“Just the Beams” comes out of my reflection on Martha Graham’s “Appalachian Spring,” which premiered in 1944. “Just the Beams” opens with one dancer providing improvised interpretations of the dancers onstage, before shifting from urgency to slowness, separation to unity. The text in the work is extracted from descriptions of the opening scene of “Appalachian Spring,” at once challenging and supporting the movement that unfolds. The text begins:
“They’re like…suggestions of walls, but just the beams. They’re transparent structures. Two people walk in with their hands folded in front. One of them, I think, is Merce Cunningham. They turn a corner. Oh…wait…that’s definitely not Merce. Maybe Erick Hawkins. Another person walks in. Places his hand on the wall. Another person. Oh, and four more. All dressed the same.”
Gradually, the text becomes distorted, interrupted remembered, and fragmented. The initial inspiration recedes, and gives way to layers of concurrent movement and an array sound: a string quartet by Borodin, persistent pulsing drums and “yelling into the abyss.”
Sound by Jazer Giles
Lighting by Brenda Cortina
