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SESSIONS Non-Technical Presentations, Panels & Workshops The Legacy Project / Abstract Tom Brown & Ray Cook (presented by Tom Brown) LEGACY IN DUSSELDÖRF 2002 In 1927, at the Second Dancers’ Congress in Essen, Germany, Rudolf von Laban introduced a notation system for movement and dance. Labanotation/Kinetography Laban as the system has come to be known, is the world’s most widely used dance notation. Computer innovations such as the software Labanwriter that allows notators to input scores directly onto the page and translating software that renders the score into animation are among the many ways that Laban’s original ideas continue to lead in the modern age of information technology. An international project hatched during the 2000 Feet Dance Festival in July 1999 in Philadelphia, U.S.A., sought to bring the fruits of Laban’s labor back to Germany for presentation during the Global Dance Festival sponsored by the World Dance Alliance Europe to be held in Dusseldörf from 23 August to 1 September 2002 to mark the 75th Anniversary of his seminal contribution to world dance. The project chosen to illustrate the global impact of Laban’s work and the importance of his dance notation system as a tool of international communication, was the presentation of Taiwanese choreographer Lin Hwai-min's signature work Legacy. This dance, which portrays the history of a group of people, their struggles, disappointments, aspirations, labors, successes, and triumphs, attracted the attention of an Australian, Ray Cook during a presentation in 1990 of a section of the dance, “Crossing the Black Water”, by the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. Cook was enthralled by the work's theatricality and universality conveyed through the simple story of people triumphing over seemingly impossible odds. Cook convinced the choreographer to have the work recorded in Labanotation to insure it for posterity. The first section notated was “Crossing the Black Water”. Its score has been extensively used in the United States for productions and in Europe and Asia as a resource for scholars studying the development of modern dance, Asian dance, and dance notation. By 1999, funding had been secured in Taipei to enable the Labanotation of the entire Legacy. At a meeting in Philadelphia during the World Dance Alliance Americas 2000 Feet Dance Festival, Nanette Hassall, from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Tom Brown, from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Carol Walker, from New York's Purchase College, and Ray Cook discussed the possibility of each institution, together with the Taipei National University of the Arts Dance Department, performing sections of Legacy and then for all to come together in one place to present the work in its entirety. In July 2000, in Tokyo, at the World Dance Alliance Asia Pacific meeting, Hassall approached Bertram Müller, the Executive Director of the World Dance Alliance Europe and proposed that the four groups present the work in Germany. In June 2001, in Singapore, Hassall, Brown, and his Dean, Professor Susan Street again met with Müller to iron out details of the proposal. Müller took it back to his board of directors who invited the four institutions to perform Legacy at the Festival's opening event at the prestigious Schausspeilhaus Theater on 23 August 2002. In August 2002, after each School had performed their sections of Legacy in their home countries, they all met in Dusseldorf to perform the first production of Legacy from Labanotation score. The paper describes the four-year process of bringing Legacy to the page from the stage and back again in connection with the international collaboration of four leading dance conservatories, and experts from around the world. Tom Brown is the Associate Dean and Head of Modern Dance at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts where he has taught since 1985. Brown danced professionally in New York and Philadelphia in the companies of Rudy Perez and Daniel Lewis among others and in works directed by José Limón and Anna Sokolow. In New York, he also directed, choreographed, and danced for his own company ‘Dance Junction’. Brown holds an M.F.A. in dance from Sarah Lawrence College where he was the 1977 Bessie Schonberg Scholar. He has directed over 100 productions from scores for dance companies, conservatories, and universities internationally as well as choreographed for the concert stage, opera, drama, musical theatre, directed opera productions, and has notated the work of Humphrey, Takei, and Nijinska. His work has been published in scholarly journals, anthologies, and conference proceedings. He is also currently the Chair of the Hong Kong Dance Alliance, the Chair of the World Dance Alliance Asia Pacific Welfare and Status Network, and a fellow of the International Council of Kinetography Laban. Brown is the English language Editor of Dance Journal/HK.
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