Lenox, or, The Second Man

At the 2018 Lenox Assembly, Philippe Callens first publicly announced that on his return to Belgium that year he would retire from active calling, teaching, and writing dances. So how did it happen that two years later he wrote a new dance, “Lenox, or The Second Man"? As we all know, the pandemic struck in March 2020, shutting down the Lenox Assembly and much of the rest of life as well. Nonetheless, to my great surprise, Philippe wrote to me in April 2020: Dear Paul, I hope you and Faina are not ill. How is life in NYC? Here, in Belgium, the epidemic is over its peak. By early May part of public life will hopefully very gradually resume. I have written a new dance, called "Lenox", which of course has so far only been danced in my head (and on my own at home). I'll let the document speak for itself. Best wishes, Philippe I wrote back, thanking him for “Mr Ross’s Dance” and for “Lenox,” adding these words: "Saving the best for last, I want to say how touched and grateful I am, dear brother in dance, for your latest email. You have taken me by surprise once again, first with Mr Ross's Dance, which I adore, and now with Lenox. I haven't yet opened the document with the instructions; it's early morning here and I want to wait for a quieter moment later today to explore and reflect on what you've created." Following my look at “Lenox” and its music, I approached pianist and composer Roger Davidson about creating a change tune, and Roger, in typical fashion, composed a wonderful companion tune, called London’s Joy, paired with the music Philippe originally chose from a historical dance called London’s Glory. Philippe liked Roger’s tune so much that he opted to make London’s Glory the change tune instead. And once we settled on a tempo (Philippe wants the dance to be stately, so it’s marked bps = 100), the work was complete, and Philippe sent me the final version in July 2020. At the last Lenox Assembly in 2022, I read Philippe’s dedication, which he included with the instructions and which is viewable in the video at 00:27. Here is part of what Philippe wrote: "In the past, Fried’s modern choreography has been inspirational to me. Beginning with my dance 'Golden Green' (2011) I started 'playing with chevrons', a movement coined by Fried I am particularly fond of. While browsing through her book Serendipity ideas for a new dance easily came to my mind and in three days’ time the dance was ready. The A1-part is copied from Fried’s dance 'Cold Weather Waltz' – in my opinion, a very clever and satisfying combination of figures, though in my dance in duple rather than in waltz time. Connoisseurs of Fried’s dances may also notice shades of 'The Hills and Dales of Wales' (in B1) and 'The First Lady' (in B2). "Fried passed away ten years ago. This dance, with its conscious reminiscences of Fried’s choreography, is gratefully dedicated to her memory and to all perpetuators of her dances, particularly Paul Ross and the Lenox Assembly Committee that organizes the annual Lenox Assembly." The members of that committee—Deb Karl, Lynn Milich, Arlene Goldberg, Caronlyn Klinger Williams, and Marcelle Lipke and I—are humbled by this praise of our work. But it’s Philippe’s praise of Fried’s legacy that I find most moving. The band A Joyful Noise played for the dance’s premier with the sensitivity and skill they bring to all their work. When the dance was over, several people observed that it contains magic moments not obvious from the instructions alone. Perhaps when you have a chance to encounter “Lenox, or The Second Man,” you’ll discover some magic, too. –Paul Ross 2022-12-16: In October of this year, Andrew Shaw wrote to me as follows: " Dear Paul, I have been asked to call this dance at the AADS Autumn Dance Weekend in Belgium at the end of this month, so tried it out last weekend with a group of consenting adults. Only subsequently did I watch your video of the Lenox dancers and realise that I had interpreted one of the instructions slightly differently: the turn single out into side lines at B1 3-4. I did this as a symmetrical turn single out through the sides of the set, so that all were turning the same distance, whereas you had all turning single right. Looking back, I think I was encouraged in this course by the fact that this is the only turn single in the dance where the direction is not specified." I confessed to Andrew that his alternative interpretation of B1 3-4 was entirely plausible, and he has taught it that way subsequently. Philippe was not explicit beyond the language of his instruction, so in my view both options are legitimate and which Philippe intended we simply can not know.--pbr