Philosophy of the Performing Arts

124 performance and the classical paradigm
A notational theorist might, of course, simply deny that those purported
performances of The Nutcracker that make no attempt to comply with the orig-
inal choreography are rightly classified under that label. But The Nutcracker
is simply an extreme example of a more general phenomenon in classical
ballet, where performances taken to be of a given dance work are allowed
to vary considerably in choreography. If the classical paradigm is to apply to
such performances, we cannot identify the performable work with a specific
set of prescriptions for movement.
But with what, then, should we identify it? Where a work originates in the
composition of music specifically intended to accompany the presentation in
dance of a particular narrative, we might hope to identify the work with this
combination of music and narrative. While this may work for many classical
ballets such as Swan Lake , we have seen that it can only strictly apply to The
Nutcracker if we are willing to disqualify many purported performances of the
work. Nor is it clear when we should say that a performance preserves the
narrative of a work. In the face of productions such as Matthew Bourne’s 2006
Swan Lake , with male swans, one can understand Selma Jean Cohen’s earlier
complaint that, “if plot and characters can be so radically altered, if dances
can be shifted from one place to another, added or omitted, how can we
identify Swan Lake ?” (1982, ii). Our strategy for dealing with theatrical works
that dramatically depart from what is prescribed in the playscript was to ask
whether the production aims to preserve the emplotted point of the per-
formable work. But the notion of the point of a classical ballet is less sharply
drawn, and it is not obvious that a parallel strategy will be helpful here.
On the other hand, we cannot identify a dance work with the mere
combination of a piece of music and the intention that this be used as a
framework for dance of some unspecified kind. For one thing, there are
contemporary and traditional dances that lack a musical accompaniment.
For another, where a dance work avails itself of a previously existing piece of
music, we do not want to say that all dances performed to that piece of music
are performances of the same dance work. For example, the repertoire of a
Montreal modern dance company in the early 1990s included an expressive
routine performed to the accompaniment of Harold Budd’s piece “Gypsy
Violins.” But, if another dance company’s repertoire independently incorpo-
rates a very differently choreographed dance to be performed to that same
piece of music, we surely have two separate works of dance.
What conclusions should we draw from these reflections? Perhaps only
that, if we wish to apply the classical paradigm to dance, we must be prepared
to countenance works that differ considerably in the kinds of things that are
constitutive of them. Music, narrative, and choreography may all play consti-
tutive roles for particular works, and our best guide in determining what is
required for the performance of a particular work may be the classifications