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La Nef des fous |
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Anna Sokolow’s legacy of combining theater, dance, music, and visual arts led the Sokolow Theatre Dance Ensemble to begin a collaboration with le concert impromptu, a French wind quintet seeking to expand the boundaries of chamber music performance. In February, 2003, we traveled to Paris to begin work on a program which would include works by Anna Sokolow performed to live music and two new works that would bring music and movement together on stage in new ways.
After two more rehearsal periods in New York, dancers and musicians met in France for a 3-week residency in February 2004. After an intensive rehearsal period there in La Carré, the national theater of Chateau-Gontier (a former 16th century convent updated with a state-of-the-art theater), we premiered the program, titled La Nef des fous. Over the next 3 weeks in March, we traveled in Brittany, teaching workshops and performing in Rennes, Fougères, Vitré, and Redon.
We returned to France this past November to perform in St. Girons, Joué-les-Tours, Nevers, and Ivry-sur-Seine.
PROGRAMArtistic director: Jim May Starburst (2004) Rooms (1955) Four Songs (1995) La Nef des fous (2004)
“When the diplomats of these two sides
of the Atlantic are a bit in the cold—here is an established
Franco-American collaboration that is both warm and fruitful.” “The musicians sketch choreographic movement.
The dancers respond to them in rhythm. Each one tries the discipline
of the other with gusto. It’s a true melding of the arts.” “An original and audacious piece where
dance and music are in perfect symbiosis.” |
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