Arts4All, Ltd.

Technique, for a dancer, is a means to an end. In the case of the humanistic, deeply theatrical works of José Limón, dancers employ their technique to communicate with power and eloquence. So the technique has less to do with a specific line or body position than it does with conveying an idea or creating a certain mood. In many ways, then, the idea of "Limón technique" is a contradiction in terms, as Limón never codified his own movement philosophy into a set pattern of exercises and steps. Nevertheless, many of his dancers and disciples, including an original member of his company, Betty Jones, have worked diligently to pass their knowledge along to later generations. It might even be said that Jones is the very embodiment of the Limón technique, though she resists this kind of terminology.

Jones has written about her approach to Limón training in a recently published anthology titled José Limón: The Artist Re-Viewed. Meanwhile, in May of this year, she was in New York teaching and rehearsing the Limón Dance Company. She spoke about her movement philosophy in an interview for this Newsletter and in a presentation to the Limón Institute Professional Studies Program. All of these sources have been drawn upon in putting together a thumbnail sketch of how Betty Jones is passing on her lifetime of learning.

"I really love to teach and I really love the students," says Jones simply. Her work schedule certainly indicates an extreme dedication, as she spends several months of each year teaching abroad, in addition to regular stints at the American Dance Festival and the Limón Institute, and a good portion of time spent at her home studio in Honolulu. Exactly what she teaches in all of this studio time is a point of discussion. Most would call it Limón technique, and even Jones herself gives in to this description when hard pressed. But she believes that her classes represent a synthesis of her training, not only with José Limón, but with all of her other teachers and mentors as well.

One particularly important influence was Dr. Lulu Sweigard, whom Jones assisted at Juilliard for thirteen years. Jones says, "This association was valuable in helping me gain a deeper and more thorough understanding of the skeletal weight - supporting structure and its joints, as well as good body balance resulting in more efficient movement and a better coordination of the muscles." Jones feels that the body awareness learned from Sweigard "erased some of my poor technique," including some that she had absorbed from Limón himself.

The mention of weight is a direct link to the root of Limón's movement style, namely the work of his teacher and primary mentor, Doris Humphrey. In Humphrey's choreography and teaching, the quality of the body's weight is vitally important, and the idea of "fall and rebound" is central. Jones says, "The letting go of weight is difficult and most everyone struggles with it, but once one has found the way to truly give in to gravity, one is well on the way to conquering the technique."

Betty Jones as Desdemona in The Moor's Pavane. Photographer: Patricia Jean Moore.
Image courtesy the Limón Institute, New York City.

Another theme of Limón technique, as interpreted by Betty Jones, is the isolation of different parts of the body. Limón once wrote, "The modern dancer strives for a complete use of the body as his instrument," referring to the various "voices of the body" and comparing different anatomical parts to the instruments in an orchestra. Jones uses the shoulder as an example: "By rotating it forward or backward or lifting and dropping it and using those motions to motivate a turn, a jump, or a fall, a dancer could 'speak' through that shoulder, not just move it, but use the shoulder as a voice with a motivation behind it." Jones also notes that using the arms and hands was particularly important to Limón, and he expressed much through reaching, pushing, receiving or grasping. "One could convey a radiating warmth from curved arms embracing space or a fierce defiance by the slash of an elbow," she asserts.

Jones has other insightful things to say about the legs, chest, rotations of the knee, movement of the hips, and virtually every other movable part of the human body, and she is quick to point out that this kind of total command benefits dancers in a wide range of movement styles. "The technique lends itself to almost anything," she claims, and her many students performing in professional companies throughout the world are testament to this versatility.

Whether it's called Limón technique or some kind of hybrid, it is clear that Betty Jones has mastered it and is uniquely capable of passing her knowledge on to future generations. "I'm grateful that whatever I've been or done is helpful," says Jones in a typically modest understatement. Her students and the countless audience members who have been the beneficiaries of her teaching can only reflect and magnify this gratitude.

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About the Author:

Norton Owen is the Director of Preservation for Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival and the Consulting Institute Director for the José Limón Dance Foundation. He is the author of a short history of Jacob's Pillow and has contributed to two books on José Limón. He has also written for Dance Magazine, The Guardian, Performing Arts Resources, and other publications. This is his first article for the Arts4All Newsletter.

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Resources:

Betty Jones is profiled in this issue of the Newsletter, in an article by Nancy K. Ford and Anne M Carley.

Newsletter readers with a high-speed Internet connection are invited to view an excerpt from a 1955 performance of The Moor's Pavane featuring Betty Jones and José Limón.

José Limón: The Artist Re-Viewed, edited by June Dunbar, is published by Harwood Academic Pub. ISBN: 9057551217.

The Limón Dance Company's website is http://www.limon.org/

The site for the American Dance Festival is http://www.americandancefestival.org