Limon Creates a New Identity for Modern Dancers
“The continuation of the legacy… there’s always a problem with that, ya know? Should the work last beyond the person who created it?” Bruce Marks says this in an interview about the works created by Jose Limon, an extremely successful and popular modern dancer and choreographer. Limon was known to create pieces that touch all demographics of people in the audience, that’s how much you could really gain from just watching the pieces. After Limon’s time then, the question remains of how we should treat his works. Many of the other interviewees agree that the integrity of the pieces as created by Limon should remain intact. They shouldn’t be changed from their original intention so as to spare Limon’s intention itself. This idea is reflective on a similar topic discussed in an essay Transnationalism and Contemporary African Dance: Faustin Linyekula by Sabine Sorgel. In the essay Sorgel mentions the delicacy of transnationalism and how easily one can try to assimilate cross cultural practices in African dance but can come out as appropriation of that culture. Staying authentic and true to the culture and its’ practice is very important line that artists must try not to inappropriately cross much like the followers and practitioners of the Limon technique and repertoire must overstep boundaries originally set by Limon himself. “It has taken me some years to look back and see what I do owe to him… was very important that a man of color was grappling with the European hierarchy of beauty and importance.” was a quote by Bill T. Jones from the same documentary in which Jones analyzes the path Limon paved for people in the dance world to form a sense of identity in this American Modern technique.