Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2024 - 26

Dance demonstration at the Sun Cottage with Enneagram in background, 1952. | Image courtesy of Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives, Drawings and Archives,
Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University.
candelabras, also gold, with
great white candles in them.
Gene arranged them very
beautifully. The Enneagram
was not solid-that is, only
the circle and the lines were
made of steel. Through it, and
all around the night, was like a
curtain of black velvet. There
was something so powerful in
that whole scene. And to perform
with such a background!
It was the best demonstration
of all we have worked on thus
far... "
To create this effect, the apprentices
manufactured their own theatrical lighting
equipment, including rudimentary
saltwater dimmers. Taliesin Apprentice
Kelly Oliver described the system in
some detail in a 1994 interview with
Indira Berndtson:
" The very first performances
were held on the terrace
just east of the old 'Sun
Trap.' The first light[ing] dimmers
were an invention I
came up with consisting of a
large saltwater-filled glass jug
with one electrical wire in the
bottom and the other wire attached
to a drill press which
was lowered into the jug... The
deeper it went and closer to the
other wire, the more electricity
flowed to the lights making
them brighter and then dimmer
as the press was withdrawn.
It's a wonder we didn't
blow ourselves up. " (Oliver
1994)
A longtime apprentice, Frances
Nemtin, joined the fellowship in 1946,
and became intrinsic to the future
dance works. She remembered a
" large group dance, 'Hymn to the Sun'
[performed both before and after the
Pavilion was built], presented a series
of movements in a procession, articulated
one after the other, which climaxed
with all of the dancers simultaneously
falling prone. " This dance, first performed
on the concrete pad called the
Sun Terrace, was understandably very
difficult on the performers. The dancers
were choreographed to " all fall in
26 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY | ISSUE 2, 2024
unison, at precisely the same instant,
to an accompanying drumbeat. " Dances
like this perhaps informed the decision
to have a more cushioned carpet stage
surface when they began the designs for
a performance space in 1955 (Nemtin
2009, 19).
Building on this work, Mrs. Wright
wanted to share the dances with a
wider audience. In 1953 arrangements
were made to rent the Goodman
Theater and conduct two public performances
in Chicago. This involved a
greater commitment and more rehearsals,
but it couldn't come at a more inopportune
time. The dance performance
preparations occurred simultaneously
with the preparation for a large exhibit
of Mr. Wright's work in New York City.
The exhibit included a fully constructed
Usonian home on the grounds of
the future Guggenheim Museum on
Fifth Avenue. The competing pulls on
the time and energy of the apprentices
contributed to mounting tension in the
fellowship. One camp was supportive
of the movements and Gurdjieff's
work with Mrs. Wright, while the other

Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2024

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