April 7, 2006

Dancers as Living Archives

By MARTHA ULLMAN WEST

Dancers are the living archives of dance history. Long after they leave the stage, in their minds and muscles they hold the memory of form, rhythm, mood, and intent, constituting an irreplaceable resource for performers, historians, and frequently the choreographers themselves.

There are other ways of preserving the most ephemeral of the arts: film, video, various forms of notation; the visual record provided by painting, sculpture, and photography; sometimes written accounts. But

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