“Branches,” “Fugue”
The Weidman/Bach Project, A Live Music for Dance Initiative
Baryshnikov Arts Center
New York, NY
May 18, 2010
By Christopher Atamian
Copyright © 2010 by Christopher Atamian
What makes a choreographer great? An innate sense of rhythm, an authentic feel for movement and an understanding of the key role played by music, among other things. Thanks to the Weidman/Bach project audience members were given a rare glimpse of choreographic genius with two rarely performed works by Charles Weidman – “Fugue” and “Branches.”
The Weidman/Bach Project, A Live Music for Dance Initiative
Baryshnikov Arts Center
New York, NY
May 18, 2010
By Christopher Atamian
Copyright © 2010 by Christopher Atamian
What makes a choreographer great? An innate sense of rhythm, an authentic feel for movement and an understanding of the key role played by music, among other things. Thanks to the Weidman/Bach project audience members were given a rare glimpse of choreographic genius with two rarely performed works by Charles Weidman – “Fugue” and “Branches.”
Weidman (1901-1975) belongs in the same category as leading 20th century choreographers such as with Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham. He was a pioneer who successfully broke away from both classical European dance tradition and modern American choreography as exemplified by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. Weidman is perhaps best known for his collaborations with Doris Humphrey, but the Weidman/Bach presentation reminded us that his solo work was just as luminous. It’s a shame he is not better known by the general public. The Weidman/Bach Project—a collaboration between The Charles Weidman Dance Foundation, the American Virtuosi orchestra and the dancers from the NYU/Tisch Dance Institute of Performing Arts—is hell bent on changing that.
Weidman’s final choreographic statements were inspired by three great oratorios by Johann Sebastian Bach: the Easter Oratorio, the Christmas Oratorio and the Saint Matthew Passion. The showing at BAC featured the first completed sections of the project from Weidman's Easter Oratorio (1967)—“Branches” and “Fugue”—staged by Janet Towner and assisted by Margaret O'Sullivan. The live music by American Virtuosi was sublime, with Kenneth Hamrick directing and playing harpsichord and soprano Szilvia Schranz providing a delicate, nuanced presentation of the Bach—the most arresting piece was the adagio overture from the flute sonata in e minor.
The NYU/Tisch dancers sent shivers up and down one’s spine: young and enthusiastic they labored at first as they tried to perform every step and movement with precision, until they finally burst out into one of the most joyous performances in recent memory. Weidman apparently set “Branches” as a solo then expanded it to depict the women at Jesus' tomb. The female dancers carried large laurel wreaths or branches that pulled them in one direction and then the other—seeming to symbolize the unity of man and nature, life and death. The NYU/Tisch men were athletic and powerful, the woman gracious and strong-limbed. When they all appeared on stage together for “Fugue,” the effect was electrifying.
Pastoral simplicity, a love of geometry and symmetry, and a fascinating way of distributing the weight of the dancers’ bodies—these elements, so evident in both pieces, both charmed and fascinated. Weidman was obviously influenced by Ancient Greek culture, and as grandiose as it may sound, one felt as if the NYU/Tisch dancers had descended from high atop Mount Olympus and somewhere on their way down from their Hellenic aerie, Apollo the God of music hitched a ride to West 37th Street. This work-in-progress left one yearning for more—more Weidman, more NYU/Tisch dancers and more American Virtuosi—the latter as good an argument for live music as any presented of late in the dance world.
Part of the joy of living in New York is experiencing unanticipated moments of artistic greatness, when one is transported into another world: the Weidman/Bach project did just that, reminding us in the process of what a great choreographer Charles Weidman truly was.
@Copyright © 2010, Christopher Atamian