Dreams (1961)
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Music: J. S. Bach, Anton von Webern, Teo Macero
6-8 dancers, 40 minutes
Sokolow's signature piece "Dreams" reveals the unseen realm
where feelings give birth to strange visions: where one runs
without escaping, reaches without touching, and acts without
feeling.
"Sokolow's nightmarish threnody on the Nazi Holocaust
proves in its Kafkaesque namelessness as profoundly horrifying
as ever. There is a glory and sacrifice in this pain...some
unlikely triumph of the human spirit. "
Clive
Barnes, New York Post, 1995 |
Ballade (1965)
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Music: Alexander Scriabin
4 dancers, 20 minutes
A delicious quartet for two couples; lovely, lyric, flowing
in its musical responses to some of Scriabin's most beautiful
piano works.
"'Ballade' plays the age old game of youth and its discoveries,
with a touching grace and understanding straight out of their
own youngness."
Ann Barzel, Dance News, 1965 |
Opus 65 (1965)
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Music: Teo Macero
8-12 dancers, 30 minutes
An ironic, funny, and belligerent look at the rebellious youth
that changed our society. The dance world was shocked to its
core when Opus 65 was presented on the Robert Joffrey Balley
over 30 years ago.
"Opus 65...is typical of a social protest ballet that
Ms. Sokolow virtually invented. This is a genre that has been
widely copied throughout the world -- it is called the 'alienated
youth' ballet -- but there is still no one who can come up with
the conviction of the genuine article better than Ms. Sokolow
herself."
Anna Kisselgoff,
New York Times, 1976 |
Steps of Silence (1968)
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Music: Anatol Vieru
6-12 dancers, 20 minutes
A depiction of the plight of political prisoners and social dissidents.
"Steps of Silence carries...to a searing extreme with
its distorted bodies. Yet the finish to this concentration-camp
scene is theatrical and true. Newspapers blow in from the wings
and cover the bodies on the floor, history's human debris."
Anna Kisselgoff, The New York Times,
1991 |
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Music: Scriabin, Lizst, Ravel, Satie, Masiello
Text: John White, Paul Eluard, Edgar Allan Poe
6-10 dancers, 50 minutes
Inspired by the paintings of the Belgian artist Rene Magritte,
Ms. Sokolow created an extraordinary surrealist dance-theater
piece that carries Magritte's images into action.
"It
was a great relief and joy to see something (Magritte, Magritte)
on a stage that is visually exciting and intellectually stimulating.
I am grateful that Ms. Sokolow continues to experiment with theatre
danced and danced theatre."
Walter
Sorell, Dance News, 1972 |
Photos: David Fullard (Ballade), Christa Cowrie (Opus
65), Johann Elbers (Steps of Silence), Robin Meems (Magritte, Magritte)
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