Dance June 2007
Energy fields
On the choreography of Larry Keigwin and Jonathon Appels.
Futile—the Winds—
To a Heart in port—Done with the Compass—
Done with the Chart!
—Emily Dickinson
The winds must come from somewhere when they blow. . . . If I could tell you I would let you know.
—W. H. Auden
Between these lines of poetry the choreographer is born. A dance, from a simple Fox Trot diagram to the complex symbolism of Labanotation, is a form of travel that can actually be mapped out, charted. But its energy, its mental, emotional, sociopolitical, and poetic drive—the winds that fill its sails and its lungs—this cannot be put to paper. Energy is drawn from the pulsing rhythms and reaches of an era. And it is generated in the system of the man or woman who makes the dance. Sometimes these energies are in balance, creating a hall of mirrors with bouncing, flashing dynamics, as in the work of...
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