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“Communities of Consciousness and the Begetting of Deborah Hay” is from the Document(s) series, a library of commentary on people and issues in the dance field. This repository of essays includes interviews by writers and thinkers on dance, as well as “dance discursions,” which offer opportunities for reflection on the field of dance commissioned by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.
“Our culture prizes the objectification of what we know—asks us to store it—not to release it. —Deborah Hay
This essay is a revision of a paper delivered at the University of Texas as part of “An Uncanny Beauty: A Celebration of Deborah Hay Performance and Symposium,” held April 7–8, 2010.
From the essay:
“Midway through reading Deborah Hay’s Lamb at the Altar: The Story of a Dance, I wasn’t just hooked on the story—I was also filled with sadness. I had been overtaken by a sense of loss that came wrapped in words that chronicle the making of that eponymous dance.”
