Bodies of History and Historical Bodies: Baryshnikov and the Judson Legacy: White Oak at Gammage Auditorium, Tempe, Arizona, October 15, 2000

The White Oak Dance Project was formed in 1990 by Mikhail Baryshnikov and Mark Morris. Its members have come from such American dance companies as the New York City Ballet, Mark Morris Dance Group, Elisa Monte Dance Company, and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. This "recycling" of dancers is coupled with the "restoration" or "reconstruction" of experimental dances of the 60s and 70s. The goal of its latest project Past Forward, as its title suggests, is to bring the past into the present, and, in doing so, establish the dance troupe as a force in the development of dance. Baryshnikov's participation in the troupe and in its performances is not insignificant. Past Forward is a historical, educational, and artistic presentation of revolutionary 60s dance pieces by such choreographers as Trisha Brown, Lucinda Childs, Simone Forti, David Gordon, Deborah Hay, and Yvonne Rainer. White Oak reconceptualizes the idea of the dance company, including the concept of forward motion--growth--that normally drives development: it is not beholden to a board of directors and it does not envisage its work season by season, instead pursuing what it prefers to call "projects."

In a program supplement handed out at a performance in The Gammage Auditorium in Tempe, Arizona, in October 2000, there was an essay by Yvonne Rainer, one of the founders of the Judson Dance Theatre. She addressed the relationship between the history of this experimental choreography and Baryshnikov's role in White Oak, or the historical value of his body to dance, what she calls the "Misha phenomenon":

More people will see my choreography during this brief tour than ever saw my entire oeuvre from 1960 to 1975. And I'm sure this applies equally to the work of many of my colleagues from the same period. Baryshnikov's presence and celebrity draw not only numbers however, but accord a legitimacy and seriousness that were originally brought to bear on our work by only the most dedicated and persistent cognoscenti. The importance of the tour thus lies in the attempt to retrieve an elusive zeitgeist, as well as making the work available--and intelligible--in venues and to audiences that would never have housed it or been exposed to it to begin with.

Although postmodernism in the arts is said to be a repudiation of "traditional" style, Baryshnikov is able to legitimate experimental choreography of modern dance precisely because he has been a part of the traditional institution and has made a successful career in it.

Baryshnikov has seceded entirely from classical dance and reinvented himself in modern dance--and at an advanced age. In his film vehicles Turning Point and White Nights, there was a concern with two of the major issues that drive his White Oak Dance Project: the fate of the dancer's body as it ages and the manipulation of history. Past Forward embodies themes of the dancer facing the aging body and the past that is illuminated by these American film projects. In Turning Point (1977), directed by Herbert Ross (then married to ballerina Nora Kaye), Emma, an older star, is shown trying to maintain her career for a few last performances. As she is passed over for lead roles in ballets, she struggles with the inevitable transition from dancer to coach or teacher. Emma confides in her childhood friend and former rival, Didi (who had given up dance years earlier to raise a family) that she had thought she would stop dancing at thirty-five, the average age for a dancer's retirement, but that when she hit thirty-five she couldn't bring herself to stop. She also shares with her friend her perspective regarding the difference between how the body of a young dancer reacts to the physical stresses of...