 |
| Graham in Lamentation, photo Barbara Morgan. |
To begin with, it is a video and not a live performance, thus allowing the audience to watch it over and over again even from their own house. Then, the soundscape is particularly unique, in that it is a mixture of sound, underground trains’ noises and Crockett’s voiceover, which brings it into the twentieth-first century and yet keeps a firm bond with its adapted choreotext. Third, the uncommon location where it was shot, the New York underground Christopher Street – Sheridan Square Station, removes it from its usual set, the theatre stage, to insert it in the pulsating heart of the metropolis, the underground.
Lamentation
is a solo Graham choreographed and performed in at Maxine Elliott’s Theatre,
New York, on 8 January 1930. It lasts less than six minutes and features a
dancer wrapped in a purple tubular stretch costume that hides her body except
for her face, part of her torso, her hands and feet. As the title suggests, it
is a kind of lament, exemplified by the restrained movement quality, which is
limited and, at the same time, highlighted by the costume. However, it is not
about a grieving woman, but about the notion of grief expressed through
movement. The dancer sits most of the time on a bench, thus destroying “the conventional image of the dancer” (Marica Siegel,
1979: 38) which is usually connected to movement performed across space. In Lamentation,
instead, the energy is all concentrated on that bench.
The
stretching nature of the costume shapes and reshapes the human body according
to unusual forms. Graham associated the piece to “the ability of stretching
inside your own skin” (Martha Graham, 1991: 117) and the costume does recall
the thin and organic texture of a person’s skin. At the same time, it deeply moves
the audience as the dancer performs its simple and yet striking gestures: arms
forward, arms up, arms joined in prayer, feet up and down, torso slightly
moving. To confer a visual idea of what the piece was and is about, I chose two of Barbara Morgan's
photographs for this article and two videos, one featuring Graham dancing it in
1943 (fragments, silent video), the other Peggy Lyman, from the Graham Company,
dancing it for the Dance in America 1976 TV series (complete solo, with music).
Lamentation
is still today a work of art made of synthesis and simplicity, two concepts Graham
was focusing on in the 1930s when her approach to dance was mainly dealing with
solo and group works, “as to form, which is the heart, there is manifest an
economy of gesture, an intensity and integrity of mood, a simplified external
means, and above all a concentration on ‘the stuff’ of the dance, which is –
movement divinely significant” (Martha Graham, 1930: 254). This solo stands for
what modern dance was trying to achieve in the 1930s, a new vision in terms of
form and content, a vision which was rooted in the time and space those dancers
were inhabiting, like the Depression and the World Wars. These events, modern
dancers found, could not be expressed with the type of dance language (ballet
and vaudeville, for example) that was available at the time. A new language, a
new form was necessary. Lamentation exemplifies these aspects and adds many
more. That is why, along the years, it has been recreated and reinterpreted in
numerous ways apart from the video I am about to analyse.
In 1996,
dancer and choreographer Richard Move reinvented Graham as a drag in his show, Martha@ and one of the pieces he performed was Lamentation, thus giving the
solo a queer twist. Move was particularly good in interpreting Graham, her
voice, her way of talking and her stage presence, so much so that his show
became a must see for theatre goers across the United States and Europe.
 |
| Martha Graham in Lamentation, photo Barbara Morgan. |
A few months
after 9/11, members of the Graham Company took part to “a project for middle
schools in the area to talk about emotions” (Tadej Brdnik, 2015) and used
Lamentation as a springboard. It was an intense and unusual way to focus on
grief and maybe find an emotional channel to start dealing with it. Years
later, Brdnik was involved in another similar project during which five
postures from Lamentation would be taught to students of any kind of school and
ability. On one occasion, he taught it to visually impaired students and found
it a great experience. This last aspect makes us reflect on dance and Graham’s
dance from a perceptive rather than visual approach. What is the body’s
dynamics? How do you perceive your arms and legs while moving inside a tubular
piece of fabric?
In 2007, the
Martha Graham Dance Company artistic director Janet Eilber, asked three contemporary
choreographers, Aszure Barton, Larry Keigwin and Move
himself, to create a
work based on their response to Lamentation. The idea was to commemorate 9/11
in a new and empowering way, taking inspiration from the “economy of motion”
(Janet Eilber, 2011) so dear to Graham. The project was called Lamentation Variations, it premiered on 9/11, 2007, and had such a great response that the
pieces are now part of the Company repertoire and new commissions have been
given to other choreographers.
Brdnik
highlights how he came about with the idea of taking the solo away from its
usual setting, the theatre, and its music (Brdnik, 2015) a while after the Lamentation
Variations project was launched. He and Elder had been shooting
videos for the Company during its numerous tours and got together to work at
this idea. And Crockett, with her “extreme range of motion (..) and extreme
level of control and bodily strength” (Victoria Thoms, 2013: 141), immediately
became the perfect dancer to interpret it. Here is the video:
It is in
black-and-white and opens with the following line: “Lamentation – The
passionate and demonstrative activity of expressing grief”. Then the image of
an underground train running appears, while another one in the platform next to
this one stands still. After this, it moves and, as it disappears, it reveals
Crockett wrapped up in the Lamentation costume sitting on the platform bench.
It is a striking and unexpected moment for both those who know the piece and
those who do not. As she moves her torso backward and forward, another train
comes, again a sudden and noisy interruption. She moves her torso to the sides,
thus creating lines and perspectives through the costume.
Then her
voiceover begins. It consists of a montage of recordings Elder made of
Crockett’s voice talking about different things. It is a kind of stream of
consciousness approach and establishes a direct link with Graham’s interest in
the human psyche and her personal way to portray it. It is an approach she
will develop more consistently from the end of the 1930s onwards with pieces
like Letter to the World (1940-41) and Errand into the Maze (1947). Elder’s choice
to create this introverted atmosphere gives life to a layered vision of Graham
and adapts not just the solo in question, but also an important part of her
choreosophy at large.
Crockett’s
arms move upwards so that the costume alters the already altered human shape
into yet another geometrical form. The camera indulges into a medium shot focusing
on her face and arms while her voiceover is talking about “hands, these
hands…”. Then she rises from the bench moving her right hand forward, torso
twisted, long shot on her figure standing. Her hands join in a praying act and a
train comes to yet again interrupt the last phrase of the solo. When the train
disappears, we see Crockett’s body folded down, her right arm
on the floor. It is the closing part of this kinetic lament, a dramatic and
also intense closing.
The three dancers’ aim was to “showcase the work in a different
scenario” (Brdnik, 2015) with respect to a theatre stage, “a contemporary
space” (Elder, 2015), “in the midst of
everyday current public life” (Katherine Crockett, 2015) where people who may not be able to
go to theatre could experience a live performance. The underground was chosen
as the perfect site because it is “part of our daily life” (Elder, 2015) and it
is part of the daily life of millions of people. During the shooting, numerous
curious people stopped to watch what was going on, but Elder decided not to
include them in the video. “We did not know what would happen” (Brdnik, 2015),
some people stopped and stared, some other asked questions (Brdnik, 2015).
The choice
of the soundscape was particularly elaborate. Initially they intended to bring
it closer to a younger audience and Brdnik had suggested the use of a pop song,
like Adele’s Chasing Pavements which
nevertheless posed problems dealing with copyright. Elder, though, felt it
difficult for her to let go of the formality of the piece and opted for the
above-mentioned layered approach which juxtaposed the train noise, Crockett’s
voiceover and a “droning sound” (Elder, 2015) inserted to enhance the pathos in
some parts of the video. In particular, she thought of Graham’s interest in the
“inner landscape” (Graham, 1991: 163) of her characters as she called it and
thought it might be interesting to exemplify Crockett’s train of thoughts.
Interestingly, even though Adele’s song was not used, it was retained in the
making of the video as Crockett is actually listening to her song in headphones
hidden under the costume while she performs. In this sense, the layered approach
becomes even more complex. Crcokcett has danced Lamentation with the Company
numerous times to the original score, so that her kinetic memory was perhaps
challenged, perhaps reinforced when dancing the solo to Adele’s music.
Lamentation Project is a powerful dance adaptation of Graham’s
solo as it keeps its pathos and minimalism while reworking and adding a fresh
perspective given by both the location, the soundscape and the fact that it is
turned into a video. Brdnik, Elder and Crockett consider it a work in progress
in need of further work, but since then Elder has moved to Europe and they
never found the time to go back to it. Would it still be in black-and-white?
Would it be shot in the underground? Would they use Adele’s song? Maybe yes,
maybe no. In the meantime, we can enjoy it as a wonderful gem.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
NOTE
I would
like to thank Katherine Crockett, Jacquelyn Elder and Tadej Brdnik for their
kindness in answering my questions.
REFERENCES
Bibliography
Tadej
Brdnik, “Skype conversation with the author”, 15 November 2015.
Katherine Crockett,
“Facebook message to the author” 22 September 2015.
Jacquelyn
Elder, “Skype conversation with the author” 9 October 2015.
Martha
Graham, “Seeking an American Art of the Dance”, in Revolt in the Arts. A Survey of the Creation, Distribution and
Appreciation of Art in America, Oliver Martin Sayler, edited by (New York:
Brentano, 1930), pp. 249-255.
Martha
Graham, Blood Memory – An Autobiography
(New York: Washington Square Press, 1991).
Marcia
Siegel, The
Shapes of Change – Images of American Dance (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1979).
Victoria
Thoms, Martha Graham. Gender and the Haunting of a Dance Pioneer (Bristol: Intellect, 2013).
Choreography
Lamentation, chor. Martha Graham, music
Zoltan Kodály, costume Martha Graham, feat. Martha Graham (New York: Maxine
Elliott’s Theatre, 8 January 1930).
Lamentation Variations, choreographic project based on
Martha Graham’s Lamentation. Commissioned works to: Aszure Barton, Larry Keigwin, Richard Move, Lar Lubovitch, Bulareyaung
Pagarlava, Yvonne Rainer, Doug Varone. (Premiere: 11 September 2007, ongoing).
Videography
Janet
Eilber, “Lamentation Variations Description”, youtube video posted by
popjoyhall, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8d58JxWVc8, 4 March 2011 (accessed
16 November 2015).
Lamentation Project, concept Tadej Brdnik, dir. Jacquelyn Elder,
feat. Katherine Crockett, based on Martha Graham’s Lamentation, youtube video posted by Katherine Crockett, 16 February
2011 (accessed 16 November 2015).
