Ernestine Stodelle

[Amy Reusch]

I'm cross posting a link from the "obituaries" forum for Ballettalkers who follow Modern Dance but might not regularly check the Ballet News and Issues obituaries subforum.

We lost Ernestine Stodelle today.

A short note is here: http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=26336

[sandik]

Thanks for posting this -- she was indeed an invaluable link to the Humphrey/Weidman heritage, and I'm so sorry that she's gone.

[miliosr]

I hope Ernestine Stodelle's efforts to preserve the works of Doris Humphrey weren't in vain. Unfortunately, performances of Humphrey's works are very few and far between these days. The Limon Company performs one or two Humphrey pieces during its New York seasons (which aren't always annual) but rarely takes the Humphrey repertory on the road. Is the Humphrey repertory becoming a "dead" repertory due to lack of performances?

[Amy Reusch]

Yes, to truly preserve a work, it has to be performed regularly and seen by the next generation. Hopefully mounting modern dance classics is a process still undertaken by university dance departments...

[sandik]

At the risk of sounding smug about my corner of the map, the Chamber Dance Company at the University of Washington does pretty much just that -- staging works from the modern dance rep. They've performed most of the Humphrey that's available, big chunks of Duncan, Limon and Weidman, some Nikolais, Louis, Sokolow, Nagrin, Taylor and Graham. They just finished work on a DVD of work by Michio Ito (it's available for academic use) and are working on one about Dore Hoyer.

They only do one major production a year (the company members are former professional dancers who are enrolled in the MFA program at the school) but it's a big contribution to the maintenance of this historic rep. I feel quite lucky to see them.