January
24, 2003
‘At
the Still Point of the Turning World': January Term Course
Explores Pioneering Dance
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Photo: Fred LeBlanc
Guest
choreographer Lida Nelson Smith (left), who was on campus
for two weeks beginning January 6, and Associate Professor
of Dance Charles Flachs work with Jennifer Rockwell. Rockwell,
a student at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, will
perform atop this box in MHC's restaging of the dance
"Suspension" February 27–March 1.
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Although he has made
his career in classical ballet, Associate Professor of Dance Charles
Flachs names modern dancer Lida Nelson Smith among his most influential
teachers. "I liked the jumps and athletic movements of ballet,
but I recognized that I could become a better dancer studying
with someone who had a strong dance foundation, and so I gravitated
toward Mrs. Smith." This month, Flachs, who studied with
Smith at West Chester State University, invited his mentor to
be a guest choreographer for Modern Dance Repertory, a two-week
intensive J-Term course in which Five College dancers are restaging
"Suspension," a work by modern dance pioneer May O'Donnell.
A former member of O'Donnell's dance company, Smith
remains a friend of the choreographer, now ninety-six, who this
month received the Martha Hill Lifetime Achievement Award. A cast
of seven women that includes five Mount Holyoke students will
perform "Suspension" February 27–March 1 for the
Five College Faculty Dance Concert in Kendall Hall's studio
theatre.
Along with soloist
Jennifer Rockwell, a dance and psychology major at the University
of Massachusetts at Amherst, who will perform atop two boxes,
six dancers will reflect the movement of a large mobile of glass
and wood that moves freely overhead. The boxes were built by Jennifer
Steinnagel '03 and Dana Ganssle '03 in cooperation with
the art department. The composition is a challenging one, mentally
and physically, says dance and Spanish major Yara Lomeli-Loibl
'05. But it is satisfying, says Christiana Axelsen '03,
a dance major who has enjoyed getting a glimpse of modern dance
of the 1930s and '40s. "The technique is very specific,
not individualized. There's a purity to it," she explains.
Allison Walacavage '03 describes the piece's technique
as more "rigid" than the contemporary dance she knows.
"It is very slow, with suspended movements, so everything
has to be very exact," she says. Smith's enthusiasm
and directions have helped the dancers attain that precision.
"She tells you exactly what she wants and is very encouraging,"
says Loren Robertson '06. "My body is adapting, and
I have definitely grown from the experience."
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Dance
pioneer May O'Donnell
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Marlena Hubley '06
says she has also developed as a dancer during the last three
weeks. "At first, the technical difficulty was daunting,
and I have the bruises to prove it," says Hubley, demonstrating
a deep back bend that once would have toppled her. "But it
has been empowering to learn new steps and kind of spiritual to
learn the history of the piece." O'Donnell created the
thirteen-minute composition in 1943, inspired by T. S. Eliot's
words, which she often includes with program notes: "At the
still point of the turning world . . . . there the dance is."
Flachs describes the
motion of the work as "hypnotic." "Everything is
moving and gives a sense of energy, but nothing is abrupt or harsh,"
he says. Smith, who danced in her first performance of "Suspension"
in New York City in 1955, calls the piece "a very balanced,
lyric dance that creates a serene mood. You almost feel as if
you're floating. There is a sense of the way planets move."
Smith contributed the mobile designed by Comlie Ritchie for a
1968 performance for MHC's restaging. She also provided a
reel-to-reel audiotape of the music that was composed by O'Donnell's
husband, Ray Green. With help from the audiovisual department
at Smith College, Flachs transferred Smith's recording to
a CD.
Trained in the 1930s
by renowned American choreographer Martha Graham and a member
of the Martha Graham Contemporary Dance Company from 1932 to 1938
and later in the 1940s, O'Donnell founded two dance companies
for which she composed more than seventy-five works. She is known
for an original dance technique that has influenced generations
of modern dancers, from Alvin Ailey's Dudley Williams to
Norman Walker, who was the speaker at O'Donnell's recent
award ceremony. "May applied Graham's strong sense of
shape to an aerial vocabulary of leaps and jumps," says Smith.
"She gave everything a very vitalized shape. There is no
technique like it."
Smith entered modern
dance after seeing a performance at Pennsylvania State University
by a couple that, like O'Donnell, had been trained by Martha
Graham. "I was enthralled," Smith recalls. She eventually
made her way to New York, where she trained and performed with
O'Donnell's Concert Company from 1954 to 1960, an experience
she describes as a high point of her life. "May is an electric,
magnetic presence," she said. "Enough can't be
said about her creative genius." During her twenty-three
year tenure at West Chester State University, Smith not only staged
O'Donnell compositions herself, but brought casts of students
to New York for rehearsals with O'Donnell herself. Flachs
has vivid memories of the four O'Donnell works he performed
and of his rehearsals with her. "Even in her seventies, May
was demonstrating technique we were struggling with," he
recalls.
In staging "Suspension,"
Smith says, "I just try to be true to what May did."
The
counter is
1,826
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