The history of American dance takes a tangible form in the touring exhibition “America’s Irreplaceable Dance Treasures: The First 100” and companion exhibition “Ohio’s Dance Treasures,” both of which are being featured at the Cultural Arts Center downtown.
“America’s Irreplaceable Dance Treasures” serves as a reflection and a record of the nation’s increasingly diverse, dynamic culture, said Nena Couch, local organizer for the touring exhibition and co-curator of “Ohio’s Dance Treasures.” She is an OSU representative to the Dance Heritage Coalition Board.
“Dance comprises an entire world of ideas, stories, emotions and human experience, understood and expressed through movement,” she said. “The exhibition makes clear that dance is not only a part of our artistic lives but our daily culture,” she said.
The touring exhibition opened in February 2004 at San Francisco Performing Arts Library & Museum and then traveled to Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival for the summer, said Elizabeth Aldrich, the executive director of the Dance Heritage Coalition – creator and sponsor of the touring exhibition.
“This is an opportunity to learn about America’s dance in many forms: ballet and modern dance as well as hip-hop and Hopi dances; dance on stage and dance in film; great performers and choreographers such as Gregory Hines, Martha Graham, Jerome Robbins, Twyla Tharp, and Fred Astaire, as well as anonymous dancers who brought swing dance to perfection,” Couch said.
“Ohio’s Dance Treasures” exhibition celebrates the rich and diverse dance community in Ohio, Couch said.
In fall 1999, the Dance Heritage Coalition solicited nominations for the list of “America’s Treasures” and more than 900 nominations from across the full range of American dance artistry, forms and traditions were submitted and sent through a three-stage process of selection committees made up of experts from across the country, Couch said.
“The exhibition is intended to heighten public interest in the magnificence and richness of America’s dance heritage and the imperative to document and preserve it for future generations,” Couch said.
These two exhibitions bring together photographs, posters, original scene and costume designs, film and video clips, costumes and two computer kiosks documenting America’s and Ohio’s rich dance treasures, Couch said.
Aldrich said the exhibition consists of 50 still images with photographs by Thomas Bouchard, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Arnold Genthe, Maurice Seymour, Roger Wood and others.
For “Ohio’s Treasures” photographs from Medina’s Csardas dance company; Dancentral and Maggie Patton; Dayton Contemporary Dance Company; Cincinnati dancer Padma Chebrolu; and Dayton’s Rhythm in Shoes are on display, Couch said.
“There are photographs of Randy Skinner, an OSU graduate, Upper Arlington native and Broadway choreographer-director,” Couch said.
“The souvenir program of ’42nd Street’ was his big Broadway break,” Couch said.
The clips in the exhibitions come from a host of sources, including commercially distributed movies and network, Aldrich said.
“Some have never been shown publicly before,” Aldrich said.
For ‘Ohio’s Treasures’ a timeline tracks the Theatrical Arts in Cincinnati from the school for Creative and Performing Arts, Couch said.
“The nearly 50 moving images in the exhibition help tell the story of American dance and its development of a multiplicity of concert and vernacular forms,” Aldrich said.
The exhibitions have prints of 18th-century French dancers; dance covers from programs of the 1910s and1920s; a poster by visual artist Jasper Johns for the Merce Cunningham dance company; a poster for Movin’ Out created, choreographed and directed by Twyla Tharp; and souvenir programs for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and the American Ballet Theatre, Couch said.
For “Ohio’s Treasures” posters have been collected for Cleveland’s Dancing Wheels, the Toledo Ballet, David Shimotakahara and GroundWorks Dancetheater, Couch said. It also has Cleveland Hts costumes and instruments from Zivili which performs dances from the former Yugoslavia, she said.
The interactive station provides biographies of all 100 treasures, Aldrich said.
“It allows visitors to access individual clips; click on links to other treasures; call up more detailed biographies; locate archival and on-line resources about individual treasures; and find out how each treasure is represented in the exhibition.”
The exhibition materials are drawn from the dance collections of Ohio State’s Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute and from dance company members of Ohio Dance, the state service organization for dance, Couch said.
Materials from Ohio Dance members include a “Beast” costume from BalletMet’s acclaimed production of Beauty and the Beast; miniature costumes for “Rubies,” “Diamonds,” and “Emeralds” from the Cincinnati Ballet’s production of George Balanchine’s Jewels; program and photographs from Cincinnati’s Contemporary Dance Theater Inc., Couch said.
“Ohio’s Treasures” is sponsored by OSU’s Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute and OhioDance. It is supported by the Ohio State University Libraries, departments of Dance and Theatre, and the College of the Arts, Couch said.
“The exhibition has made a significant impact on dance as an art form, has demonstrated artistic excellence and the potential to enhance the lives of future generations, has enriched the nation’s cultural heritage, and has shown itself worthy of national and international recognition,” Couch said.
The exhibition will be seen at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts during the summer of 2005, Aldrich said.
The local exhibition is located at The Cultural Arts Center at 139 W. Main St. It is running Oct. 24 through Sunday.
