conceived to be a collaboration between Graham and Balanchine, leading choreographers in modern dance and neoclassical ballet respectively, they ultimately worked separately on the ballet's two halves. The first part was choreographed by Graham, for dancers from her company and four NYCB members, and depicts Mary, Queen of Scots remembering the events in her life before her execution. The second part, by Balanchine, is completely plotless, and made for members of the NYCB and Graham dancer Paul Taylor, who originated a solo. The ballet uses all seven orchestral compositions by Webern.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Taylor (choreographer)</span> American choreographer (1930–2018)

Paul Belville Taylor Jr. was an American dancer and choreographer. He was one of the last living members of the third generation of America's modern dance artists. He founded the Paul Taylor Dance Company in 1954 in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martha Graham Dance Company</span>

The Martha Graham Dance Company, founded in 1926, is known for being the oldest dance company in the United States. Founded by Martha Graham as a contemporary dance company, it continued to perform pieces, revive classics, and train dancers even after Graham's death in 1991. The company is critically acclaimed in the artistic world and has been recognized as "one of the great dance companies of the world" by the New York Times and as "one of the seven wonders of the artistic universe" by the Washington Post.

Cave of the Heart is a one-act ballet choreographed by Martha Graham to music by Samuel Barber. It was first performed on May 10, 1946, with the title Serpent Heart, at the second annual Festival of Contemporary American Music in the McMillin Theater of Columbia University. Serpent Heart was commissioned by the festival sponsor, The Alice M. Ditson Fund.

Errand into the Maze is a Martha Graham ballet based on a poem by Ben Belitt set to music by Gian Carlo Menotti. The surrealistic set was designed by Isamu Noguchi, the costumes by Graham herself. The dance uses the Greek myth of Ariadne and the Minotaur to explore the theme of conquering one’s inner demons, more specifically the fear of sexual intimacy. The piece premiered at the Ziegfeld Theatre on February 28, 1947, with Graham as the protagonist, a sort of female Theseus, and Mark Ryder as the Minotaur-like character.

<i>Every Soul is a Circus</i>

Every Soul Is a Circus is a comedic ballet choreographed by Martha Graham. The dance premiered on December 27, 1939, at the St. James Theatre in New York City. The original score was composed by Paul Nordoff. Philip Stapp created the set. Edythe Gilfond designed the costumes. The production marked the first appearance of Merce Cunningham with the Martha Graham Dance Company.

Deaths and Entrances is a ballet choreographed by Martha Graham performed to music by Hunter Johnson. Arch Lauterer created the original set; Edythe Gilfond designed the costumes. The ballet was well-received from the first performance despite being labeled as one of Graham's most personal, least accessible works. Oscar de la Renta created new costumes for the ballet's 2005 revival. The piece premiered on July 18, 1943, at Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont. The first performance was an informal preview for which the dancers wore practice clothes although the set was in place.

Primitive Mysteries is a modern dance work choreographed by Martha Graham to music by Louis Horst. Graham also designed the original costumes. The piece premiered on February 2, 1931 at the Craig Theatre in New York City. From the first performance, critics hailed the ballet as a masterpiece and acknowledged Graham's rising role as a major force in American dance.

Punch and the Judy is a comic ballet about marital discord choreographed by Martha Graham to music by Robert McBride. Arch Lauterer designed the set, Charlotte Trowbridge, the costumes. Edward Gordon Craig provided text for the narrated portions. The piece premiered on August 10, 1941, at the Bennington College Theatre in Bennington, Vermont.

Salem Shore is a solo modern dance work choreographed by Martha Graham to original music by Paul Nordoff. The piece premiered on December 26, 1943 at the 46th Street Theater in New York City. The ballet featured costumes by Edythe Gilfond and a set by Arch Lauterer. Program notes accompanying the first performance described the dance as "a ballad of a woman's longing for her beloved's return from the sea."

Imagined Wing is a ballet choreographed by Martha Graham to Jeux de Printemps by composer Darius Milhaud. The piece was first presented on October 30, 1944, in the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Costumes were designed by Edythe Gilfond; the set was created by Isamu Noguchi. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge commissioned the work, along with two other Graham dances, and musical scores for all three dances. Also on the program were Mirror Before Me set to music by Paul Hindemith and Appalachian Spring performed to music by Aaron Copland. Imagined Wing's initial showing was also its last. Following tepid reviews, the piece was never performed again.

El Penitente is a modern dance work by Martha Graham performed to music by Louis Horst. It premiered on August 11, 1940, at the Bennington College Theater, Bennington, Vermont, with costumes by Edythe Gilfond and a set by Arch Lauterer. Isamu Noguchi later redesigned the set and created a new mask.

Land Be Bright is a modern dance work choreographed by Martha Graham to music by Arthur Kreutz with a set and costumes by Charlotte Trowbridge. The unabashedly patriotic piece premiered on March 14, 1942, at Chicago's Civic Opera House. The original cast included Graham and members of the Martha Graham Dance Company.

Columbiad is a solo modern dance choreographed by Martha Graham to music by Louis Horst. Edythe Gilfond designed the costume; Philip Stapp created the set. The ballet premiered on December 27, 1939, at the St. James Theatre in New York City. Columbiad's debut was part of an event called the Holiday Dance Festival, which included four additional works by Graham and pieces by the American Ballet Caravan, Carmalita Maracci and Dance Group, and Korean modern dancer Sai Shoki.

Frontier is a solo dance choreographed by Martha Graham to music by Louis Horst. The set was designed by Isamu Noguchi; Graham created the costume. The work began as an ensemble piece, Perspectives: Frontier and Marching Song also known as Frontiers and Frontier. The ballet's Marching Song portion was set to music by Lehman Engle. The work premiered on April 28, 1935, at the Guild Theatre in New York City. By the end of 1935, Graham was performing Frontier exclusively as a solo. The piece was the first of her works to explore American identity through an archetypal character.

Deep Song, a solo modern dance by Martha Graham, premiered on December 19, 1937, at the Guild Theatre in New York City. Performed to music by Henry Cowell, the piece was the second work created by Graham in response to the Spanish Civil War. The first, Immediate Tragedy, was introduced in 1937.

References

  1. ↑ "American Document (Ballet choreographed by Martha Graham)". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  2. 1 2 3 Kisselgoff, Anna (1989-10-05). "Review/Dance; Graham Reinvents Her 'American Document'". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  3. 1 2 3 Anderson, Jack (1989-10-01). "DANCE; Words of Beauty And Terror Inform A Graham Classic". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Dance Libretto, American Document, by Martha Graham,Theatre Arts Monthly, September 1942
  5. ↑ Dance Gives Historic Significance, New York World Telegram, October 10, 1938 http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.200154057/pageturner.html
  6. 1 2 3 4 Maureen Needham Costonis, Martha Graham's American Document: A Minstrel Show in Modern Dance Dress, American Music, Vol. 9, No. 3, University of Illinois Press, Autumn 1991, p.
  7. 1 2 "An American Document". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  8. ↑ Susan Manning, Modern Dance, Negro Dance: Race in Motion, University of Minnesota Press, p. 136
  9. ↑ Stuart Hodes, Part Real, Part Dream: Dancing with Martha Graham, Concord ePress, 3rd edition, August 2011, location 2067
  10. ↑ Political Dance Project, Martha Graham Dance Company, http://marthagraham.org/the-martha-graham-dance-company/current-projects/#political Archived 2015-12-29 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ↑ "Dancers Lauded for Universality". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  12. 1 2 Gervaise Butler, American Document Re-reviewed, The Dance Observer, November 1938 http://lcweb2.loc.gov/natlib/ihas/service/graham.1/200154015/200154015.pdf
  13. ↑ "The Dance". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  14. ↑ Helen Thomas Dance, Modernity, and Culture: Explorations in the Sociology of Dance, Psychology Press, 1995 p. 115
  15. ↑ "Martha Graham Revivals Are Long on Pageantry, Short on Real Movement". Christian Science Monitor. 1989-11-03. ISSN   0882-7729 . Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  16. ↑ Nancy Goldner, Martha Graham's Troupe In N.Y., The Enquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), October 06, 1989 http://articles.philly.com/1989-10-06/news/26118449_1_dancers-kick-texts-vocabulary
  17. ↑ Star-Ledger, Robert Johnson | For The (2010-06-12). "Martha Graham Dance Company re-creates Depression-era works". nj. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.