David Dorfman Dance at Edison Theatre Sept. 25-26

 

 

David Dorfman Dance at Edison Theatre Sept. 25-26

underground explores movement both physical and political.

 "Does what you do make a difference?" "Is violence ever justified?" "When can activism become terrorism, or vice versa?"

Such provocative questions lie at the heart of underground, an ambitious evening-length multimedia dance piece by acclaimed choreographer David Dorfman. Loosely inspired by the Weather Underground, the radical and sometimes violent 1960s militant group, underground explores the similarities and connections between physical and political movement as well as the promise and the danger of ideological passion.

This month Dorfman - a Washington University alumnus - will return to Edison Theatre with his company, David Dorfman Dance, to launch the 2009-10 OVATIONS Series. Performances will begin at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Sept. 25 and 26. Tickets are $32; $28 seniors and Washington University faculty and staff; and $20 for students and children.

Tickets are available at the Edison Theatre Box Office and through all MetroTix outlets. Edison Theatre is located in the Mallinckrodt Student Center, 6445 Forsyth Blvd. For more information, call (314) 935-6543 or email edison@wustl.edu.

"David is one of the most visceral and exciting choreographers working today," says Charlie Robin, director of Edison Theatre, who has known Dorfman for more than 15 years. "He employs a deceptively simple vocabulary of familiar body movements to produce innovative and stunningly dynamic dance. For underground, his professional company will work with a large group of local community members to literally fill the stage with a groundswell of energy and activity."

underground

Dorfman first conceived underground after seeing Sam Greene and Bill Seigel's Academy Award-nominated documentary Weather Underground (2002). Yet the piece also reflects his own lifelong fascinations. As a teenager in Chicago, Dorfman had been riveted by the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The following year he was deeply impressed by the "Days of Rage" riots - a protest against the trial of the "Chicago Seven" - with which the Weather Underground announced its formation.

Yet in underground, Dorfman's theme is less political history than political philosophy: in a turbulent world, how does one fight for justice?

"I try hard to be a good global citizen and I mourn the needless loss of life," he told the San Francisco Bay Guardian shortly after the show's premiere. "So I want my generation and younger people ... to look at the nature of activism and what, if anything, justifies the use of force and violence."

The evening opens with a subtle prelude. As the audience arrives, Dorfman - casually dressed in baggy street clothes - takes the stage and quietly acts out a string of simple gestures that seem to embody the revolutionary fervor of the 1960s: a lunge forward, a raised fist, an arm cocked and ready to throw.

As Dorfman is joined by the full 10-member company, such simple gestures expand into full-blown vignettes exploring the psychology of rebellion. Moments of cool contemplation are juxtaposed with moments of surging, charismatic physicality. Yet punctuating the action is a succession of difficult and often confrontational questions: "Is your country worth killing for?" "Is your family worth killing for?"

"Uncomfortable honesty courses through underground like an electrical charge," writes The New York Sun. "This is the rare kind of dance theater that keeps people on The Edge of their seats. You can't look away from the powerhouse dancing... Nor can you avoid its in-your-face questions."

The sense of urgency is further underlined by Dorfman's multimedia staging, which surrounds the live dancers with documentary footage, photo collages and projected text. Meanwhile the soundtrack combines a commissioned score by Bessie Award winner Jonathan Bepler with songs by the groups M83 and Broken Social Scene.

Auditions and Master Classes

Prior to the Edison Theatre performance, Dorfman - who has dedicated much of his career to the poetry of untrained dancers - will enlist 15-30 St. Louisans to serve as a kind of dance chorus. Auditions will take place from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, in Edison Theatre. (Dancers with scheduling conflicts due to Rosh Hashanah may make separate arrangements). For more information call Jen Killion at (314) 935-4478 or email jkillion@wustl.edu.

In addition Dorfman and company members will lead a series of master classes and other residency activities Sept. 22-25 for the Dance Program in the Performing Arts Department (PAD) in Arts & Sciences. Dorfman also will present a free public master class at 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, in the Olin 1 Dance Studio, located in the Ann W. Olin Women's Building. For more information contact the PAD at (314) 935-5858 or visit padarts.wustl.edu.

David Dorfman

Born in 1956, Dorfman was raised in a working-class suburb of Chicago. A high school athlete who played baseball and football, he earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in 1977 from Washington University's Olin Business School as well as a Master of Fine Arts in dance from Connecticut College in 1981.

David Dorfman Dance, which he founded in 1985, has performed extensively in New York City and throughout North and South America, Great Britain and Europe. Most recently the company toured underground in St. Petersburg and Krasnoyarsk, Russia, and in Bytom and Cracow, Poland.

As a performer Dorfman has toured internationally with Kei Takei's Moving Earth and Susan Marshall & Co. He also has served as guest artist at numerous institutions across the country and abroad, most recently at ImpulsTanz in Vienna, the American Dance Festival, the University of Iowa, Illinois Wesleyan University, Rutgers University and Knox College.

Dorfman has received a 2009 Distinguished Alumni Award from the Olin Business School; the 2007 Martha Hill Fund for Dance's Mid-Career Award; and a 2005 Guggenheim Foundation fellowship. Other honors include four fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, three New York Foundation for the Arts fellowships, an American Choreographer's Award, the first Paul Taylor Fellowship from The Yard and a New York Dance & Performance Award ("Bessie") for his community-based Familiar Movements (The Family Project).

In 2004 Dorfman joined the faculty of Connecticut College as the William Meredith Professor of Dance and Department Chair. In 2007 the college named David Dorfman Dance as its permanent company-in-residence.

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