Room to Move

In 1963, Jeff Duncan started working from home. Duncan—born Thomas Jefferson Duncan Jr. in Longview, Texas—was a celebrated dancer and assistant for Anna Sokolow and Doris Humphrey in the 1950s. Duncan also made his own work, and in the 60s, started renting a former dress factory in Chelsea to live in as well as dance in.

“Room to Move: Dance Theater Workshop and Alternative Histories of Downtown Dance,” exhibit at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Photograph courtesy of NYPL

“I thought I'd do my creative work and invite people down to see me, as Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman used to do on 16th Street,” Duncan told New York Times critic Anna Kisselgoff. “Soon friends and colleagues gathered, asking to perform there.”

Plenty of artists rented lofts that tripled as homes, studios, and stages: Several blocks of lofts in SoHo famously housed and presented the artists of Judson Dance Theater and others around the same time, including Trisha Brown, Lucinda Childs, and David Gordon in the 1960s and 70s.

But Duncan's decision would uniquely and profoundly transform the ecosystem of dance funding and production in New York City and beyond, and kickstart the careers of almost every single prominent modern and post-modern choreographer of that era into today.

Duncan's living room became Dance Theater Workshop.

In its current exhibition, “Room to Move: Dance Theater Workshop and Alternative Histories of Downtown Dance,” the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts' Jerome Robbins Dance Division celebrates the organization's enduring impact.

Pictured here are Dance Theater Workshop artists at the Riverside Church Festival, 1968. Photograph by Edward Effron. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

“Room to Move,” on display until September 13th, follows Dance Theater Workshop's evolution from Duncan's modest beginnings through its many developments and into its current existence as New York Live Arts (DTW merged with the Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Company in 2010). The exhibit emphasizes Dance Theater Workshop's enormous reach: It was Dance Theater Workshop, under the direction of David White, which established the Bessie Awards in 1984; it was also DTW under White which developed the National Performance Network in 1985, an organization which helped determine fair wages and opportunities for touring, and still exists today (NPN is now based in New Orleans).

From its inception, Dance Theater Workshop's approach was holistic. “Room to Move” features newsletters and booklets printed and distributed by DTW during its early years under Dunn and co-founders Arthur Bauman and Jack Moore. One resource in the exhibit includes advice on production details and advertising, including “How to Do a Mailout.”

Duncan, Bauman, and Moore knew how to make the most of their community's talents. DTW published its own dance journal headed by Deborah Jowitt and Marcia Siegel and would host classes in dance criticism as well as in filmmaking, stage design, and more.

“Room to Move” displays a coloring book published by DTW featuring incredible sketches by Merce Cunningham, Mark Morris, Ralph Lemon, and others, which encouraged the work of choreographers who were also visual artists.

Delightful sketches from Remy Charlip, a visual artist who danced with Cunningham, Donald McKayle, Judson Dance Theater, and others, are also on display. Charlip's choreographic notations are whimsical, long-limbed faceless figures stretched out in exaggerated poses. Charlip's “Airmail Dances” appear similarly: Sent around on postcards, these brief choreographic notations challenged choreographers around the world to create new dances based on the figures' instructions.

Portrait of Kei Takei, ca. 1960s. Photo by Nathaniel Tileston. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Choreographic notation for “Thursday Unison Duet” by Remy Charlip, 1979. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Out of all the opportunities that DTW offered, performance remained central. Beginning in Duncan's home and eventually partnering with venues such as the Riverside Church uptown, DTW would put on numerous shows a year. DTW’s performance offerings were diverse from the very beginning. A “Tour de Fuerza” series would highlight Latinx artists. “The Out of Towners” series allowed for domestic and international artists to perform in New York City. And while much of the dance world was racially segregated in the 1960s and onward, DTW's roster of artists is notably integrated.

While “Room to Move” exemplifies the enormity of DTW's accomplishments, the exhibit maintains an intimacy. Photos of a 28-year-old Bebe Miller in a forced-arch hinge or a closeup of Japanese choreographer Kei Takei with two hands pressed against her cheeks capture moments of metamorphosis—artists who will go on to create extraordinarily for decades caught on camera at their very emergence.

At the heart of DTW's performance series was its emerging artist Choreographers Showcase, which New York Live Arts has carried forth into today (the Choreographers Showcase was renamed “Fresh Tracks” in 1984). Innumerable artists have come through the Choreographers Showcase/Fresh Tracks, and “Room to Move” offers video of early works by choreographers such as Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Tere O'Connor, Ron K. Brown, and many others.

Originally, the Choreographers Showcase's performers were selected through solo audition. Perhaps “Room to Move's” greatest gift is a collection of black and white video recordings from some of these early solos. Tucked into the exhibit's center on a large screen, a young Miller slow dances, Jones bounces and smiles, Elizabeth Streb navigates a baton, and Mark Morris flies across the stage, all for perhaps the first major times in their professional careers.

Cecilia Whalen

Cecilia Whalen is a New York City-based dancer, choreographer, and writer. She is a graduate of the Martha Graham School and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. In addition to her work with Fjord, her writing can be found in various publications, including Dance Magazine and Commonweal Magazine.

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