How "Dance for Walt Whitman" Got Notated

Recently we were given the score of "Dance for Walt Whitman" by Helen Tamiris. Here is the story. While sorting through boxes that were donated to the University of Utah library; Linda Smith, Artistic Director, Repertory Dance Theater (RDT), Salt Lake City discovered a deteriorating reel-to-reel film of Dance for Walt Whitman, which was staged by Helen Tamiris in 1961. Smith decided to recreate the dance for RDT at Brigham Young University. Daniel Nagrin, who assisted Tamiris when she created the work, provided additional coaching and historical perspective. K. Wright Dunkley was brought in to document the work in Labanotation.

The choreography is eighteen minutes long and uses fourteen female and nine male dancers. A narrator reads excerpts from Walt Whitman's poem "Leaves of Grass" in different sections of the piece. The words used in the poem are comparable to the dance itself -- they both truly speak to and reflect the American spirit. The connection between the dance and the poem was so profound that the Utah Desert News reported, "In fact as the dancing flowed fluidly across the stage tears streamed down some faces in the audience."

We contacted K. Dunkley and found him retired and well in Hooper, Utah living near his family. He was one of our first notators, hired by the DNB in the early 70's. During the time of his employment he happened to attend a Charles Weidman rehearsal to watch a friend, Janet Towner. When he was introduced as a notator, Mr. Weidman said, "Why aren't you notating my dances???" K. reported this to Muriel (Mickey) Topaz, then director of the DNB, who immediately assigned him to the task, and as a result we have, Traditions (1935), Flickers (1942), Dance of the Streets (1960), Christmas Oratorio: Quartet and Finale (1961), and Brahms Waltzes (1967).

Subsequently K. spent 20 years teaching at the New York State University at Potsdam where, as Chair of the Department of Dance, he developed a unique major with Labanotation as the core of the curriculum.

More recently he has notated other works: Hanya Holm's "Homage to Mahler," Phyllis Haskell's "In Passing," and the Tamiris work.

As he recounts in the introduction to "Dance for Walt Whitman," Allan Miles' DNB class of apprentice notators (Judith Bissell, Odette Blum, Diana Rosenberg, and Barbara Walden) helped coordinate the timing of the music and the movement. The class had recorded the Opening Section, three phrases from the Boys' Dance and themes from the work while it was being taught at the High School of Performing Arts in New York City in 1964. K. says he used their timing of the movement in relation to the music to confirm what was unclear in the synchronization between sound and picture in the Tamiris record film they were using for the revival.

There are many scores like "Dance for Walt Whitman," that are not produced by the DNB. We are pleased to see that dance companies and organizations are taking the initiative to record historical and significant works in Labanotation. These scores, however, are inaccessible and unknown to the general public. Please send us information of any such scores so that we can try to acquire a copy for the DNB Library.

Score of "Dance for Walt Whitman"
Choreographed by Helen Tamiris (1958)
Notated by K. Wright Dunkley (1992)
Music by David Diamond, Round for Strings
Donated by Repertory Dance Theatre, UT (2005)