Digging up the past: Some thoughts about preserving or reconstructing dance works, cont.

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7) What technologies are or will be necessary or effective in researching, restoring, or reconstructing past works or ways of dancing? The act of dance may be ephemeral, yet it nevertheless leaves traces in a variety of archives, ranging from bodies to libraries. The role of the repetitor, the teacher, the guru has long been to serve as the conduit between generations, to pass along the dance, preserving it in its most original state. But while the body may be the most powerful transmitter of motional information, it is also, as we have seen, unreliable—it is idiosyncratic, forgetful, and, alas, not eternal.

In place of this body-to-body transmission or, better, as a supplement to it, teachers, choreographers, historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, and software designers have developed many methods of research, analysis, and archiving to continue the transmission process, all of which will continue to require careful consideration as to their usefulness for and relationship to reconstructing or preserving the dance. In addition, we should encourage crossing borders into like, as well as unlikely, areas of conceptual or applied practice to develop new techniques.

8) Lastly, even if we can remember or recall a dance, and even if we do decide which essential elements must be replicated, what value does this work have to a present world removed from the social, cultural, and historical location from which the work originated?

The descriptor "museum piece" is often disdainfully used to refer to reconstruction efforts. This pejorative is justified, perhaps, if key contextual or qualitative elements are missing from the restored work. If, however, the criticism is based solely in a judgment that the piece is outdated or a relic that does not speak to our age, perhaps that criticism should be reconsidered. The impulse to record and remember history is variously motivated, but we see no problem with preserving the words or events of human history, no problem with preserving the music and fine art of ages and cultures long past; in fact, we prize these cultural artifacts and demand trained and skilled scholars and practitioners to do just this work. Certainly this same attention should be given to dance.