by Anabella Lenzu
As part of my creative process during the research of “Listen to Your Mother,” I interviewed 30 dancers/choreographers/mothers. During the interviews, I asked them how they navigated the unbalanced life of a parent/art-maker. What makes a good mother? What makes a good artist?
I interviewed Catherine Gallant, the director and co-founder (with Patricia Adams in 1989) of Dances by Isadora, which performs, teaches and collaborates with Duncan dancers throughout the world. She began her study of the technique of Isadora Duncan with Julia Levien, (a student of Anna and Irma Duncan) in 1982. She is a founding member of the Duncan Archive, an online repository for the Duncan legacy. duncanarchive.org.
She shared with me that Isadora Duncan created the masterpiece “Le Mere,” (Mother) original choreography by Isadora Duncan (c.1921), and I immediately started my research about this choreography and asked Catherine to coach me and teach it to me.
“Mother” is part of a trilogy of dances that Duncan created around 1923, to the Etudes of Scriabin.
I am honored to be the 5th generation to perform the piece (Isadora Duncan, Irma Duncan, Julia Levin, Catherine Gallant, and myself). This dance has traveled widely, and now finds a new home in my body.
When I learned the piece by video, as Catherine instructed me, I fell in love with the simplicity, authenticity, and Isadora’s deep understanding of the use of gesture. “Emotion creates Motion and Motion creates Emotion” as Francoise Delsarte said, and this is the principle that drives my work since I started choreographing at 13 years old.
This goes hand in hand with the concept “Every gesture is expressive of something…It is preceded by and given birth by a thought, a feeling, an emotion, a purpose, a design or a motive.” -Delsarte.
The power is movement. The power of simplicity.
The body as an archive. The body is a living museum where motivation and gestures are constantly transformed and re-invented. Human bodies are living archives that hold stories, memories, rituals, and information from the present, while also inheriting ancestral knowledge from the past. That’s why I decided to learn the piece and include it in my new show “Listen to Your Mother”. As André Lepecki wrote: “The Body as Archive: Will to Re-Enact and the Afterlives of Dances”
I am deeply honored to be able to perform “Le Mere” (Mother) on Wednesday, April 17th & Tuesday, April 23rd at 8pm at The Brick Theater in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Thanks to Catherine for coaching me and teaching me this masterpiece.
Get your tickets now!
Wednesday, April 17th: https://www.bricktheater.com/event/new-works-2024-night-8
Tuesday, April 23rd: https://www.bricktheater.com/event/new-works-2024-night-13
Anabella Lenzu's Blog 