Nebraska Helps Put Weidman Back On the Map - University of Nebraska to mark Charles Weidman centennial

Dance Magazine, Oct, 2001 by Jim Williams

Here in Charles Weidman's hometown, don't expect to see a plaque marking the spot where the modem-dance pioneer was born 100 years ago. In fact, don't even expect local dance experts to agree where the spot is. Expansion of the University of Nebraska's downtown campus in Lincoln has long since erased the streets of Weidman's old neighborhood, and debates run hot about the exact location of his boyhood home. The site is now either a football booster-club parking lot or, across the driveway, the loading dock of the university's Lied Center for the Performing Arts, depending on whom you ask--and it's best to ask carefully, unless you're looking for an argument.

In fact, despite the importance of his collaboration with Doris Humphrey in the Humphrey-Weidman Dance Company from 1928 to 1945, and the fact that he continued creating and performing until his death in 1975, Weidman is almost a missing person in Lincoln. Asked for information, the local chamber of commerce could only suggest trying the university's dance department or public library, and a search for his name on the Nebraska State Historical Society Web site comes up empty. (An online source that does have Weidman info is the Charles Weidman Archives at www.charlesweidman.com.)

But Nebraska's dance educators are working to put Weidman firmly back on the state's cultural map. Dr. Lisa Fusillo of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), Professor Josie Metal-Corbin of the University of Nebraska-Omaha (UNO), and Dance Consort: Mezzacappa/Gabrian (a New York-based company with a special interest in Weidman repertoire) are collaborating on a series of performances and events to mark the choreographer's centennial (he was born July 22, 1901) and focus attention on his work and significance.

That focus seems to have blurred in recent years, according to Carol Mezzacappa of Dance Consort. "It appears that in some recent dance-history books, Charles is either just mentioned as Doris's sidekick, or he isn't mentioned at all," she said. "He isn't even noted as a dancer, the first American modern male dancer that we had in the last century--that credit is often being given now to Jose Limon, who of course worked with Charles. And we don't know why it's happening--we can only speculate."

Those speculations include the fact that Weidman spent most of the 1950s working in California, while most major dance critics still were clustered in New York City; side-taking among supporters after the breakup of the Humphrey-Weidman company; or simply the fact that neither Humphrey nor Weidman was an avid self-promoter. "Charles didn't have that whole mechanism behind him, didn't have a publicist going out and pushing his work," Mezzacappa said. "Doris and Charles weren't like that--they were more concerned with their body of work, as opposed to promoting it as a business."

But the key factor, Mezzacappa said, is that Humphrey-Weidman technique never took root in the nation's college dance system in the same way that, say, Martha Graham's did. "The technique, Humphrey or Weidman, is not really taught in the colleges," she said, "whereas Graham technique was fostered throughout colleges--so no matter where you had gone across the country, you knew of Martha Graham and her dance technique, and whoever was teaching would bring in the historical context. Humphrey-Weidman didn't have that, and that is very telling."

With that in mind, it's no surprise that education is a major emphasis of Nebraska's Weidman centennial. Mezzacappa and partner Craig Gabrian visited Lincoln in June to perform and teach Weidman-themed workshops for Arts Are Basic, a program that trains grade school and secondary teachers to integrate the arts into their regular classroom work. Mezzacappa returned in September for master classes, lectures, and choreography sessions with UNL (Lincoln) and UNO (Omaha) student dancers.

The pace picks up this month, with Dance Consort returning to Lincoln with dancers from its adjunct youth company, Young Dancers in Repertory. Augmented by local dancers, the groups will perform Weidman works in school residencies October 15-19, and stage a full-length concert, "The Genius of Charles Weidman," October 19 on the Lied Center mainstage (just a few dozen yards from either version of Weidman's birth site). The action moves to Omaha October 20-23 for UNO-sponsored residencies on the theme "Learning Through Dance: A Multicultural Approach in the Elementary School."

After final rehearsals with Mezzacappa in January 2002, the UNL Dance Ensemble will cap the centennial February 11 with an all-Weidman concert featuring some of his most important works, including Lynchtown, a taut study of mass hysteria inspired by a lynching Weidman said he witnessed in Omaha as a youth; Bargain Counter, a social satire on consumer frenzy; and Brahms Waltzes, a sweepingly lyrical work he choreographed as a tribute to Humphrey after her death in 1958.

Mezzacappa said she hopes to "help audiences connect to the works--either through historical context and/or through movement--what to look for in the thematic material. What we've found in doing Humphrey and Weidman concerts throughout the country is that people no longer know how to look at this type of dance. The visuals have changed so much throughout the decades that we need anything we can do to help them see what's going on.