Online, The Dance Historian Is In: The Dance Historian Is In: Janice Ross on The Hidden Archive of Dancers’ Homes

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In this month’s Dance Historian Is In, Janice Ross, an interdisciplinary scholar who focuses on intersections between dance and cultural politics, traces the influence of homes and landscape architecture on choreography through the work of the California dancer Anna Halprin. 

Drawing on the methodology of her new book on Halprin and her husband, landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, Ross explores rare footage from the Library for the Performing Arts archives linking Halprin’s inspiration as a postmodern dance trendsetter to ordinary domestic objects and landscapes. Ross offers a  new perspective on Halprin’s career as a postmodern dance trendsetter based on her decades of research and interviews with the Halprins and their associates, and after sending time in their homes, and watching archival films from Halprin’s workshops, rehearsals, and classes on her outdoor studio, the dance deck.

For more than 10 years, The Dance Historian Is In at the Library for the Performing Arts has highlighted a diverse range of dancers and choreographers across history. This series began when archivist and historian David Vaughan started volunteering at the Jerome Robbins Dance Division. Vaughan began a monthly program showing his favorite dance films from the Division's extensive collection, through which he unearthed many treasures, and helped acquire even more. Vaughan continued the series until the end of his life. Today, we honor his memory and work by inviting dance historians from all over the world each month to carry on the tradition of highlighting dance history through the Dance Division's moving image collection.

Photo Credit: Still of Anna Halprin in the burned ruins of the Halprin house at Sea Ranch, CA. From Returning Home (2003), a documentary film by Andrew Abrahams, Open Eye Pictures. Courtesy of Andrew Abrahams.

This event will take place online via Zoom as well as in person at The Library for the Performing Arts.

*A streaming link will be emailed to everyone on the morning of the event for those wishing to attend virtually.

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