Choreography and the Element of Surprise
It was roughly forty years ago and I was developing my skills as a dancer and choreographer. I heard that Jennifer Muller and The Works was giving a summer choreography workshop and decided to attend. (If you click on the link for Jennifer and her company you will get some inkling about why a young artist would […]
Day of the Rope: Molly Maquires Message of Courage
For months, as we worked together, Kathy Cowen, my collaborator and friend, sang me songs about the Irish coming to America, where they found work in the coal mines of Pennsylvania. She sang of the Molly Maquires who were hanged in the town of Mauch Chunk for rebelling against the dangerous and unfair working conditions […]
Molly Maquires at the Mauch Chunk Opera House
“It would be great if you made a dance about the coal miners from this town,” Dan said. The miners he was referring to were known as the “Molly Maquires” and the town is Jim Thorpe PA, or Mauch Chunk as the locals call it. “We could pack the opera house,” he was visibly enthused. […]
Lightscape and the Chicago Project
This picture fell out of a program we found from the premiere of the Chicago Project circa 1987. I forgot I danced in that production, partnered by my colleague Lon Gordon. In that year, I was the artist in residence at Mundelein College in Chicago. My rehearsal space was in a beautiful, old mansion on […]
Concert Dance Cultural Exchange in China
June 2009 – After two years of planning, fundraising, and rehearsing, Concert Dance, Inc was finally on its way to China. We were at O’Hare airport waiting for our flight to China, where there was a SARS flu alert. A scratchy voice from United Air Lines over the intercom announced, ” If any of you […]