JANET SKIDMORE AND BRYAN SANER
Helen Tamiris’s most famous work, the 1932 Negro Spirituals, is that mundane but is also surprisingly powerful, especially as performed by Janet Skidmore (in Ann Wykell’s reconstruction from Lucy Venable’s Labanotation score). Historical material like this showed in especially sharp relief on a concert bill otherwise made up of contemporary works: Bryan Saner’s The Hand Shake and Tales of the Laborer (The Coffee Break), Skidmore’s The Place In-Between and Duet, and a joint effort, Name That Dance.
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The pioneers of American modern dance–people like Martha Graham, Hanya Holm, and Helen Tamiris–consciously rejected the ostentation and bravura self-indulgence of opera and other high-culture forms. Each sought a kind of dance that would be uniquely American and wholly contemporary. Each had her strength: Graham the mythic and dramatic, Holm the expressive and emotional, Tamiris the popular and political. Active in the Federal Theater Project of the WPA, Tamiris was deeply committed to dance as a form of protest, a cultural document, and ultimately as an affirmation of human possibilities.
“Swing Low” begins with the torso swinging from side to side with a deep plie step for every musical stress. When the torso suddenly shoots back, up and away from the pelvis, for a high-stepping, arch-backed triumphant breath (“bands of angels”), the performer–and the performance space–seem to expand. She devours the stage in great diagonals; her torso now possesses enough force to lift her partially off the ground with every swing.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo.Adrienne Traisman.
