Sacrosanct

The Sacrosanct Accompanist

The only film of its kind, master dance accompanist, Reed Hansen, carries the viewer on a journey through Martha Graham’s essential dance language. A look into the life of a dance accompanist as well as an educational, inspiring view into the world of the dance technique that impacted the art of dance as we know it today. Get an inside look at how this marvelous technique is supported and inspired by this incredible musician. Film focuses on seventeen of Graham's floor work exercises while at the same time bringing the viewer into the triangular energy of teacher, student and accompanist in the spontaneity of the classroom.

Produced and Directed by Terese Capucilli
Camera/Consultants: Nan Melville, Aleksandr ‘Sasha’ Popov
Edited by: Susan B. Ades, Terese Capucilli

“Every teacher, every dancer and every accompanist should be required to study this film before teaching, taking or playing for a Graham Technique class. Important, entertaining and revealing, it is a wonderful teaching tool. Reed is a superstar of a musician for dance.”
— LINDA HODES, FORMER CO-ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, MARTHA GRAHAM DANCE COMPANY

Since 1978, Reed Hansen’s beautiful and inspiring music has carried me as a student, performer, director and teacher. The necessity to document his vast wealth of knowledge drove me to set up a single camera in the studio in 2014. Then 82 years old, Reed had been accompanying classes of the Martha Graham Technique™ at The Juilliard School since 1958 and has had an enduring relationship from the early ’ 70’s with the Martha Graham School and the Martha Graham Dance Company. Martha chose Reed as her personal accompanist.
It has been well established that all existing contemporary dance techniques can find their roots in the vocabulary and principles of pedagogy pioneered by Martha Graham. The musician is a critical component to the teaching of Graham’s technique and to a student’s ability to understand its expressive and dynamic physicality. The Graham accompanist’s vital role in the classroom, however, has never before been documented to provide a way that replicates how so many musicians learn to play for the technique — through intensive observation and sensitive listening in the spontaneity of the classroom. For those so fortunate to observe him in the studio, Reed Hansen has been that distinguished musician to emulate.
I see Reed as one of our unsung heroes and, through the filming process, have not been able to separate the man from the work. A documentary and educational tool this film gives an inside look at the technique from the perspective of the accompanist. It is my gift to Reed and to those I hope will follow in his footsteps. — Terese Capucilli
Terese Capucilli, a driving force of the Martha Graham Dance Company from 1979 to 2005, as principal dancer, to artistic director and artistic director laureate, is renowned for her performances of Graham’s classic roles with a broad dramatic scope from the Virgin Mary to Medea. Heralded by The New York Times in 1984 as, "...the most powerful dramatic dancer of the decade", Capucilli is one in the last generation of dancers to be coached and directed by Graham herself. Roles created for her include The Chosen One in The Rite of Spring (1984) and Graham's final ballet Maple Leaf Rag (1991). On the Graham stage, she has been partnered by dance greats Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rudolf Nureyev, shared the staged with actresses Claire Bloom and Kathleen Turner and had roles created for her by Lucinda Childs, Robert Wilson and Twyla Tharp. Since 1990, her collaboration as a associate founder and dance artist with Buglisi Dance Theatre continues to bring numerous works to the stage, including the yearly 9/11 Table of Silence Project at Lincoln Center with over 150 dancers and live-streamed throughout the world. Honors include a 2001 Dance Magazine Award, the Presidential Distinguished Alumni Award 2010 from Purchase College (BFA), The Fini International Lifetime Achievement Award (2017) and, as a three-time Princess Grace Foundation-USA award recipient, most recently received a Special Projects Grant for her documentary, Lawrence 'Reed' Hansen: The Sacrosanct Accompanist—a musical journey through Martha Graham's dance technique. In 2017, she was awarded The John Erskine Faculty Prize from The Juilliard School, an award given to one faculty member per year, for the archiving of all unused footage of Mr. Hansen. On the dance faculty at The Juilliard School, NYC since 1999, she continues to stage Graham's classic work for Juilliard’s Spring Dancers (Appalachian Spring 2008, Dark Meadow 2105, Rite of Spring 2018). Capucilli has served on the Arts Advisory Board for the Princess Grace Foundation—USA since 2017 and the Board of Directors of Buglisi Dance Theatre since 1994.