Roots and Wings: Virginia Tanner's Dance Life and Legacy

Described by the American modern dance trailblazer Anna Sokolow as the “Mormon Isadora Duncan” (193), Virginia Tanner is Utah's ubiquitous dance figure. Roots and Wings: Virginia Tanner's Dance Life and Legacy is a thorough documentation of Tanner's professional and artistic life. As dance educators are often overlooked by dance historians, Roots and Wings provides a crucial perspective not only regarding Utah dance history, but for dance pedagogues everywhere, owing to Tanner's genius for teaching children and her emphasis on balanced dance education (130).The research undertaken by author Mary-Elizabeth Manley, with contributions from Robert Bruce Bennett and Mary Ann Lee, is extensive and formidable. Roots and Wings was many years in the making, as evident in the meticulous details of Manley's research.Roots and Wings serves as an encyclopedic treasure, filling an immense gap in the literature on Tanner's professional life and history. Spanning Tanner's early ambitions as a dancer to her passing in 1979 as an established force in dance education, Manley documents Tanner's profound impact not only on young dancers but on the dance field at large. Although Tanner did not keep many personal journals throughout her life, recollections from past students, letters from Tanner's mentors, and archival materials offer glimpses into Tanner's lifelong work as a dance educator, artist, and advocate. This combination of material provides well-rounded insights into pivotal moments in Tanner's professional life, such as the creation of her school and Children's Dance Theatre (CDT); the development of her pedagogical philosophy; receiving grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, which established Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT); and her work for the National Endowment for the Arts’ Artist-in-the-School program. These significant and diverse accomplishments lead Manning to describe Tanner as Utah's dance “breadwinner”; CDT and RDT continue to thrive, and many of Tanner's alumni went on to dance and teach for numerous dance companies and institutions nationally. Most important, however, is the picture painted of Tanner's core beliefs surrounding the instruction of children—technique, creativeness, and education—and how these beliefs shaped the numerous milestones throughout her professional life.In short, Tanner's history is Utah dance history; without Tanner, Utah's rich history and currency of dance would look vastly different, if not sparse. In merging these materials into one book, Manley's archival work further codifies Tanner's impactful legacy. While at times sections might read as quotidian in pace or formula, the chronicling of Tanner's wide array of achievements in youth instruction is an important act of illumination in a field that does not often highlight dance educators, particularly those who teach children.Many of Tanner's creative works were not filmed before the advent of videotape technology around 1965, an unfortunate truth for many dances created in the early to mid-twentieth century. However, the photos throughout Roots and Wings are a valuable companion to Tanner's history, as the art form she cherished and championed is understood as both kinesthetic and visual. A particularly compelling image shows two of Tanner's CDT dancers on the cover of Life magazine in 1953. The photo, depicting two dancers at play on an East Coast beach, illustrates Tanner's impact on our broader culture's interaction with dance and her values surrounding creativity and play in education.Tanner was born and raised in Utah, in a family with a notable connection to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and various sources throughout the text muse on Tanner's faith in relation to her unique philosophies in dance. Mary Ann Lee, a contributing author and the current director of the Tanner Dance Program and Children's Dance Theatre, dissents from these theories, noting that “Tanner was not motivated by her religion, but by her belief in children” (106). This unwavering belief is exemplified in the many national tours Tanner's Children's Dance Theatre embarked upon, such as the internationally renowned Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts, CDT being the first youth company to perform at the festival in 1953. A striking and sweet account of this tour depicts Tanner explaining to her young dancers that the audience is yelling “Bravo!” since her dancers were confused why the audience seemed to be yelling “Provo!” Additionally, Tanner's faith and her identity as a Utahn are reflected in some of her creative work, such as her 1961 Woman—The Pioneer, a dance that brings a Utah-specific perspective to womanhood through the lens of the pioneer women who endured the journey west (158).As exemplified in varying testimonies throughout Roots and Wings, Tanner's steadfast belief in the children she taught and in the benefits of dance education was extraordinary. Such archival details in Roots and Wings provide vital insight into Tanner's Utah upbringing, her prolific career, and her pedagogical approaches. In Roots and Wings authors Manley, Bennett, and Lee establish Tanner's “roots” so that her “wings” may continue to unfold across Utah and the nation as her dance philosophies and legacy live on.