Reverence: Honoring the Legacy of Antony Tudor

In most ballet classes, the end of the class is marked by performing reverence, an act involving bows, curtsies, and port de bras, honoring both the teacher and the pianist.  It is a means of showing gratitude for the influence and guidance of the teacher and of respecting the noble traditions of elegance and respect that were the beginnings of ballet.  In this post, I would like to pay "reverence" to the legacy of Antony Tudor, to what he taught us about dance, how it was and how it can be.

As I've discussed in my previous posts, we can thank him for the masterpieces of choreography he has left us, pieces that explore deeply the depth of the human condition in relation to psychology, pieces that seek to use virtuosity as a tool to convey themes rather than making virtuosity the theme.  His nuanced approach to the development of characters, while relatively unnoticed by audiences, was indispensable to the dancers' own understanding of their roles and the stakes of their characters within the context of the piece.  This merging of contemporary acting principles with balletic technique served to enhance the development of characters, making them more realistic, and thus enabling them to explore new depths of the human psyche.  This exploration influenced several other dance artists during the twentieth century, including Agnes de Mille, Jerome Robbins, and Robert Joffrey.  Some have even said that the many heroines of Martha Graham may have been born out of the conventions of Antony Tudor.

In addition to his choreography, Tudor has also left the dance world with a much more fixed feature, the shining gem that is American Ballet Theatre.  As we discussed in class, American Ballet Theatre was one of two companies that were essential to the development of American ballet, the other one being New York City Ballet under Balanchine.  Had it not been for Tudor's influence during its period of development, it is uncertain if it would've reached the lofty status that it holds today. Even after leaving American Ballet Theatre, he never again established a relationship of such devotion with any other company.  He eventually returned to American Ballet Theatre to stage his last great work, The Leaves Are Fading.

His most important contribution to the dance world, in my opinion, was his time spent in pedagogy.  In his later years, he spent the majority of his time teaching, primarily at Jacob's Pillow, Julliard, and University of California at Irvine.  While it may not be as glamorous as his work as a choreographer, his work as a teacher served to shape the state of dance in ways that he couldn't as a choreographer.  As we discussed in class, dance is a time art, and thus can only be transferred in time, from the teacher to the student.  In his time as a teacher, he inscribed his technique and composition style, everything that comprised Tudor ballet, onto the bodies of his students, writing a new chapter in the history of dance.  From his line, a whole new generation of dance artists, such as Pina Bausch, Paul Taylor, and others, went forth to change our conception of dance in ways Tudor couldn't even imagine.

Source for post: "Antony Tudor" by Christopher Caines