Title: Serioso, now and then

Premiere: Premiered by AADW in the Betty Pease Studio Theater, Ann Arbor, MI, April 26 & 27, 1997. Presented in lecture-demonstration format, May 30, 1997, Duderstadt Center Video Studio. Subsequently performed for President Bollinger's inauguration celebration, Ingalls Mall, University of Michigan, 9/97. Funded by the Executive Committee of the Media Union and the UM Office for Instructional Technology.

Duration: 15 minutes

Music: Variations Sérieuses in D Minor, Op. 54 by Felix Mendelssohn

Pianist: Robert Auler

Dancers (in order of appearance): Deborah Barron-Miller, Joseph Wojczynski, Amal Elwardi, Michael Phillips, Amy Martin, Markus VanZwoll, Brent Caburnay

Costumes: Nephelie Andonyadis

Scene Design: Vince Mountain

Lighting Design: Mary Cole

Description: Taking a playful look at romanticism, the dance juxtaposes two 19th century couples with two 20th century couples, offering glimpses of romantic yearning, flirtation, conflict, and passion. A 19th century man’s longing for the idealized, unattainable woman segues into a 20th century woman’s pining for the unavailable man. Within the dance, time is fluid; the characters peer at each other backward and forward through time, and eventually their worlds overlap. The audience is left with the dancers gazing into the future, wondering what the new millennium will bring on the subject of romantic relationships.

In conceiving of the dance, I worked with themes of the Romantic era with a capital “R, —: genius, living for art, the melancholic, the mysterious, the faraway, sensuous celebrations of nature, the emphasis on individual feeling, the unattainable, the exotic; and themes of the romantic, small “r”: myths such as love at first sight, soulmates finding each other, finding one’s twin/ideal, “love conquers all”, any means is worth the end, the unattainable, perfect love.

The pianist was positioned centerstage on a grand piano, making the music and the playing of it a central character and visual component of the work. The title of the entire evening, which featured four works to music of German composers by four choreographers, was TanzMusik, and thus my choice of a beloved German composer. I followed the music closely in creating the work and worked with the score in hand at times. Also see the statement I wrote, “About this performance” in the program, describing the evening’s themes.

Deborah, who was afraid of heights, was in one scene positioned on a 10-foot platform, out of reach of the man seeking her love below; we limited her movement on the platform to accommodate this fear. With the lighting, it looked like Deborah was floating in the air since the platform was painted black. The beautiful painted backdrop of a forest that hung behind the platform was created by Vince Mountain and now hangs in our home on the second floor overhang. The beautiful Deborah and the handsome pianist Robert had a bit of a crush on each other, adding to the fun. The choreography for the first scene between Deborah and Joe fell out whole in our first rehearsal, one of the most clement beginnings to a dance I have ever had. Amal and Michael took on the roles of the 20th century couple, Michael with TV remote control in hand., Amal desparately trying ot get his attention.

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Program

Ann Arbor News Review

Ann Arbor News Preview

Press Release

Costume design sketches

Rehearsal notes

Correspondence with colleagues and students