SOKOLOW NOW !
Anna Sokolow Contemporary Dance Company
* Sokolow Now! was invited to participate in the American Dance Legacy Institute’s Mini-Fest at Brown University, RI, on March 13, 2010. Anna Sokolow’s work was well represented in the all day festival, featuring Ballad in a Popular Style in an afternoon workshop for choreographers and Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter as part of the special evening gala.
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and Ballad in a Popular Style Photo: Matt Green
* Sokolow Now! presented its annual concert at the Boston University Dance Theater on June 5, 2010 as part of the yearlong Sokolow centennial celebration. The company presented Rooms and As I Remember, along with a rousing performance of Session for Seven. Biographical footage of the centennial celebrate rounded out the program.
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Session for Seven . . . combined strength, physicality and technical excellence – especially during multiple clockwise “T” and forte turns, flying leaps (various sorts) and oozing first position plies; theirs was a performance so sharp that synergy molecules were literally buzzing between dancers, on stage.”
Boston Examiner
PRESENTATION
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All of Sokolow’s Dreams are nightmares, . . . some dreams resonate as archetypes and others are stereotypes but all of them Sokolow skillfully captures the trapped feeling one has in a bad dream of being unable to stop whatever it is one is doing despite unknowing on ought to. Much of Dreams is in silence interrupted by dancer made sound and snatches of music from Bach, Macero and Webern.
Admonitions ~ George Jackson
The company premiered its production of Rooms at the Theater Project in Baltimore, MA, on November 21 & 22, 2009 and repeated their critical success in the company’s annual season at Dance Place on May 1& 2, 2010.
Lorry May, a former Sokolow dancer who reconstructed and staged the work, (Rooms) deserves much of the credit for its effectiveness. She completely reprogrammed these contemporary dancers to capture Sokolow's early modern, Martha Graham-inflected movement style, and yet she gave them the freedom to interpret the steps with their own emotional sensibilities. May's coaching gave Rooms the authenticity and intimacy that make it so powerful.
Washington Post ~ Sarah Halzack
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Presentation cont.
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The University of Maryland sponsored the Dakshina/Daniel Singh Dance Company in presenting two evenings dedicated to the work of Anna Sokolow on November 4 & 5, 2010 at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Both programs included September Sonnet and the newly acquired Frida. Rooms concluded the Friday concert while Dreams rounded out the Saturday program.
* September Sonnet was performed by Joseph Cicala and Janet Pila on May 9, 2009 to an enthusiastic audience at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Center, Philadelphia, PA. The duet, commissioned by Mr. Cicala, was reconstructed earlier in the year.
EDUCATION
* In 2009 the Centre de la Danse, Paris, France, purchased an acquisition of thirteen videos from the Sokolow dance Foundation. The films are now part of their permanent collection and are available for public viewing.
* The Sokolow Dance Foundation presented educational programs at two dance conferences in 2009. Ride the Culture Loop, a work inspired by a bus route in New York City, was the perfect choice for the Sokolow workshop presented on July 24th at the NDEO National Conference. The New York City event was attended by dance educators from across the Unired Sates.
Over sixty high school and college dance students participated in the Sokolow Dreams Etude workshop that was taught October 21st at the Connecticut Dance Alliance “Day of Dance” conference. Naugatuck Valley Community College served as host for this annual event.
*Elena Rusnack invited the Sokolow Dance Foundation to Naugatuck Valley Community College for our 8th annual residency. The students learned the Dreams Etude on October 18th & 25th, 2009. The repertory was presented in a studio showing as part of their dance history course. It is always a highlight to work with these eager aspiring dancers.
* Dance students at Bridgewater State University participated in the foundation’s second Performance Initiative Residency thanks to the generous support of a National Endowment for the Arts Masterworks Grant, written by dance Department Head, Nancy Moses. During the 2009 spring semester Everything Must Go was set on the students along with Session for Six and the ending section of Dreams. The Performance Initiative Residency concerts, held on April 2, 3 & 4, included Sokolow Now! performing As I Remember and Dreams, which incorporated the students in the closing section; the two full student reconstructions and selected historic film footage about the life of Anna Sokolow. It was a rewarding experience to see the growth of the students over the course of the semester.
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Everything Must Go Photo: Matt Green
* Emily Berry, faculty member at Queensborough Community College in New York, engaged the Sokolow Dance Foundation for our third Performance Initiative Residency to reconstruct sections of Lyric Suite on the students during the spring 2010 semester. Additional residency activities, which included lectures, outreach master classes and a studio performance, gave the foundation the opportunity to share the Sokolow Legacy with the surrounding community. Sokolow Now! traveled to Long Island for the eagerly awaited final public performance on May 7. They performed Rooms and As I Remember along with the student reconstruction while archival film footage on Sokolow’s life completed the program.
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CONTACT US AT:
Sokolow Dance Foundation
mail@annasokolow.org
www.annasokolow.org
508-222-4745
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