Jean Erdman: THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF MEDUSA (1942)

I. Temple Virgin 

II. Lady Of The Wild Things 

III. Queens Of The Gorgons 

Choreography: Jean Erdman 

Music: commissioned score, Louis Horst 

Costume: Charlotte Trowbridge 

Dancer: Nancy Allison 

Pianist: Richard Cameron-Wolfe

JEAN ERDMAN, (1916-2020), (The Transformations of Medusa, 1948), made a significant contribution to American arts as a dancer, choreographer and avant-garde theater director. While enrolled at Sarah Lawrence College, Erdman began her career as a principal dancer in the Martha Graham Dance Company from 1938-42 originating many roles in Graham’s groundbreaking repertory. Also in 1938 she married scholar Joseph Campbell beginning a lifelong creative interchange; together they created the Theater of the Open Eye in NYC. In 1962 her production, The Coach with the Six Insides, an adaptation of James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, brought both OBIE and Vernon Rice Awards, and toured the world including Italy at the Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds, and Dublin, Tokyo and Paris. Her 1971 Tony-nominated choreography for Joseph Papp’s production of Two Gentlemen of Verona, Lincoln Center production of Jean Giraudoux’s The Enchanted, along with the more than fifty dances and total-theater works she created for her company all demonstrate her sensitive musicality and the intricate blending of world dance and theater styles that is the hallmark of her aesthetic vision. Her collaborators included Louis Horst, John Cage, Lou Harrison, Merce Cunningham and Maya Deren. She taught at the New Dance Group; directed the dance program at Bard College from 1954 – 57; Artist in Residence and Director of the Summer Dance Program at the University of Colorado / Boulder from 1949 – 55; and founding director of Dance at NYU School of the Arts from 1966 - 71.  In 2006, along with other members of the New Dance Group (member from 1943 to 1948), she was inducted into the National Museum of Dance Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, NY. ADG honored Erdman with its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016. http://www.jeanerdmandance.com

Anna Sokolow: Duet from “LYRIC SUITE" (1954)

Choreography: Anna Sokolow 

Music: Alhan Berg 

Costumes: Rose Bank 

Dancers: Jim May and Lorry May

ANNA SOKOLOW, (1910-2000), (Lyric Suite, 1954) Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Anna Sokolow trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse with Martha Graham and Louis Horst. In the 1930’s she danced as a member of the Graham Dance Company and assisted Horst in his dance composition classes. During this time, Sokolow also formed her own company, began performing solo concerts, ensemble works and choreographed for Broadway productions such as Street Scene (1947), Camino Real (1953), and the original Hair (1967). Sokolow frequently travelled to Mexico and Israel to teach and choreograph; served as a longtime faculty member of the Juilliard School. Sokolow received many honors and awards, including Honorary Doctorate degrees from Ohio State University, Brandeis University and the Boston Conservatory of Music. She received a Fulbright Fellowship to Japan, the Dance Magazine Award, a National Endowment for the Arts’ Choreographic Fellowship, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American/Israeli Cultural Foundation, the Samuel H. Scripps Award, and the Encomienda, Aztec Eagle Honor (the highest civilian honor awarded to a foreigner by Mexico). On March 29, 2000 at the age of 90, Sokolow passed away in her home in New York City. Today, her works are performed by the Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble, and are in the repertories of numerous other companies around the world.

Daniel Nagrin: STRANGE HERO (1948) 

Choreography: Daniel Nagrin 

Music: Stan Kanton, Pete Rugolo 

Piano transcription: John Mehegan 

Riano recording: Sylvia Marshall 

Dancer: Shine O'Hara

 DANIEL NAGRIN, (1917-2008), (Strange Hero, 1948)  “The great loner of modern dance.” (Dance Magazine.) Daniel Nagrin’s fifty year career integrated jazz, modern dance, words, images, and championed movement as metaphor. He worked with Anna Sokolow and Martha Graham; performed in film, tv and on Broadway (1955 Donaldson Award), was co-director with Helen Tamiris of The Tamiris-Nagrin Company. Nagrin toured as a renowned solo performer of riveting character and political studies in dance/theatre classics: Strange Hero, Spanish Dance and The Peloponnesian War, often reflecting conflicted men in the midst of social concerns.  He was the director of The Workgroup, an improvisational dance company; author of How to Dance Forever, Dance; Dance and The Specific Image: Improvisation, and The Six Questions: Acting Technique for Dance Performance; a master teacher including at The  American Dance Festival, The National Theatre Institute and as a professor at Arizona State University where a scholarship is given in his name. “The world outside has burst into the studio,” Daniel Nagrin. https://nagrin.org

Joyce Trisler: CONCERTO IN E (Except) (1979)

Choreography: Joyce Trisler 

Music: Fredric Chopin 

Restaged by: Regina Larkin 

Costume: Nancy L. Johnson 

Dancers: Elena Comendador and Jonathan Riseling

JOYCE TRISLER, (1934-1979), (Romeo and Juliet, 1979) Contemporary dancer, teacher, and choreographer, Joyce Trisler (1934-1979) was born in Los Angeles and studied with such influential dance figures such as Hanya Holm, Lester Horton, Robert Joffrey and Antony Tudor. She taught modern dance for many years in New York and was a teaching member of the New Dance Group. Trisler was also a leading dancer with Doris Humphrey’s Juilliard Dance Theatre and performed with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater until 1964. She staged numerous operas and Broadway shows, including the New York Shakespeare Festival productions in the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. In 1974, she formed the Joyce Trisler Danscompany and created numerous acclaimed works, including Dance for Six, Rite of Spring, and Four Temperaments. Shortly after her untimely death on October 13, 1979, Alvin Ailey created his tribute ballet Memoria which he dedicated in loving memory of Trisler.

Sophie Maslow: Excerpts from "FOLKSAY" (1942)

Choreography: Sophie Maslow, assistant: Lynn A. Frielinghaus

Words: Carl Sandburg's ‘The People, Yes' 

Music: Woodie Guthrie 

Costume: Edythe Gilfond 

Costume coordinator: Natalie Garfinkle 

Singers: Lana Gordon and Walt Michael 

a. “We're all dodgin” Ensemble* 

b. "On Top of Old Smoky" Vanessa Jordan 

C: "Aw Nuts" Michael A. Bennett, Terry Callaway, Vicky Lambert, 

Yvette L. Perry. Solange Sandy 

d. "I Ride an Old Paint" 

Michael A. Bennett, Brandon Ellis, Synne Jackson, Vicky Lambert, Derrick Minter, Yvette L. Perry 

e. "Hey you, Sun, Moon, Stars" Vanessa Jordan, Solange Sandy 

Dancers: Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble* 

Michael A. Bennett, Terry Callaway, Brandon Ellis, Christina Gonzales, Lana Gordon, Lynne Jackson, Torens Johnson, Vanessa Jordan, Vicky Lambert, Derrick Minter, Yvette Perry, Jason T. Reynolds, Solange Sandy 

*Sylvia Wates, Artistic Director - Judith Jamison, Artistic Advisor

SOPHIE MASLOW, (1911-2006), (Folksay, 1948) was an American choreographer and dancer. After studying dance with Martha Graham at the Neighborhood Playhouse, she joined the Martha Graham Company as a soloist in 1931. As an early member of the New Dance Group, Maslow began dancing with fellow artists William Bales and Jane Dudley. The Dudley-Maslow-Bales Trio was a success and toured extensively throughout the United States in the 1940s. This eventually evolved into the Sophie Maslow Dance Company which Maslow helmed for over 30 years, producing works such as Folksay (1942), Poem (1964), and Tzilling (1984). Maslow was often invited to be a guest choreographer and worked with companies such as the Danskern Company, Harkness Ballet, Winnipeg Contemporary Dance Company and Batsheva Dance Company. She also designed movement for several plays such as The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window  (1964)  and created dances for the 1952 and 1961 seasons of the New York City Opera. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Skidmore College. The American Dance Guild honored Miss Maslow with the 1991 Award of Artistry. Maslow died in Manhattan on June 25, 2006 at the age of 95.

More performances to come.