The Project.

The archival materials (papers and photographs) that are now stored in the Music
Division, were inventoried; items that had been damaged from prior improper storage or use, water
damage, or other deterioration were identified, and conservation treatments were begun. Video and
film materials in the collection were cataloged and preserved in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting
and Recorded Sound Division. To create new materials, the Library of Congress assembled a
production team that would videotape interviews with nine former and current company members.
Several of these subjects were also invited to coach the current dancers in roles that they had
danced during the period when Graham had been at her most conversant while coaching company
members in roles. In addition, the Library of Congress sponsored a performance of Appalachian
Spring in 1999 (this piece, with music by Aaron Copland, had its debut in the Library of Congress’s
Coolidge Auditorium in 1944), along with other reconstructed dances. This new performance was
videotaped with three cameras, and a version edited with a “live switch” was recorded on the
second night of the performances, to provide a quick edited version. Executive director of the project
Vicky Risner selected Linda Lewett as director of the video documentary work, an experienced
technician as well as project director of other dance documentaries. Budget considerations drove
some of the decisions, such as to limit some of the interviews to a singleo shoot in DigiBeta rather
than High Definition widescreen format. Lewett’s experience with both formats led her to conclude
that the widescreen format might have served the performances better, but the interviews would be
framed more aesthetically in the standard 4:3 aspect. The coaching sessions, along with some of the
assertive observations in the interviews, provide a significant new body of work to augment the
existing videotapes of Graham’s company. Pearl Lang, for example, had witnessed Graham and her
partners dancing Appalachian Spring for almost a decade, and she noted places where she felt that
details of execution and aspects of the original Graham technique had fallen out of the company’s
recent performances of the dance. This massive project at the Library of Congress does not simply
restore existing papers and materials to dance history, but it has collected almost fifty additional
tapes of testimony, coaching, and performance to reinvigorat