Preserving Dance Across Time and Space (original) (raw)

This interesting collection offers a wide-ranging view of 'preservation' in relation to dance. Some chapters are written by people directly involved in the preservation processes in traditional spheres such as archivists, while others are dance historians, anthropologists, scholars and practitioners who offer analyses of how a dance practice emerges, changes and reflects broader cultural or sociological issues. Consequently, some chapters focus on preservation practices and processes that document theatrical dance forms, and primarily after the live event, while others focus on methods that emerge within the dance itself as a form of embodied preservation, so the volume offers an eclectic approach to the discussion about how dances can be kept alive and in different ways, across time and space. The collection also offers a valuable addition to the ongoing debate that pervades the dance and performance communities about how dance has avoided any kind of sustained method for its preservation and thus has largely escaped entry into our records of cultural heritage. These debates have tended towards citing the lack of a robust and 'universally' understood method of notation, the paucity of filmed records that predate the digital age (even if these were to be regarded as a legitimate form of preservation) and the ongoing recognition that dance relies on embodied memory, the passing of the material of dance through the dancing bodies of subsequent generations. Enter this book and all these themes are directly addressed or implied while a number of authors refer to or uphold the popular view that as an ephemeral art form dance is inherently difficult to capture. The book is divided into three parts to theme the different approaches: 'Choreography, the Archives, and Sustaining a Legacy', 'Preservation and Creation' and 'Preservation in Diaspora'. The Introduction provides a short framing for the different viewpoints and outlines the focus of each chapter but it would have been interesting to read more from the editors about the selection of this collection to help the reader gain the most from each and to be able to see connections between them, and how one supports or provides a different perspective on another, for example. The specialist nature of some of the chapters means that readers are likely to read individual chapters and may not find immediate interest in the whole collection but I found great value in reading across and between the chapters to open up new ways of reading what might otherwise feel like familiar territory. For example, Cheryl LaFrance's chapter provides a fascinating insight into the relationship between archivist and choreographer in a discussion that focuses on the experience of three contemporary Canadian choreographers who are involved in creating their own legacies (Kaeja d'Dance, Rachel Browne, Stephanie Ballard). Although the choreographers may be less known outside Canada and North America, the issues that are raised will have wider relevance. Reading forwards to Part Two, Valerie Preston-Dunlop and Lesley-Anne Sayers in their chapter, 'Gained in Translation: Recreation as Creative Practice', share their experiences of reconstructing 'lost' dance works from the 1920s, and point out the value in documenting artist processes as well as the outcomes. Preston-Dunlop, who defines herself as an 'archeochoreologist' argues that authenticity in the work of choreographer William Forsythe, among others, lies in the identification and understanding of the processes of their work rather than