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     Yvettep AALBC .com Platinum Poster Username: Yvettep Post Number: 2007 Registered: 01-2005 Rating: |
http://www.pbs.org/previews/gp-dance-light/ Six historic works by African-American choreographers, filmed by the American Dance Festival to preserve and celebrate the black tradition in modern dance, air together for the first time in extended form in "Dancing in the Light," presented by "Dance in America" on GREAT PERFORMANCES. Originally recorded for "Dance in America"'s 2001 Emmy Award-winning documentary series FREE TO DANCE, the works appeared in the telecast only as brief excerpts. Now, viewed together in chronological order, they dramatically underscore, as host Taye Diggs puts it, "the important role black choreographers have played in the development of American modern dance." "Dancing in the Light" airs Wednesday, June 20, 2007, 9:00-10:00 p.m. ET on PBS. Featured are Asadata Dafora's "Ostrich" (1932), Katherine Dunham's "Barrelhouse Blues" (1938), Pearl Primus' "Strange Fruit" (1943), Talley Beatty's "Mourner's Bench" (1947), Donald McKayle's "Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder" (1959) and Bill T. Jones' "D-Man in the Waters - Section 1" (1989). G.D. Harris of the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company performs "Ostrich," one of the first modern dance compositions to fuse African movements with Western staging. Sierra Leone-born choreographer Dafora, who immigrated to America in 1929, created a groundbreaking solo work of elegant synthesis unlike anything seen before. One of the first artistic meldings of vernacular and modern dance ideas, "Barrelhouse Blues" was created by anthropologist and choreographer Dunham for Broadway. A shocker then - and still a powerhouse - it delighted audiences and baffled critics. A lonely woman enters a bar in Chicago, meets a young man and fantasizes. Set to the slow drag, a couples dance common to juke joints and honky-tonks, it featured pelvis-to-pelvis bumping and grinding and provoked John Martin, America's leading dance critic, to call it an "incredible vulgarity." Viewers can now judge the work, re-created here by the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Company, for themselves. Dawn Marie Watson of Philadanco offers a haunting interpretation of "Strange Fruit," Primus' classic example of "social protest" dance. Portraying a woman's reaction to a lynching, the piece is set to the words of Louis Allen's poem of the same title. While lamenting poverty, racism and savagery, the work, like that of so many African-American dances, concludes with an attitude of affirmation, resolution, faith and hope. Talley Beatty, formerly a dancer with the Katherine Dunham company, created the solo "Mourner's Bench" as part of his five-part Southern Landscape. Jerome Stigler of Dayton Contemporary Dance Company is the soloist grieving for a life lost through racial violence. Donald McKayle, like many African-American choreographers, composed dances that are, for the most part, narrative. "Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder," re-created by Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, focuses on seven men in a chain gang, their anguish and their hopes. Host Diggs, in concluding the special with "D-Man in the Waters - Section 1," performed by the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance company, notes that social commentary is still a source of inspiration for many of today's modern dance choreographers, exemplified by Bill T. Jones. Created in response to the AIDS crisis, the work was inspired by a dream Jones had in which he saw a huge body of water filled with friends. "Some swim peacefully," Diggs says, "some have drowned, some are struggling against the current and others are being saved." He quotes Jones: "Many people I loved were growing sick and dying. This is about life throwing down the gauntlet and you rising to the occasion." Founded in 1934, the American Dance Festival presents, teaches, commissions, preserves and promotes modern dance nationally and internationally. It has been the scene of more than 570 premieres by artists such as Martha Graham, Jose Limon, Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Erick Hawkins, Alwin Nikolais, Alvin Ailey, Twyla Tharp, Pilobolus, Laura Dean, Meredith Monk, Martha Clark, Mark Morris, Bill T. Jones and Shen Wei, among others. |
