L. Tarin Chaplin Papers

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]