In the Sere

Fried Herman (November 13, 1926 - January 13, 2010) wrote three dances for herself: The Invisible Woman, Nostalgia, and In the Sere. The latter, the last dance she wrote (not counting the dance pattern An Amherst Cocktail), is an example of the last of the four types of dances that Fried identifies in her introduction to Serendipity in a section called The Character of the Dance: There are "bits of fluff," "meaty dances," "complicated dances" and "serious dances," all of which give us pleasure, but not in the same way.

"Can a dance be serious?" Fried asks. "Yes, it can. But how can you know whether a dance is serious? Often the title of a dance will suggest the dance’s character, hinting that the dance is more than an amusing light diversion.... When you understand a dance’s title, you dance it in a special frame of mind."

And so it is with In the Sere, where "Sere," an adjective meaning dry or desiccated, is used as a noun and refers to Fried's own ill health and a feeling of "desiccation." She gave the tune the title "The Swan," but confessed to me with some gallows humor that she had almost called it "The Dying Swan."

Those of us who knew Fried can not help but dance In the Sere in a special frame of mind, that is, with great emotion and a sense of sorrowful loss, which the music and her memory evoke. But it is well also to remember her final words in the section quoted above where she writes: "Serious dances, however, are not just unhappy, not just sad. They may even relieve unhappiness; cleanse your pain. To dance a 'serious' dance with friends in the right frame of mind is an uplifting experience. Different from dancing other dances, but no less rewarding."

Much of Fried's creativity expressed itself in the ornamentation and extension of old and sometimes new figures into something fresh and different: from poussette to chevron poussette, from Rights & Lefts to Lefts & Rights, from face-en-face to side-step face-en-face, and so on. The same creative impetus occurs in In the Sere, where Fried introduces a chevron variation in the C music, bars 1-4: the single chevron. And this she follows with what I consider to be the loneliest movement in all ECD: A left-shoulder chevron for the men, who finish the move by backing up as their partners cross the set either above or below them.

I am deeply grateful to the dancers at the final Lenox Assembly in 2022, who danced In the Sere in the "right frame of mind," with skill and care, and to the musicians of A Joyful Noise--Barbara Greenberg, Daniel Beerbohm, and Kathy Talvitie--for their sensitive, loving performance. --Paul Ross