American Document is a modern dance work choreographed by Martha Graham in response to rising Fascism in 1930s Europe.
It occurred to her that American democracy had a repository of words with "the power to hearten men and move them to action.
The text is excerpted from The Declaration of Independence, Song of Songs, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural Address, the Emancipation Proclamation and the writings, speeches or sermons of Jonathan Edwards, Thomas Paine, John Wise, Francis Fergusson and Red Jacket, the Seneca orator.
It borrowed from American and African folk tunes and incorporated the fanfares and drum rolls characteristic of minstrel shows.
[6] The roles are:[4] The Interlocutor introduces the show and addresses the audience directly, reading excerpts from the chosen documents.
Although unnamed, the End Figures are the equivalent of Mr. Tambo and Mr. Bones, minstrel show characters who traditionally interact with the Interlocutor in "Cross-Fire."
[6] At the first performance, Graham and Erick Hawkins danced the roles of Two Principals, May O'Donnell and Jane Dudley played the End Figures, and Sophie Maslow led the chorus.
[7] The action takes place in six sequences, an entrance and five "episodes:" In the opening scene, the company struts and cakewalks, a dance also known as the walk-around.
As he speaks, the chorus members enter singly, slowly walking to positions in a line downstage.
The sequence features a solemn solo, Native Figure, for the female principal accompanied by texts from Fergusson and Graham.
An all-female ensemble then performs Lament to the Land with spoken words excerpted from a letter by Red Jacket mourning the native peoples' loss of country.
[6] Graham overhauled American Document in 1989 with almost all new choreography, revised narration and minimization of the minstrel show aspect.
[2] The world premiere of the work featured two guest artists, Mikhail Baryshnikov, as the male principal, and Cecilia Peck, as the Interlocutor.
In 2010, director Anne Bogart and playwright Charles L. Mee reinvented American Document for 21st century audiences.
Bogart and Mee's American Document was staged for six SITI Company actors and ten Graham dancers.
The dance/theater piece incorporated text from such sources as the free verse of Walt Whitman, the spontaneous prose of Jack Kerouac and the blog posts of American soldiers stationed in Iraq.
Critics praised the inclusion of Hawkins and favorably reviewed his efforts, although many noted he came from a ballet tradition rather than one of modern dance.
New York Herald Tribune critic Edwin Denby pronounced a 1944 version "a complete failure," adding that the work originally seemed to show America's history "as much for its disgraces as for its strengths.