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L. Tarin Chaplin Papers

 Collection
Identifier: mss-243

Scope and Content Note

This collection contains material related to the work of dancer, choreographer, instructor, author, and community activist L. Tarin Chaplin (informally styled tarin chaplin). Described as an “eco-choreographer,” Ms. Chaplin’s career is represented in several series.

Personal material consists of correspondence, biographical sketches and resumes, job applications and opportunities, grant applications and funding resources, letters of recommendation, and promotional material including portraits and reviews in the form of newspaper clippings and correspondence. A small number of photographs used in promotion are present in the personal series.

The education series starts with transcripts and contains course material from Chaplin’s undergraduate and graduate study at Pennsylvania State University, and University of California, Los Angeles, respectively. Ongoing education on environmental issues at various colleges is also located in this series. Applications for further education and course notebooks are also present in the education series.

The teaching series represents Chaplin’s role as an instructor in formal educational settings. It is arranged by institution. Some papers Chaplin received as a student were seemingly reused in teaching; these student papers remain with the teaching series, arranged as they were most recently used.

The writing series consists of unpublished writings, published articles, arts reviews, book ideas, and published books. The manuscript for her most significant work, The Intimate Act of Choreography (co-written with Lynne Blom) is present in this series alongside Chaplin’s annotated published copy. The pair’s second book, The Moment of Movement, is also present.

Series five, subject files, support teaching topics and are arranged alphabetically.

The work series is divided into four subseries, namely pieces, projects, the Carlisle Project, and freelance work. The pieces subseries covers dance performances choreographed by Chaplin and presented in a traditional stage setting. In contrast, projects are designed for a particular outdoor setting that heightens the impact of the dance and commonly have a community element. Files for specific pieces and projects have been separated from the institution at which the work was created in an effort to group choreographed performances together. The Carlisle Project was a significant resource for the joint advancement of modern dance and traditional ballet through workshops and showcases for professional dancers, choreographers, and composers. The project based its philosophy on The Intimate Act of Choreography which led to Chaplin’s long term relationship (1987-1996) as the Artistic Associate, responsible for administrative support, and later, as Director of Choreography. Freelance work encompasses the coordination, marketing, preparation, and execution of Chaplin’s role in professional instruction (short and long term), independent workshops, conferences on dance, and other miscellaneous professional organizations or events. Note that opportunities and inquiries for international work are present in this subseries as attempts to expand on accepted offers to work as an instructor for various dance companies. Private work and study in movement therapy were ongoing throughout Chaplin’s life. The majority of the photographs in the collection are present in the work series.

The series on Community Environmental Groups relates to informal study and work as a participant or facilitator of local initiatives to bring awareness to environmental issues and/or deepen personal connections to the earth.

Oversize material consists of a small series of posters.

Dates

  • 1956 - 2009
  • Majority of material found within 1974 - 2005

Creator

Access

Collection is open for research.

Publication Rights

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Curator of Manuscripts.

Biographical Note

Tarin Chaplin (nee Linda Phyllis Kurland), born in Brooklyn, N.Y. (1941), began dancing after she was married, had 3 children (Scott, Tamara, and Daniel), and was 28. Her career was atypical ever since. She received an A.A. in Philosophy at Moorpark Junior College in California, and a B.A. in English at Penn State University (Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude), and an M.A. in Dance at UCLA, where she taught for 2 years.

Divorcing and moving to Vermont in 1976, Ms. Chaplin became head of dance in Goddard College’s residential program for 5 years. She then took over direction of Middlebury College’s Dance program where, in 3 years she led dance to a Minor, a Major, and, in her 4th year, to tenure track status. During those 9 years, she also taught at Johnson State College, the Pennsylvania and the Vermont Governor’s Schools for the Arts, founded and directed 2 companies (the student-based Vermont Danceworks and Dance/Image/Gallery), co-authored The Intimate Act of Choreography (9 printings and translated into 3 languages), won a series of grants for choreography from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and toured and performed work in the U.S. (including Boston Conservatory of Music, New York television, San Francisco’s Performance Gallery, and Vermont Dance Festivals). Interspersed throughout her career, Ms. Chaplin was a counselor through movement analysis and movement therapy work with standard and special populations (eg. the deaf, blind, reform school youths, filial groups).

Seeking greater opportunities for choreography and training professionals, she began to free-lance in 1985. This led to year-long guest and artist-in-residence posts at the Laban Centre for Movement & Dance at the University of London’s Goldsmiths College, Pennsylvania State University, and Hebrew University’s Jerusalem Rubin Academy of Music & Dance. During this time, she co-wrote The Moment of Movement: Dance Improvisation (2 printings), had choreography commissioned by the Contemporary Dance Co., Jerusalem Dance Theatre, and In Short -- A Dance Company, taught for Inbal Dance Theatre, Jamaica National School of Drama & Dance, Dublin Contemporary Dance Theatre, Kibbutz Dance Co., and in Burlington College’s dance therapy program. She performed and worked on site specific pieces in the U.S. and abroad in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, the Caribbean, the Acre Experimental Theatre Festival, etc. She directed the National Choreography Course for the Dance Council of Ireland and completed a choreoscript of her first theatre piece, Song of the Shoes. Her list of grants and honors include grants from the Vermont Council on the Arts, the Israeli-American Cultural Foundation, the Laban Foundation, and listings in Who’s Who. She made performance and teaching appearances in Europe, the U.K., and Canada. She directed, choreographed, and worked as a movement coach for musicals and the dramatic theatre as well (Carousel, Royal Hunt of the Sun, Servant of Two Masters, The House of Bernarda Alba, Little Mary Sunshine, Fiddler on the Roof, etc.)

In a professional context, Ms. Chaplin was a long-term associate of the Carlisle Project, a collaborative endeavor seeking to bring modern dance and movement into classical ballet through workshops and showcases for professional dancers. The project’s philosophy was guided by her book The Intimate Act of Choreography. Lasting 12 years, The Carlisle Project contributed to the advancement of both dance styles and also gave opportunities to original composers. As an extension of this instructive work, Chaplin was invited to give workshops, presentations, and speeches at various professional gatherings, including the American College Dance Festival, conferences in New Zealand, and to community groups in the Northeastern United States.

Ms. Chaplin’s own choreography in the dance/theatre idiom included text (most of which she wrote herself), elements of Butoh, ritual, gesture, and sign language. Surrealistic, experimental, and transformative, crossing the visual and performing arts boundaries, her work was provocative, often disturbing. She invited action/reaction, took risks, and challenged her performers and audience to do likewise. Her choreographic works, which often dealt with contemporary and/or taboo issues and cross-cultural themes include Women’s Rites, Night of the Folded Boats, The Censor, Feminary, Cumuline, Crime of Passion, Tabula Rasa/Tabula Insana, Aging -- By the Waters, Threads, Yellow Hunger, Sanctum Erotica, Cold Hands, Blue Roses, The Bride, the Brave, and the Buffalo, a piece for the Vermont International Performance Project entitled Tabula Rasa, and the proposed works RAW, Men's Rites, and Song of the Shoes.

An environmental interest became apparent in Ms. Chaplin’s work through which she began to transition her creations toward site specific projects. Describing herself as an "eco-choreographer," Ms. Chaplin sought to "connect people to the earth, the elements, and the sentient and non-sentient beings that share this universe". She created or contributed to many community events, exploring ritual and the environment including Nightfires, Marrowbone, Ice on Fire/Fire on Ice, Labrynthian, Celebrate the Winooski, and Haymakers.

She died of cancer on May 25, 2009 in Montpelier, Vermont. [adapted from autobiographical writings within the collection]

Extent

14 Linear Feet (13 cartons, 1 oversize box)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

L. Tarin Chaplin (1941-2009) worked as head of dance at Goddard College and taught at Middlebury College from 1976 to 1985. She next worked as a freelance instructor and choreographer all over the world. Her work took on an environmental theme and began to focus on site-specific compositions, using the label "eco-choreographer." She co-authored two important books on choreography and dance. Her papers include her teaching files, choreographic files, and writing, as well as video and audio recordings of many of her traditional stage pieces and site specific projects.

Location

Library Research Annex; contact uvmsc@uvm.edu for access.

Note

Alternate names: Born Linda Phyllis Kurland; married name is Chaplin. Later (1976) changed her name to tarin chaplin (stylized in lowercase) but was also known professionally as L. Tarin Chaplin as this was the name used in her most well-known work, The Intimate Act of Choreography, and continued to use for published writing.

Title
Guide to the L. Tarin Chaplin Papers
Status
Completed
Date
2013-01-23
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
English

Repository Details

Part of the University of Vermont Libraries, Special Collections Repository

Contact:
Silver Special Collections Library
48 University Place, Room B201
Burlington Vermont 05405 U.S.A. US
(802) 656-2138
(802) 656-4038 (Fax)