Introductions

Abstract

Transmissions in Dance is a collection of essays that capture the artistic voices at play during a staging process. The primary focus of this volume is on a range of dance works that continue to be presented today. The writing is by dancer/directors, or close associates of the choreographers, who offer deep insights into selected dances from the performer’s perspective. Familiar practices such as reimagining, reenactment and recreation are situated alongside the related and often intersecting processes of transmission, translation and transformation. The breadth of practice on offer illustrates the capacity of dance as a medium to adapt successfully to diverse approaches and, further, that there is a growing appetite amongst audiences for seeing dances from the near and far past. The time period of the featured works spans a century, from Rudolf Laban’s Dancing Drumstick (1913) to Robert Cohan’s Sigh (2015). In between come works by Mary Wigman, Madge Atkinson (Natural Movement), Doris Humphrey, Martha Graham, Yvonne Rainer and Rosemary Butcher–an eclectic mix that crosses time and borders.