Past and present
By Casey Gillis on Apr. 10, 2008
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Artistic Director Keith Lee is re-staging some of his favorite works for Dance Theatre of Lynchburg’s annual Pioneers of American Dance show.
In addition to two of his own original pieces, Lee’s dancers will also perform David Wood’s “Country Style” and Charles Weidman’s “Brahms Waltzes.”
“Country Style” will be performed by the Repertory Ensemble and is set to what Lee describes as symphonic country music.
“The dance is really sort of a barn dance,” he says. “There are do-si-dos and square dancing mixed in with a fusion of (Martha) Graham and classic contemporary technique.”
Wood worked with Martha Graham, a dancer and choreographer considered a pioneer herself, and was also one of Lee’s teachers at the High School for the Performing Arts in New York.
“He was the premier male interpreter of (Graham’s) movement,” Lee says.
Lee also has a connection to Weidman’s “Brahms Waltzes.” He performed it as a young dancer.
“It stuck with me all these years,” he says. “It’s a good vehicle for young dancers.”
Dance Theatre’s younger group, with kids ages 7 to 12, will perform the piece accompanied by two pianists.
“They’re just cute as buttons,” Lee says. “There’s a really honest and fresh approach to the movement. They’re garnished in pink, and the mood is quite romantic and very flowing.”
The Repertory Ensemble will perform Lee’s “Freedom Songs,” which is set to the music of Sweet Honey in the Rock. Lee will also debut his newest piece of choreography, a solo called “Refugee” performed by dancer Annelese Sari.
“It is sort of a celebration of past and present refugees, who have traveled to the borderline and have gotten through,” he says. “They want to come to this great country, and my feeling about it is, ‘Let them come.’
“It’s a statement. It’s something I’ve felt I wanted to say for a little while.”
Sari plays a woman who “finds herself out there in a desperate situation, trying to get into the country, trying to find her way,” Lee says. “She’s very nervous about what could possibly happen to her, and she overcomes these types of turmoil.”
It’s set to the music of Hector Martignon.
“It’s got a Latin feeling to it,” he says. “It’s very hot music. You just feel the heat.”
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