As Jeanne Ruddy Dance brings the final curtain down, the Company announces the launch of its Legacy Plan, whose objectives are to properly document and archive the body of works created and presented over the Company’s twelve-year lifespan, and establish a career transition fund for dancers and staff.
The Board, Artistic and Executive leadership of the Company has developed this comprehensive plan to guide the organization through the necessary financial and legal steps required to close the Company and to achieve the goals of the Legacy Plan.
The central feature of the Legacy Plan is the preservation of seventeen of our original dance works choreographed by Ruddy and our prominent guest choreographers. We will video capture artist interviews, unmask difficult steps and original movements, and discuss all production aspects such as music, costumes and lighting. This footage will then be edited and added to information in a ‘Dance Capsule’, one Capsule for each of the 17 original works. Each Capsule will contain all the information a choreographer or dancer would need for re-staging the works.
We are pleased to have recently developed an educational component to our archival work that will teach at-risk students interested in video production. Video documentation for the Legacy Plan began in March with MonTage á Trois and will continue through the summer and fall.
Original performance and rehearsal videos will be available with the rest of our Company Archives at Temple University’s Philadelphia Dance Collection.
Our goal is to preserve the history of the Company and the new works to enable future generations to research and re-stage our repertoire. Dance, our most ephemeral of art forms must be preserved or our history and the works are lost forever.