By Walter Rutledge
A Tribute to Erick Hawkins, an informal showing of two solos by Gloria McLean and a work by Vienna based dancer/choreographer Bert Gstettner will take place on July 16, 8pm at the Joan Weill Center for Dance, 405 West 55th Street in Studio 5D. These works are literal love letters expressing their admiration to a mentor dubbed by the dance community as “the great poet of modern dance”.
McLean, a true Hawkins disciple, performed with the modern dance master from 1982 through 1993. She credits her eleven-year association with Hawkins as the anchor for her varied modern dance choreographic and teaching aesthetic. She was also the company’s rehearsal director from 1991 through 1993, a year before the founder’s passing.
McLean has taught at the Hawkins School for decades and has described her efforts to keep the technique visible and relevant. “By teasing apart choreography and pedagogy, I bring to light the importance of Hawkins’s pedagogical ideologies as opposed to his choreographic aesthetic” states McLean. Her works, I Am. It Dances and Part 2 of Skin, Flesh and Bone, celebrate McLean’s life as a dancer through years of movement and personal exploration. These moving portraits evolve into homages/testaments to Erick Hawkins’ aesthetic depth and physical training. Dancer Fina will perform the second solo, which continues the tradition of passing on the Hawkins technique to the next generation of modern movers through choreography.
Dancer, choreographer, and the artistic director of Vienna’s Tanz*Hotel Bert Gstettner will present end.less.bow. The work has been described as a choreographic reflection on legacy, transformation and artistic transmission. end.less.bow. is based on Hawkins Endless Bow, a gesture/performance and farewell statement/eulogy at the December 30, 1965, funeral of his dear friend architect and artist Frederick Kiesler. Hawkins loving gesture resonated as both a farewell and continuation. end.less.bow uses fragments of Hawkins’ funeral speech and integrates newly created texts and dance materials reflecting on Hawkins’ Endless Bow. Gstettner also attributes much of his artistry to studying dance and choreography with Hawkins.
Erick Hawkins career is a story of creativity through discipline. Beginning his professional career in 1935 in George Balanchine’s American Ballet, and Lincoln Kirstein’s Ballet Caravan. In 1938, he became the first male dancer to perform in the Martha Graham Dance Company. His decade long association with the Graham Company included a very public and tempestuous marriage with Graham. Founding his own company and school in 1951, Hawkins developed a free flow style that was completely different than the techniques he had mastered under Balanchine and Graham. His company was an incubator for visual artists and contemporary music, and the choreography was always performed with live accompaniment.
For more information and to reserve seating for A Tribute to Erick Hawkins text Gloria McLean at (347) 931-1864 or email mcleangloria7505@gmail.com.
