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American Modernism: Reimagining Martha Graham's Lost Imperial Gesture (1935)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2015

Kim Jones
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Abstract

This article explores the process of reimagining Martha Graham's 1935 “lost” work, Imperial Gesture, into a complete work for performance. The solo was last performed by Graham in 1938 and constitutes the first political solo of her career. With no musical score, no notation score, and scant archival evidence, Graham dancer, régisseur, and contemporary choreographer Kim Jones pieced together the fragments left behind. Beginning in 2011, Jones assembled a team of artists in order to reimagine Imperial Gesture for the Martha Graham Dance Company. This article discusses how Jones found primary and secondary sources including thirty-two, unpublished, photographic images by Barbara Morgan; a space diagram by set designer Arch Lauterer; a poem, “Imperial Gesture for Martha Graham,” by John Malcolm Brinnin; and numerous critical reviews from the 1930s. Jones was inspired to imagine and express Graham's sense of activism and social justice within this “lost” work. The dance is a portrait of the undoing of an arrogant despot. Although mainstream critics had little to say about Imperial Gesture, arts critics for Communist and Leftist publications reviewed Imperial Gesture as an example of politically charged art that argued against fascism. The process of reimagining opens up the possibility for a deeper investigation of Graham's work as both publicly and personally political. Additionally, the creative act of reimagining her lost work adds new repertory to the Martha Graham Dance Company for a new generation of Graham dancers and new audiences. In so doing, it also opens a path for a new historiography of Graham's work and legacy.

Keywords

Barbara Morgandance historydance reconstructionearly American modern danceImperial Gestureleft-wing danceMartha Grahampolitical dance
Type
Articles
Information
Dance Research Journal , Volume 47 , Issue 3 , December 2015 , pp. 51 - 69
Copyright
Copyright © Congress on Research in Dance 2015 

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