{"id":370,"date":"2006-11-17T09:51:25","date_gmt":"2006-11-17T17:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp\/2006\/11\/a_choreographer_comes_forward\/"},"modified":"2006-11-17T09:51:25","modified_gmt":"2006-11-17T17:51:25","slug":"a_choreographer_comes_forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/2006\/11\/a_choreographer_comes_forward.html","title":{"rendered":"A choreographer comes forward: “I have made a dance to Dylan.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

[ed. note: I received this email last night, from choreographer Janis Brenner]<\/em>
\nSomeone referred me to your excellent site because of your dialogue on Tharp and Dylan. I love the whole conversation. I do want to let you know that in 1995-96 I made a work to several Dylan songs, entitled “What About Bob” (before there was a movie…), which first uses really outrageous renditions of Dylan classics — “sung” (butchered) by Sebastian Cabot and William Shatner — and then finally the real Dylan, in “Like A Rolling Stone” and “It Ain’t Me Babe.” The piece goes from truly absurd to rather poignant.
\nLiterally yesterday, I was in rehearsal reviving the final duet section, created with dancer-choreographer Richard Siegal, for a spot on my 25th anniversary season coming up this February 1-4. Richard and I were discussing the fact that I had made this work more than ten years ago, and recalled being quite nervous about attempting to do ANYTHING to Dylan, a childhood hero of mine.
\nWe did tour the work on and off for a few years, and it was always much better received than I had ever anticipated. I think if I had created the work soley to the famous Dylan songs and not had the terrible\/hilarious versions first, the piece might never have worked. I was saved by Shatner (doing “Mr. Tambourine Man”) and Cabot, and the idea of a rather twisted tribute to folk music and folk dance.
\nWhen I heard that Twyla Tharp was attemping a full-scale, Broadway production to Dylan…well, I must say, I was worried for her right from the outset. I was lucky, and kept my love for and tribute to him small-scale and encased in other ideas.
\nSo, yes, and why not!? Someone should put together an evening of individual, small-scale Dylan interpretations. If it’s done, we’ll be ready. Come see our absurd-yet-heartfelt duet in February. And thank you for all this astute, necesssary dance dialogue.
\nJanis Brenner<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[ed. note: I received this email last night, from choreographer Janis Brenner] Someone referred me to your excellent site because of your dialogue on Tharp and Dylan. I love the whole conversation. I do want to let you know that in 1995-96 I made a work to several Dylan songs, entitled “What About Bob” (before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}