Panorama

Every fall we keep an eye out for the dance faculty concert at Case Western Reserve University. This year’s edition features not only faculty works but also a rarely seen work by Martha Graham for large ensemble, Panorama (1935).

Director of Dance Karen Potter provided background on Panorama at an informal preview showing on 10/15/05. It seems that Graham choreographed Panorama during one of her many summer residencies at Bennington College. She had 6 weeks to create the hour-long work for an original cast of 35. Composer Norman Lloyd, an accompanist for dance classes at Bennington that summer, provided a score. The eminent artist Alexander Calder provided a mobile as a set piece and frequent Graham collaborator Arch Lauterer provided additional set pieces. In their 1992 reconstruction of this dance the Martha Graham Dance Company’s set was inspired by the original, which the Case Dance Program found they couldn’t afford.

Panorama was not performed again after 1935 and was considered a lost work until relatively recently, when a fragment of black and white film was discovered. This along with other notes and scores allowed the Graham Company to develop the 10-minute reconstruction which was first shown at New York’s City Center Theatre in October of 1992. Staging that performance of Panorama for the Graham Company was Gary Galbraith, Artistic Director of the Case Dance Program, wearing his other hat as Principal Dancer for the Graham Company.

Case’s reconstruction of Panorama, also supervised by Galbraith, is of more than historical interest. The score and the thematic movements on the film fragment have been developed into a satisfying whole, a three part dance that begins with a fast march, slows for a middle section and ends with a fast finale (in 6/8 time, we believe.) The costumes, which appear true to the originals on view in the film, might seem at first too long in the skirt and loose in the blouse for modern dance, but Martha often clothed her women in long dresses, which nevertheless always revealed the dancer’s bodies in some way. Here the choreography produces flashes of legs and midriffs so that the movement is not entirely hidden.

The growing Case Dance Program seems to have had no trouble fielding enough dancers capable of the choreography (maybe not 35 but in the intimate Case performance space, it certainly looks like it). They are more than up to the modest challenges of Graham’s choreography in the opening march, for instance, which requires precision of line and unison rhythm. Graham’s jumps have a way of presenting unlikely challenges that demand passionate attack as well as precision; again, the dancers seem more than up to the challenge.

Also previewed was Galbraith’s Technotic Episodes. The set for this piece is dominated by large white screens on which are projected live video images of the dancers, who dance among the screens. We’ve seen any number of unsuccessful collaborations between art and technology; apparently it’s no cinch. Galbraith began working on this project last year but, judging from the extended excerpt we saw in preview, his efforts are bearing fruit: actual dance interacting in an interesting manner with technology.

Case ballet master Richard Dickinson hits his stride as a modern dance choreographer in Road Runner. With nary a turned out leg or ballet arm position in sight, the piece plays nevertheless to Dickinson’s and his dancers’ balletic strengths. It’s hard to imagine dancers without ballet training succeeding in the many small, neat jumps and long vertical bodylines of the aptly named Road Runner. Beep beep!

At Mather Dance Center on the campus of Case Western Reserve University. 8pm November 11 – 12 and November 17 – 19. 2:30 pm November 13. Reservations 216-368-6262. http://dance.case.edu. $10 general. Special rates for 60+, Case faculty, staff and students.

Cool Cleveland Preview by Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas

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