2005 – Small Dances About Big Ideas

Small Dances about Big Ideas was the result of Harvard Law School’s commission to me to make a dance in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Nuremberg war trials.

When Dr. Martha Minow, who was shortly to become dean of the Harvard law school, called to ask me to create a performance for a conference marking the 60th anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials, I said “No” –  even I felt there was a limit to what Art might do. But after more discussion with Martha and her agreement to help with the research, I said “Yes.”

I am so glad I did. It is one of my favorite works. It was the first piece I did with the sound designer Darron L West and I was ecstatic about what I learned working with him. How sound could help carry the narrative so the dance didn’t have to be so burdened. The way he took original source material from the trials and used it to set the scene. Darron’s dramaturgical capacity giving me room to make decisions but also to have support in making them, making it easier or harder if then I had to defend them to such a bright mind as his.

I also loved what I learned from the research, the four different definitions of truth used in the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the existence of the “Norns,” three mythical old crones who live under Mt Nuremberg (“Norn’s Mountain,” in German) whose job is to keep the water clean and give legal advice to the gods. Or the methods of listening employed by various communities after genocide. And yes, the genocides–and the trials–go on. I know this because I have been taught to never forget, and because each time we perform the work, it ends with a report of what happened that same day in the ongoing work of International Criminal Court.