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EDITOR’S NOTE

For the past three years I have had the pleasurable task of being Anna Halprin’s personal assistant. This means I have answered phones, typed correspondence, written and filed articles, wandered through her extensive archives, reminded her to breathe, and listened with delight to the many stories she has to tell. I have been moved by Halprin’s expansive curiosity about the work to which she has so completely committed herself, and its relevance in so many spheres, and I wanted to help her create this collection which articulates, in her own words, her many thoughts, stories, visions, and scores for dances, classes, community rituals, and events. Hence this book, which spans the range of her career, from her early work as a modern dancer and teacher of children; to her challenging proscenium-breaking theater pieces; to the community-based events which marched right out of the theater and into the streets; and her later, more contemporary works, concerned largely with ritual and the healing power of dance and movement. These essays have been edited for repetition, but otherwise are printed as they were written.

A book of this nature allows us to see the evolution of an artist’s thinking and approach. The writings in this volume span many decades, and consequently, some of Halprin’s thematic concerns are defined in different ways over the years. For example, in 1973 a myth is a “tribal happening” created from the unification of collective energy and group consciousness; in 1974 a myth is simply an “audience participation event.” In 1986 a myth “embodies a personal and collective vision of how we see ourselves and the world,” and by 1993, myth is more specifically defined as “a narrative pattern giving significance to our existence, whether we invent or discover its meaning. When expressed in words, a myth is a story; in sound, it becomes music; in visual images, a painting or sculpture. Through the shaping of matter, myth becomes a dwelling, a village, a temple, an altar; through physical movement, a dance or drama.” As a central quest throughout Halprin’s career, the search for myth is defined over and over again in myriad ways. Because these variations give depth to the resounding themes of Halprin’s long journey, the integrity of each essay has been preserved, although in the 1990s Halprin radically departs from some of her earlier beliefs. Essays exploring similar themes from different vantage points are reprinted here to create a larger portrait of Halprin’s evolution as a dance artist.

Like all art, Halprin’s work can be seen in light of a few simple themes which branch out in different directions but continue in a familiar refrain. To highlight these themes, the essays are not arranged chronologically but divided into three sections. Halprin’s continual quest has been for a dance of meaning, one that comes from the authentic center of the person dancing. In addition to the theatrical pieces she conceived, she has also developed a number of systems for generating creativity and understanding the creative process, which have come to be called the Halprin Life/Art Process. The first section of this book, “The Halprin Life/Art Process: Theory, History, and Practice,” addresses the theoretical foundations of her work, including the RSVP Cycles (developed by Lawrence Halprin), Movement Ritual, the Five Stages of Healing, and the development of community through art-making. Both the now defunct San Francisco Dancers’ Workshop (1955-78) and the fully operational Tamalpa Institute (1978-present) were founded to ensure the development and deepening of the Life/Art Process. Sally Banes has contributed an introductory essay that places these discoveries within the larger context of dance history.

A unique aspect of Halprin’s career has been her unfailing ability to remain contemporary—to shift her concerns to match the concerns of the time. In that light, it is no surprise that her work of the late 1960s and early ’70s reflects the social upheaval of that American landscape and is concerned with racism, the development of multicultural community, and issues of power between women and men, elders and children, performers and audience. At this time, the Dancers’ Workshop began to create what Halprin called Events—nearly synonymous and synchronous with Allan Kaprow’s Happenings—group experiments in which audience members were an integral and creative part. Simultaneously, the Dancers’ Workshop was exploring various body-centered therapies, altered states of consciousness, and shifts in lifestyle, and their work was reflective of this research. Halprin also initiated numerous street theater events and formed a multicultural dance company. The section of the book which describes this work is titled “The Work in Community.” Janice Ross has contributed an essay to this section, contextualizing these developments.

During these convulsive years, Halprin discovered a convulsion of her own—cancer. This traumatic experience has changed her life and her art, and continues to determine, in large part, the direction of her activities today. After this encounter with her own mortality, she became more committed to making a useful art rather than a decorative one, and she became interested in the significant healing functions of movement as well. Large-scale experiments in community theater and healing grew out of this impetus and are described in the third and final section, “Leaning into Ritual.” In an essay introducing that section, I discuss the ramifications of this direction in Halprin’s career.

A portrait of Halprin’s lifework would show a true search for place and meaning—for the individual and the community—in the body, in the family, and in the world. Halprin’s work has grown and developed, as she has grown and developed, from the individualistic search of the “creative” artist to the more expansive search of a community leader working in service to the collective. I hope the essays in this book will give you insight into the heart and mind and work of Anna Halprin, an artist whose vision has significantly stimulated and fed generations of dance, theater, and visual artists. Her continuing challenges to become embodied, to tell our stories, to feel our lives through the center of our bodies and come together in community, represent, I believe, central human strategies for our survival.

Rachel KaplanJune 1994