Lamb at the Altar: The Story of a Dance

135 Pages·1994·6.2 MB·English

by  Deborah Hay

Lamb at the Altar / the story of a dance
Duke University Press
Durham & London
1994
Lamb at the Altar / the story of a dance
Deborah Hay
Photographs by Phyllis Liedeker
© 1994 Duke University Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Typeset in Optima.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publ ication Data
appear on the last printed page of this book.
All drawings by Deborah Hay. Material from DANCE Music by
Barry Goldensohn (Cummington Press, Omaha, Nehraska, 1992)
reprinted by permission. The movement libretto for Lamb, Lamb,
Lamb ... originally appeared in The Drama Review, volume 36,
number 4, reprinted by permission of MIT Press.
For my father,
Joseph Benjamin Goldensohn,
a pri nce of a dancer
1907-1993

It is the world of your
own soul you seek.
Only within yourself
exists that other reality
for which you long.
I can give you nothing
that has not already its
own being within
yourself. I can throw
open to you no pic
ture gallery but your
own soul and alii can
give you is the oppor
tunity, the impulse,
the key. I help make
your world visible,
that is all.-Herman
Hesse, Steppenwolf,
as spoken by the
manager of the Magic
Theater

Acknowledgments
During the two years that my attention was devoted to writing
Lamb at the Altar / the story of a dance, numerous people provided
practical, personal, technical, and artistic support. Some are
people with whom I have had long-lasting friendships, while oth
ers simply appeared at the right moment. I am deeply indebted to
the places they filled in the process of putting this book together.
I want to acknowledge Phyllis Liedeker for her interest and gener
osity, which were and continue to be forthcoming in relation to
photographing my work, and for permission to use her photo
graphs in Lamb at the Altar / the story of a dance.
I wish to thank johanna Smith for providing the space, comfort,
and silence I needed to write; Beverly Bajema, for two years of
patient inquiry into my meaning, verifying information, and read
ing the manuscript aloud to me several times; Barry and Lorrie
Goldensohn, my brother and sister-in-law, for teaching me to lo
cate my voice; Bill jeffers, for the many times his computer exper
tise was hastily called into service; Marsia Hart Reese, for the
myriad editing marks she made in the margins and the remarks she
embellished them with; Randy Lusk and judith Sims for being
impartial readers; Betty Sue Flowers for her enthusiasm during the
earliest stage of this project. I am deeply grateful for the support I
have been privileged to receive from the National Endowment for
the Arts Dance Program. I do not think the book would have
happened without the Endowment's active interest in my dance
projects.
The book could not be written without the individuals who made
up the Playing Awake 1991 and Playing Awake 1992 large-group