May I ask all dance-lovers to join me in supporting this Kickstarter project: the reconstruction and performance of Anna Sokolow's ODES, created in 1965 and last seen in 1968. The dancework is set to a score by Edgar Varese. Click here to contribute to this exciting revival. Portrait of Ms. Sokolow, above.
From the press release:
"The Sokolow Theatre Dance Ensemble, under the direction of Jim May, will continue its Sounds of Sokolow Series with a performance of Sokolow's "Odes," (1965) with the electronic music of Edgar Varese performed live by Kenneth Hamrick's Fusion Bande. The three Varese works used in "Odes" are Octandre, Density 21.5, and Poem Electronique. The evening will also include a fascinating and rarely seen 1966 documentary film showing Ms. Sokolow rehearsing "Odes" with the Ohio State Dance University Dance Group.
Twenty-three dancers will perform this "powerful work about civilization," also widely acknowledged as the dance that had a profound influence on a young Pina Bausch. Company Artistic Director Jim May made his debut with the Anna Sokolow Company at that time, and here restages the work, last seen in New York at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1968.
The documentary was made "during three relentless weeks in 1966 when Sokolow taught 'Odes' to stunned Ohio State dance students. Senta Driver remembered her (Ms. Sokolow was known as a strict taskmaster) saying: 'I don't dislike you. That's not why I'm hard on you. But I love dance more than I love you'." (Deborah Jowitt, Dance Magazine, 1995)
The program will also include three solos by Sokolow, Stodelle, and May:
"Two Preludes" was choreographed by Ms. Sokolow for Evelyn Shepard in 1985. Set to two Rachmaninoff preludes, the solo will be danced by company member Melissa Birnbaum, taught and coached by Evelyn Shepard.
Music by Rachmaninoff is also the choice for the premiere of "Passage," choreographed and danced by Jim May. Both Rachmaninoff dances will have live music performed by pianist Amir Khusrowpour.
Company member Lauren Naslund will perform the solo from Ernestine Stodelle's "At the Still Point of the Turning World," reconstructed by Gail Corbin and danced to a recitation by Jim May of the poem by T.S. Eliot.
PERFORMANCE INFORMATION:
November 10th - 13th, 2011 (Thursday/Friday/Saturday at 9 PM; Sunday at 2 PM)
[At 7 PM - Thursday only - a special pre-performance fundraiser for the series, followed by the performance]
Cunningham Studio, 55 Bethune Street, 11th floor
Tickets: $35 ($100 for opening night with 7 PM fundraiser at a location near the theater)
Ticketss: here or by phone at 1.800.838.3006
The Sounds of Sokolow Series is a three-part Series featuring Sokolow Masterworks as part of a live music initiative which includes Sokolow's Kurt Weill (1988), performed in 2010; Odes (1965) with music by Edgar Varese; and Lyric Suite (1953) with music by Alban Berg (dates t.b.a.)