Video vs. Imagination: Leaving the Archival Tape Behind

Peggy Baker (2007)

I think of choreography as existing, like a score or a script, as a construct that is distinct from its performance. I think of it as being less complex, nuanced, virtuosic, and subjective than any outstanding individual performance of it, but also more open-ended, flexible, precise, and objective than all of the performances it will ever receive.

Glenn Gould’s recordings of Bach’s Goldberg Variations are appreciated and respected as sublime examples of how that music might sound, but we don’t confuse the recordings with the score. On the contrary, Gould’s genius is recognized as interpretive, and we are awed and moved by the virtuosity, vision, originality, and integrity that he brings to bear on the score. Likewise, for each production of a particular play the director, actors, and designers begin with a script, rather than a filmed record of a previous production, with the goal of illuminating a compelling and cogent point of view. Great dancers all leave their mark on a work of choreography, and some even come to epitomize the qualities most desired and valued by a given creator. But it would be futile to attempt to replicate another dancer’s performance. Certainly, exceptional performers in every discipline never even attempt to reproduce their own great performances, but come to each presentation of a work as if it is their first and last.

Photo credit on Collected Essays - Video vs Imagination:
Portal (2006)
choreographer: Peggy Baker
dancer: RBC Emerging Artist
photo: Aleksander Antonijevic