José Limón's Chaconne
Authors: Fogelsanger Allen , Foote Kristen 
Published: April 2024

Abstract: In 1942, choreographer José Limón created a solo for himself to J. S. Bach's "Chaconne" for solo violin, the last movement of Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor BWV 1004. Many of Limón's works revolve around a central thematic narrative, often celebrating the majesty of the human spirit. In his Chaconne , however, Limón created an abstract movement representation of Bach's music, employing theme and variation as a stylistic compositional device. Chaconne is not, however, devoid of connotative references, as certain gestures, shapes, and stances spark various associations. But these occasional veiled echoes of a literal scenario do not explain the continuing appeal of the work, which instead is attributed mainly to its impressively crafted choreographic design, the carefully built relationships it exhibits between dance and music, and the openness and interpretative flexibility it offers as a vehicle for empowering the dancer. Limón intended the dance to reflect the meaning of the music, not strictly a visualization of the music, though it does have its share of such music-dance matches. The dance partakes in certain aspects of the music's form and structure, utilizing similar or parallel compositional design and techniques and following and countering the music's phrasing, melodic contour, and rhythms. Some of the congruences are obvious and satisfying, such as the many four-measure aaab dance phrases joined to equivalent four-measure aaab phrases of Bach's music. Some of the music-dance congruences are more subtle, such as extended physical movements riding ascending and descending musical scales. This choreographic focus on melodic contour draws attention to how Bach pairs ascent and descent, or chordal arpeggiation and stepwise scalar runs, across pairs of four-measure sequences. Separate from, but hand in hand with, its relationship to the music, the dance also has its own shape. Limón conceived of the material as developing from "a seminal dance phrase from which the entire work would flow." He did not elaborate on that phrase or how it evolves throughout the work. Still, generations of dancers in his namesake company have contributed to and accumulated a treasure trove of observations about and interpretations of Limón's solo, and how it relates to the music—and this cache may be usefully consulted. A choreomusical analysis of the dance incorporating the insights of dancers reveals how Limón developed the steps, gestures, positions, and phrases of his material; what musical relationships are pertinent to dancing it; how choreographic variation structures the dance; and how the dance illuminates aspects of design in the music. In particular, a principle of diminution pervades the design of the dance and the music; material is repeated in some way in faster or in smaller units, thus accelerating one's experience of, and increasing the tension in, a performance. However, such analysis can only be tentative, its conclusions temporary. There is no agreed-upon original or definitive dance score. Multiple versions exist on video and in the company's collective memory. Various dancers perform the dance differently. Furthermore, it is a living, growing artwork, as each new performer brings their individual experience to bear upon their performance—an artistic stance encouraged by Limón's conceptualization of his dance as a score open to each dancer's interpretation.