News and Events
The Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble in special performance with commentary on November 8, 2009.
*Please note that reservations are required and at this time the event is fully subscribed. To be added to the waiting list, email dancetix@vassar.edu or call (845) 437-7470. Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis. Tickets should be claimed before 2:45pm, after that time unclaimed reservations will be released to the waiting list.
POUGHKEEPSIE, NY-The Department of Dance at Vassar College will present a matinee performance by The Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble on Sunday, November 8, as part of the Ensemble's second national tour "Dance for America," celebrating its 40th anniversary. Free and open to the public, the "Interactive Performance" will begin at 3:00pm in The Frances Daly Fergusson Dance Theater in Kenyon Hall. Advance reservations are recommended, as seating (on a first-come, first-serve basis) is limited. For reservations, email dancetix@vassar.edu. For additional information about the performance, call The Department of Dance at (845) 437-7470. The performance with commentary will include presentations of audience favorites, including a ballet set to ragtime music with live piano accompaniment.
The Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble, directed by Keith Saunders, is a group of 16 young professional dancers who have trained at the internationally acclaimed Dance Theatre of Harlem School, founded in 1969 by Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook. Only five years ago Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) almost closed due to financial pressures, however through gifts and support this important program has continued to flourish and inspire the new generations of students and audience members.
The Ensemble's "Interactive Performance"-designed to expand audience awareness and interest in classical ballet through and be especially appealing to young adults-is notable for the incorporation of live music; educational and inspirational content; audience interaction; and above all, the quality and dynamic artistry which has "distinguished Dance Theatre of Harlem as an American classic." During the program a narrator will introduce the audience to a glimpse of rigorous the training behind the development of a dancer. Described as "a spirit of entertainment designed to meet changing audience expectations, more in a tradition of ‘reality TV' than traditional ballet," the performance will offer a behind-the-scene view of signature Dance Theatre of Harlem repertoire.
These five favorite works from the repertoire will include three by DTH resident choreographer and former dancer, Robert Garland. His Joplin Dances - Suite will feature live piano accompaniment of familiar American ragtime standards by Scott Joplin, James Scott, Joseph Lamb, Artie Matthews. Joplin Dances has been described by DTHE as "a virtuoso display of ballet technique disguised beneath a façade of whimsy and romance." Mother Popcorn, a selection from Garland's Return set to music by James Brown, will demonstrate a post-modern urban neoclassicism. While Garland's New Bach will make use of the contemporary social and urban physical dance styles in combination with neoclassical and classical techniques, set to Johann Sebastian Bach's Violin Concerto in A Minor.
The two other works that the Ensemble will perform include the last work choreographer Lowell Smith created for DTH before his untimely death in 2007. Smith's Fragments will challenge neoclassical ballet vocabulary and place dancers in unexpected positions. Rounding out the program will be Peter Pucci's Episodes, which is set to original music and was choreographed especially for the Ensemble.
The November 8 performance at Vassar is sponsored by The Department of Dance and the Athletics/Life Fitness Program; the Africana Studies, American Culture, and Women's Studies programs; the Art Department; The Office of The Dean of the Faculty; and support from The Jeanne Periolat Czula Fund made possible by Jeffrey Paley and Valerie Ritter Paley (Vassar class of 1983), and The Jeanne Periolat Czula Endowment established by an anonymous Vassar alumna/us.
About the Dance Theater of Harlem
The Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) was founded in 1969 by the first African American principal dancer of the New York City Ballet, Arthur Mitchell, and Karel Shook. Inspired by the tragic assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Mitchell's goal was to establish a school that would offer children - especially those in Harlem, the community in which he was born - the opportunity to learn about dance and the allied arts. In a 1971 issue of the New York Times, DTH was applauded as "one of ballet's most exciting undertakings."
Now in its fourth decade, Dance Theatre of Harlem has grown into a multi-cultural dance institution with an extraordinary legacy of providing opportunities for creative expression and artistic excellence that continues to set standards in the performing arts.
About the Department of Dance
The Department of Dance offers a non-major, elective course of study at Vassar. The faculty consists of three full-time professors (Jeanne Periolat Czula, John Meehan, Stephen Rooks), one full-time lecturer of dance and drama (Katherine Wildberger), and one part-time jazz instructor (Abby Saxon). Dance's resident lighting designer, David Ferri, lights all dance department productions. There are three adjunct artists who serve as accompanists and who compose, direct, and sometimes perform with the student company, the Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre, which is directed by John Meehan (http://dance.vassar.edu/).
Fall Dance Events
The Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre's Final Showings '09-'10 will conclude the fall 2009 offerings by the Department of Dance with three performances of Final Showings '09-'10 on November 19, 20, and 21 at 8:00pm. For advance reservations, please email dancetix@vassar.edu.
Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations or information on accessibility should contact Campus Activities Office at (845) 437-5370. Without sufficient notice, appropriate space and/or assistance may not be available. Directions to the Vassar Campus are available online at www.vassar.edu/directions.
Vassar College is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential liberal arts college founded in 1861.
Posted by Office of Communications Tuesday, October 20, 2009
About the Arts
Powerhouse Theater
The Powerhouse Theater is a collaboration between New York Stage and Film and Vassar College. It is dedicated to both emerging and established artists in the development and production of new works for theater and film. During an intense eight-week summer residency on the Vassar campus, up to twenty different projects are publicly presented, typically engaging more than 200 professional artists and theater students. Plays, musicals, and screenplays are presented in a variety of forms: readings, workshops, and fully staged productions. Since the first Powerhouse Theater season in 1985, New York Stage and Film and Vassar have served more than 2,000 artists and over 175,000 audience members through the development and production of artistically exceptional and affordably priced performances.
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center
Located just inside Vassar's Main Gate, the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center houses the college's permanent collection, over 18,000 works, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, and glass and ceramic wares, charting the history of art from antiquity to the present. The Permanent Collection Galleries feature 350 works, ranging from the sculpted Head of Viceroy Merymose from His Outer Sarcophagus (Egyptian, c 1375 BCE) in the Antiquities Gallery to Marsden Hartley's oil on canvas Indian Composition (1914-15) in the Twentieth Century Gallery. For information on current and upcoming special exhibitions, self-guided and curriculum-based tours, and group visits, please visit the website. The art center is open to the public, and admission is free.
James W. Palmer Gallery
Located in the College Center in Main Building, the James W. Palmer III '90 Gallery presents eight shows annually, including exhibitions by renowned artists and photographers, studio art faculty and students, and local arts organizations. Recent highlights included Andrea Baldeck’s black-and-white photo exhibit, Touching the Mekong: A Southeast Asian Sojourn, organized by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology; the Vassar Haiti Project’s annual exhibition and auction of imported arts and handcrafts; and Design Inside, showcasing the work of Vassar’s College Relations design team. All exhibitions are free and open to the public. For information on upcoming exhibitions, visit the website or call (845) 437-5370.
Music Department
Located in the Belle Skinner Hall of Music, the Martel Recital Hall is wonderfully suited, both acoustically and aesthetically, to music performance. With seating for 500, the Martel is home to the Vassar College Orchestra, Choir, Women's Chorus, Madrigal Singers, and numerous chamber groups and ensembles. The Martel concert schedule routinely includes distinguished guest artists, faculty recitals, senior recitals, and special musical events, such as last year's series of organ recitals celebrating the installation and dedication of the college's superb pipe organ, designed by masterbuilder Paul Fritts. For information on upcoming concerts and events (which are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted), please visit the website.
Dance Department
The Department of Dance sponsors several public performances each year. Among those, the Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre (VRDT) has a series of Works in Progress showings in the fall, a winter Modfest performance in conjunction with the The Department of Music, winter galas at the 1869 Bardavon Opera House, and two All Parents Weekend performances in the spring. The department's Master Class program annually invites at least one ballet and one modern expert to campus in addition to two people in other areas of dance. Public performances and lectures are often associated with these renowned visitors. Guest artists in the past have included: Irina Kolpokova, Arthur Mitchell, Helene Alexopoulos, Gregory Hines, Anna Kisselgoff, Donald Byrd, Edward Villella, Ronald K. Brown, Irene Dowd, Allegra Kent, Gelsey Kirkland, Pilobolus w/Adam Battlestein, Suzanne Farrell, Mummenschantz, Eldar Aliev, Deborah Jowitt, Bill T. Jones, Pascal Rioult, Clinton Luckett of ABT, Bill Irwin, and Donald McKayle. Many of the department's dance performances are in the Frances Daly Fergusson Dance Theater, located in Kenyon Hall.
Drama Department Experimental Theater
Presenting several public performances each semester in the Martel Theater of the Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film and the Hallie Flanagan Davis Powerhouse Theater, the Experimental Theater is a place to explore theories learned in the classroom and to experiment with theatrical forms. In the tradition of pioneering stage director Hallie Flanagan, students are encouraged to experience and experiment with all aspects of the theater. Flanagan, who accepted a position to teach drama at Vassar in 1925, founded the Experimental Theater following her visit to the theaters of Europe in 1926 on a Guggenheim Fellowship. (http://drama.vassar.edu).
Film
The Film Department at Vassar College hosts a steady stream of guest artists and lecturers and is located in the state-of-the-art Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film. The film program encompasses major aspects of the discipline: the history and theory of cinema, dramatic writing, and film/video/digital production, within the framework of a liberal arts education.
Archives and Special Collections Library
A rotating series of exhibitions is offered each year by the Catherine Pelton Durrell '25 Archives and Special Collections Library, which is the principal repository of the College's noteworthy collections of rare books, manuscripts, archival records of Vassar College, and other special materials. The library's collections date from the 15th century (the age of incunabula) to the present. Notable examples include books important in women's history, first editions of English and American literary and historical works, examples of fine printing, collections of courtesy and cookbooks, children's books, and rare maps and atlases. The Virginia B. Smith Manuscript Collection includes manuscripts by and about women which were gathered during President Smith’s tenure, such as the papers of Mary McCarthy and Elizabeth Bishop. Also of note are papers of writers Samuel L. Clemens and Edna St. Vincent Millay; early naturalist John Burroughs, historian Lucy Maynard Salmon, feminist and historian Alma Lutz, astronomer Maria Mitchell, anthropologist Ruth Benedict, and physicist Albert Einstein. Archives and Special Collections is located in the Frederick Ferris Thompson Memorial Library.
Visit the Archives and Special Collections Exhibition website
Press Contact
Emily Darrow
Associate Director of Media Relations
(845) 437-7690
emdarrow@vassar.edu
