Dance Piece Edith and Jenny, with Danes, Begins 1/26

Claire Danes will star in Edith and Jenny, a new dance piece that will be performed from January 26 - February 4, 2007 at Performance Space 122 (150 First Avenue at E. 9th Street).

"In 1988 choreographer Tamar Rogoff first had the idea to create a dance piece for her 10-year old daughter Ariel Rogoff Flavin and best friend Claire Danes," according to press materials.

"In 1989, Jeff Mueller, a Columbia graduate student created two independent films featuring the two eleven-year-old girls as his protagonists.  Ariel starred as 'Jenny' in Coyote Mountain and Claire starred as 'Edith' in Dreams of Love (Executive Producer Milos Forman).  These were debut performances for both young actors.

Now, in 2007, Rogoff has created Edith and Jenny using footage, soundtracks and dialogue from Mueller's films as well as her storyboards, sketches and notes from 1988. Advances in digital technology have enabled Rogoff, along with collaborator Raj Soni and his team Eric Wagner and Tanika Goudeau, to manipulate time and space. Original footage of the 11-year old girls is integrated with live choreography into a performance that moves between past and present, screen and stage, girl and woman. In one sequence, Claire and Ariel dance as their 11 year old counterparts watch from the two screens. In another, 28 year-old Ariel is able to enter Dreams of Love, Claire's film, to comfort her Edith on screen.  The performance is not only the story of the fictional Edith and Jenny's rites of passage, it is also a reflection of the complex dynamics of the real relationship that spans two decades between Flavin and Danes."

Danes endeared herself to a generation of teenagers as Angela in the short-lived cult favorite "My So-Called Life" (for which she received an Emmy nomination), and made the transition to film. Her movie credits include How To Make an American Quilt, To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday, Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, Les Miserables, Brokedown Palace, Igby Goes Down, The Hours, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Stage Beauty and Shopgirl.  Danes studied dance at the age of six with Ellen Robbins.  It was at that time that she also debuted as a dancer on stage at P.S. 122.  Danes is currently Membership Chair at P.S. 122.  She has been a company member of Tamar Rogoff Performance Projects for two years.  Most recently, she collaborated with Rogoff on Christina Olson: American Model.

The show will play the following schedule: Friday, January 26 at 8PM; Saturday, January 27 at 5PM and 8PM; Sunday, January 28 at 5PM; Tuesday, January 30 through Saturday, February 3rd at 8PM, plus Saturday, February 3rd at 5PM and Sunday, February 4th at 5PM.  Tickets are $20.00 general admission, $15 students/senior, $10 P.S. 122. Members; and may be purchased by calling Theatermania at 212.352.3101 or online at www.ps122.org