It’s a pivotal time in the dance world. Most of the 20th-century greats are no longer with us, and due to economics, government policy, and choreographers’ various plans for succession (or lack thereof), the eponymous company model established early on is no longer sustainable. That said, a choreographer’s work has the potential to endure, and indeed be revitalized on a new generation of dancers within different companies. In any comprehensive restaging, a dance work has the possibility to exist squarely in the present and at the same time, offer audiences a unique perspective on a choreographer’s past. The Alchemy and Effort of Restaging Dance will address the process from the perspectives of choreographers, stagers, and dancers working in a broad spectrum of genres. Symposium panel topics address restaging works of choreographers from the past versus the present; the responsibility of inheriting a piece or a particular role; the economics and legalities of setting a work; and methods of imparting the technique, vocabulary, and style underlying a choreographer’s vision and company culture. Highlights include a screening of If the Dancer Dances, a feature-length documentary about the transmission of dance from generation to generation, and a performance by renowned dancers of various works that have benefited from successful restagings that have resulted in an immediacy that makes them both relevant, and alive.
The symposium coordinators for The Alchemy and Effort of Restaging Dance are Julie Malnig, Seán Curran, Lise Friedman, and Patricia Beaman.
Julie Malnig is a professor of dance studies at The Gallatin School of NYU. She holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies and is the author of Dancing Till Dawn: A Century of Exhibition Ballroom Dance and editor of Ballroom, Boogie, Shimmy Sham, Shake: A Social and Popular Dance Reader. A recent recipient of a fellowship from NYU’s Center for Ballet and the Arts, she also writes extensively on historical and contemporary dance and performance. Malnig is also a former editor of Dance Research Journal and former editorial board chair of The Congress on Research in Dance. She served for many years as the Arts Program Chair of the Gallatin School.
Seán Curran’s career in the arts spans 30 years, beginning with traditional Irish step dancing as a child in Boston. Curran is known for his early performance work with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, receiving a “Bessie” award for his role in Secret Pastures, and as an original New York City cast member of STOMP! His 30 works for Seán Curran Company are characterized by collaborations across artistic genres and have toured to over 100 venues in the U.S., Europe and Asia. A sought-after choreographer and director for opera and theatre, notable projects include Salome (Opera Theatre of St. Louis, San Francisco Opera, Opera Montreal, San Diego Opera); Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night’s Dreamfor The Shakespeare Theater; Shalimar the Clown, Ariadne on Naxos, Nixon in China,and Daughter of the Regiment at Opera Theater of St. Louis; NYC Opera productions of L’Etoile, Alcina, Turandot, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Capriccio, and Acis and Galetea; Shakespeare in the Park’s As You Like It; the Metropolitan Opera’s Romeo and Juliette; and Broadway’s James Joyce’s The Dead, Cymbeline,and The Rivals at Lincoln Center Theater. A graduate and faculty member of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Curran now serves as Arts Professor and Chair of the Department of Dance.
Lise Friedman is on the arts faculty of the Gallatin School at NYU. Her teaching includes the examination and design of a wide variety of publications and the relationship of popular culture to visual media, performance, and fashion. She is coproducer of the feature documentary If the Dancer Dances and is coauthor of Letters to Juliet, which inspired the idea behind the eponymous film. She was editor of the award-winning quarterly Dance Ink and is the author of several books, including two Children’s Book of the Month Club Selections. From 1977-1984, she was a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.
Patricia Beaman is Artist-in-Residence at Wesleyan Dance and on the faculty of the Open Arts Department at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, teaching technique and dance history. As a member of the New York Baroque Dance Company, she appeared in numerous opéra-ballets, and as a Baroque, Neo-Baroque, and contemporary dancer, she has performed in the US, Europe, and beyond. Her research includes exploring the juxtaposition of 18th century French theatrical dance and analytic postmodern dances of the 1960s. She is the author of World Dance Cultures: From Ritual to Spectacle and was a recent Fellow at The Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU.
Co-Hosts
NYU Gallatin, Wesleyan University’s Arts and Humanities, the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life, and Wesleyan Dance
Sponsors
GIBNEY, The Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU, NYU Institute of Performing Arts, NYU Tisch Departments of Open Arts and Performance Studies, NYU Steinhardt Dance Education
