Dance is thought to be an ephemeral art. Without the presence of words and the assistance of a bibliographical system, many important works have been forgotten. It is also a rather marginalized art for the point of view of financial gain which has made the use of modern technology an elusive dream for many dance groups. However, in the last few decades, the biggest groups own the technical means and specialised recorders of the two schools Laban and Benesh which not only document current material as it is produced but also revive older ballets and dances thus making them available to a new audience. Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer have managed to restage choreographies which were thought to have been lost (the first being “The rite of Spring” in 1988). The revival helped on the one hand to restore the image of a creator such as Vaslav Nijinsky and on the other to clarify the style of a whole era with works by Balanchine of the “Ballets Russes” period or by Jean Boerlin of the subversive “Ballet Suedois” of Rolf de Maré. These two choreographers contributed to a ballet for the famous Italian ballerina Carla Fracci after a request by Beppe Menegatti. Isadora’s four dances (Fate’s Warning; L’Internationale; Ave Maria; Ases’s Death from Peer Gynt), based on real works and events of her life, are 4 solos which were created based on extensive study of the rich visual material, biographical details and characteristics of Isadora’s epoch. The solos will be presented in Epidaurus on 9th September, in the context of the performance “Praise Dance” and will be danced by Fracci. In the eve of that performance we spoke with Millicent Hodson.
Q: For many years now you have been working in a difficult field, that of reviving lost choreographies. How did you become interested in this?
A: Originally I wanted to become a choreographer or director and I had never thought that I would be occupied with bringing to life old ballets. I was interested though in Nijinsky’s choreographic work. At some point I came across a book about ballets in the Library of Berkeley which had photographs of that time and the Rite of Spring seemed so modern even for the 70s!. I so much wanted to watch that ballet that I could not resist. I had to do it.
Q: What is the biggest difficulty when you start such a project?
A: The biggest difficulty has remained dealing with people’s doubts. For example, many believed that it is impossible to revive the Rite. I was told that if it were possible why had it not happened by his contemporaries? Of course, his contemporaries shared the views of their time and may not have liked Nijinsky’s experimentations. It was the next generation that rediscovered the Ballets Russes and brought its repertory back from oblivion. The next difficulty then is to find the actual work.
Q: What is the biggest satisfaction or pleasure from the moment that someone agrees to a revival of the work?
A: The biggest pleasure is to see the dancers get involved, wanting to know why each step is performed in a certain way, what is the evidence etc. They very much like to learn. Perhaps this is because they have left university behind in order to dance. They are also seduced by the creative process of a revival, the directorial decisions that have to be made. As Kenneth (Archer) says, the first costume rehearsal is incomparable. Regardless with what else has to be done, problems to be solved, having a lost ballet on stage is like a miracle even if we know full well the effort that is entailed in such an undertaking.
Q: Could you share with us a significant experience from your work?
A: All the photographs from the Rites (Nijinsky, 1913), were naturally black and white. We were therefore surprised to discover in the first technical rehearsal colour as well as a few sketches which gave an idea of the multicoloured result which we present. In La Chatte (Balanchine, 1927) the lighting as reflected on the plastic costumes and metallic and plastic surfaces of the stage design was excellent even by today’s standards.
Q: what has been the greatest disappointment in your work?
A: Lighting is something that has to be done at the last moment and it could lead to years of work being destroyed. The first season of “Till Eulenspiegel” (Nijinsky, 1916), in Paris, was sabotaged by the lighting which the technicians did in a hurry. Some theatres have excellent lighting facilities like the Royal Ballet of Sweden. However, it would be best to be able to use our own technician each time to work together. This is a privilege of course which can be costly to theatres.
Q: Kenneth Archer and you have collaborated for works by Nijinsky and Balanchine. You have also choreographed a project based on Isadora. Why have you chosen those artists? Were you seduced by their life, the myth surrounding them, their artistic output or something else?
A: Historically, the Ballets Russes and Serge Diaghilev are our first love. For both of us. Isadora is also their contemporary. I have always felt captivated by her passion to live, to teach and to dance. Isadora’s solos are not reproductions of her works. Kenneth and I have tried to rediscover the choreographic character that Antoin Bourdelle had seen in Isadora’s dance. He had named each sketch individually as we see in the line of bas-reliefs at he Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris. In this way we can read his own impressions of Isadora’s art.
Q: What does it feel like to bring back to life something that has been lost?
A: Kenneth and I refer to a Chinese proverb which says that “that which has worth appears twice”. We become fascinated by certain projects which have had a mythology built around them but do not mean anything in our reality. We see ourselves as helping to construct a body around the myth.
Q: How close to the original can anyone hope to get?
A: I believe that two performances can never be the same under any conditions, even if the actual performance is filmed or recorded in some other way and rehearsed intensely. The life of the theatre is found in the integrity of each individual performance. When we approach a repertory that has survived we have to ask ourselves which is the most significant version for this work? Each generation has its own parameters because what needs to be expressed changes or becomes modified. In each work we make meticulous notes, we observe and decide within a given aesthetic framework. We always say that our revivals are true copies of the original.
Q: Can you be sure for the final result?
A: Some evidence is doubtful, some inspired assumptions or reasonable links of known events. Noone can ever be sure about a revival even if it is done through a historical record; that is because the latter can not really capture the spirit of the work however perfect may be the representation of the movements.
Q: Is there a tendency for the audience to look at such an artistic endeavour with suspicion?
A: Some critics respect and encourage our work, many are interested in it and judge the choreography on its own merit. Very few have called us quacks/charlatans.
Q: Here in Greece, due to financial hardship but also because of the attitudes of certain choreographers, there is loss of significant material by older generations of artists. What would you advise those who try to revive some of the lost works only based on their memories of them or their knowledge of the choreographer’s style?
A: We would encourage them in their efforts and we would put pressure on them to decide from the outset why a choreography should be revived. Once the process has started it is important to question whether their original ideas have changed at all. It is helpful to be systematic even in the smallest details, i.e. diagrams with aspects of the execution of the choreography; lists of period detail; lists of witnesses and others who may have seen the work and can be used as resources. The mould that is created from all this information starts to make it all more tangible; particularly vague things such as atmosphere.
Q: Is such a process time-consuming?
A: Very much so. Time though is a factor which makes a thorough job possible, from the conception to the final rehearsal.
Q: And the funding of the work?
A: We have to fight each time to stage our performances.
Q: What are we going to see in Epidarus?
A: You will see a performance commissioned by Beppe Menegatti. He believed that we could capture the magic moment at which Isadora, in despair from her children’s death comes out of seclusion and immobility and starts to dance again. Bourdelle, Isadora’s friend, had empathised with her tragic loss. We felt that in his own language, her dances conveyed her immense spiritual battle to survive. Fracci was a natural choice as she could understand all this in her capacity as mother, woman and artist. We worked very closely together. Sometimes the tension or indeed the stillness between us was exceptional. We spent many hours in a small studio in Italy in 1990. Since then we have collaborated several times.
Q: Where did you base your instructions? How was it to guide a ballerina in a style so different from her own especially as Isadora was against ballet?
A: Instruction…Initially I am in the studio on my own, trying this, changing that… Afterwards, with Kenneth, we prepare a dance and a plot which we can generally follow. This can change after we have met with the dancer. Fracci is heavier and more open than expected and a critic said that she was momentous in the Isadora solos. She is very accomplished in her interpretation and has a deep understanding of the heroine and her experiences. Carla seeks the meaning in motion be that ballet or any other style; this was Isadora’s criticism of ballet, the movement that gets cut off from intellect and becomes an exhibition.
Q: Why are there very few recording of Isadora Duncan’s work?
A: Isadora has registered her thought and theory more that many critics and certainly from most other dancers. In some of the magazines and newspapers of that era we search in the context of the revivals we find photographs and articles of hers that we do not usually see in the standard biographies. What she lacked was a systematic method of recording like Graham’s, or a school-institution like Balanchine’s. Nevertheless, only a few choreographers managed the degree of exposure of their art like she did.
Q: what is your next project?
A: We will create the “Polarities” in Stockholm. It is a very important project for us. We are now at a stage where we want to present more of our own work. In December we will revise Darius Milhaud’s “The creation of the world” set to choreography by Jean Boerlin in 1923 for the “Ballets Suédois”.