The Dance Historian Is In: Virginie Mécène on Reconstructing Graham Dances

This event will take place online via Zoom as well as in person at The Library for the Performing Arts. A streaming link will be emailed to everyone on the morning of the event for those wishing to attend virtually.

For this Dance Historian Is In, Virginie Mécène, a former Principal Dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company and current Director of Graham 2, will discuss her experience in the reconstruction of Martha Graham's Panorama, Prelude to Action, and The Puritan Duet from American Document, and the process of reimagining lost dances. As a 2023-2024 Dance Research Fellow, Virginie Mécène presented her research project, Making New Dances Inspired by Lost Solos of Martha Graham: Revolt (1927) and Immigrant (1928) at the Jerome Robbins Dance Division’s Annual Symposium on January 26, 2024.

For more than 10 years, The Dance Historian Is In at the Library for the Performing Arts has highlighted a diverse range of dancers and choreographers across history. This series began when archivist and historian David Vaughan started volunteering at the Jerome Robbins Dance Division. Vaughan began a monthly program showing his favorite dance films from the Division's extensive collection, through which he unearthed many treasures, and helped acquire even more. Vaughan continued the series until the end of his life. Today, we honor his memory and work by inviting dance historians from all over the world each month to carry on the tradition of highlighting dance history through the Dance Division's moving image collection.

Photo Credit: Panorama Revival at City Center. Photo by Martha Swope, 1992. Jerome Robbins Dance Division.