Title: Dance for Eighteen

1. The Unforgotten

2. Not so Long Ago

3. A Kaddish

Premiere: February 4-8, 1993, Power Center, Ann Arbor, MI. Performed by the University Dance Company as part of four evenings of dance entitled "Dance to the World Beat." Subsequent performances at Power Center in September 1993 presented by Ann Arbor Dance Works. Funded by University of Michigan’s Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) and a Meet the Composer grant.

Duration: 17 minutes

Music: “Der Nayer Doyne/Sam Shpilt,” recorded by the Klezmer Conservatory Band; “

And the Angels Sing” by Johnny Mercer, played by the Benny Goodman Band with Ziggy Elman, trumpeter

“Kaddish” by Paul Epstein.

Musicians: Marilyn Krimm, Soprano

Paul Epstein, Stephen Rush, Keyboards

Young Park, Viola

John Douglas, Trumpet

Neil Chastain, Percussion

Roger Arnett, Sound Engineer

Lighting Design: Mary Cole

Costume Design: John Gutoskey

Set Design: Toni Auletti

Props: Arthur Ridley

Dancers: Susana Arisso, Kande Culver, Jennifer Furr, David Genson, Christopher Gentner, Amanda Goodman, Hope Grider, Katherine Hoffmann, Lena Iglesias, Ruth Leney-Midkiff, Wendy Light, Carina Lucero, Kate McGory, Thomas Morris, Amanda Stanger, Jeremy Steward, Scott Read, Christina Zani

Program Note: This dance is dedicated to the memory of the choreographer's father, Ephim Fogel, poet and professor, who was born in Odessa, Russia on November 15, 1920, and died in Ithaca, New York on June 13, 1992.

The first section is based upon photographic images of Jews in Eastern Europe pre-WWII, and on the paintings by Marc Chagall of Vitebsk, Russia. Klezmer music originally developed in medieval Europe where itinerant Jewish musicians travelled from town to town playing for festivals and special occasions; by the nineteenth century, klezmer music had become a well-developed form, drawing inspiration not only from the synagogue, but also from the non-Jewish cultures which surrounded it.

Benny Goodman, a second generation Jewish American, was the leader of a swingtime band that often featured jazzed up versions of old Jewish melodies, of which And the Angels Sing is a case in point. The song was recorded in 1939, a time when European Jews were the victims of increasing persecutions. Four couples perform a glamorized foxtrot and jitterbug, while upstage of them, behind a scrim, a line of figures disappear one at a time into the wings--an image of a death camp line. Thus the old world and the new are juxtaposed at a critical moment in time.

The kaddish is the Jewish prayer for the dead.

Description: A significant work for me, I created this dance for 18 dancers in the months that followed my father’s death, and the work became a vessel for my grief. It was dedicated to the memory of my father, Ephim Fogel, 1920-1992.

This is how I described the work in a lecture demonstration given at Power Center in 1993:

“The ideas for this work began to take form for me on July 4th of this year. I was having a small party for some friends to celebrate the holiday, and was playing Americana music all evening-- records I had actually purchased in1976 when I was choreographing a dance for a bicentennial celebration at Barnard College. I was playing Anita Bryant singing This is My Country, Mitch Miller & the gang playing the Battle Hymn of the Republic, The New Christie Minstrels singing this Land is Your Land, etc. I still had not chosen my music for the Power Center production, Dance to the World Beat, and was undecided as to how I was going to approach that theme. My first impulse had been to use a contemporary percussion score, and to emphasize "the beat" in that way. But as I began to consider the theme of ethnicity, which the title Dance to the World Beat suggests, I decided to go to my own cultural heritage. I am an American Jew. My father, who died this summer, was born in Russia. In the shadow of this loss, I chose to choreograph to Klezmer music. Klezmer music originally developed in medieval Europe where itinerant Jewish musicians traveled from town to town playing for festivals and special occasions. By the nineteenth century, klezmer music had become a well developed musical form, taking its inspiration not only form the synagogue, but also from the non-Jewish cultures which surrounded it. Upon arriving in America, Jewish immigrants adapted this music to the jazz rhythms and instruments found here, creating a new musical hybrid. Klezmer orchestras flourished until the 1940's, but as Jews began to assimilate, the tradition faded. Now, however, perhaps due to a renewed interest among Jews in their culturlal and religious roots, a klezmer revival is in full swing.

So I chose the klezmer music, and I also immediately knew that I wanted to do a work in several sections, featuring musical choices that moved forward through time. I consulted with my long time composer friend in New York, Paul Epstein, and asked him for suggestions. He suggested Benny Goodman, a second generation Jewish American, a very cheerful choice. I listened to many recordings and was drawn towards one song in particular, And the Angels Sing; as it turned out, this song is based on an old Jewish melody, something I did not know when I selected the song.... Then, I wanted a third musical selection that would pull the work into the present day, and it evolved that Paul would compose a work for the third section, featuring a contemporary hip hop groove, through which echoes of the earlier eras would be woven.

So, I've choreographed a dance in 3 sections for eighteen dancers, entitled Dance for Eighteen.. The first section is called The Unforgotten. The klezmer music led me to look at photographs taken from about 1900-1940 of Eastern European Jews. I also looked at the paintings of Marc Chagall, and many of the images in the dance, especially of floating figures, are based on his paintings of his hometown of Vitebsk, Russia. I also looked at videotapes of Eastern European folk dances, and abstracted some of these movements to form phrases that suggested the flavor of the dances. Ruth Leney Midkiff, one of the dancers, was a member of a professional folk dance troupe in Pittsburgh before joining us here this fall, so her tapes and expertise were a wonderful resource for me.... we will show you a small portion of the first section.......... That was the old world beat.

In the second section, we move to the new world, and do a kind of camp version of a Benny Goodman song, And The Angels sing. Four dancing couples perform a glamorized foxtrot and jitterbug, and angels on a ladder are wheeled about the stage. One of the dancers, Scott Read, has a strong background in teaching ballroom dance, and he was very helpful in teaching the dancers some of the basics of the foxtrot and jitterbug. In this section , the stage is divided by scrims. This first verse is performed by Lena and Tom in front of a downstage scrim. Within i the song, that scrim rises to reveal three more couples at the base of the ladder. Meanwhile, behind a scrim upstage of the ladder, a line of dancers in nude unitards disappears one at a time into the wings--an image of a death camp line. The song came out in 1939, a time when European Jews were victims of increasing persecutions. thus, the old world and the new are juxtaposed at critical moment in time in this second section. We'll give you a taste of this section, with the lead couple, Lena and Tom, performing just the first verse, with our three angels, Kate, Kathryn and Wendy, up on the ladder.

The third Section is set to the Kaddish, the Jewish Prayer for the dead. in this context, the theme of lifted or airborne bodies seen in the first two sections takes on a different connotation. The prayer, although it is associated with death and mourning, never mentions the departed. Instead, it is a praise of God and a reaffirmation of life. The first words you hear on Paul's tape, are said by his grandfather, a cantor saying Alyiday... raise your hands. Paul sampled sounds of his grandfather speaking and praying, and of Benny Goodman's song, and of the klezmer music, and these are woven into a rhythmic beat against which a soprano sings the kaddish and a band of live musicians plays. Using a similar compositional method, I asked the dancers, as a kind of remembrance, to sample eight non-sequitur movements they did in the first two sections, and to make of that an eight-count phrase. With eighteen dancers in the work, we thus have eighteen measures of eight, each measure drawn from their own experience in the dance. This phrase of eighteen eights appears in the middle of the third section, and is surrounded by other images, but we will excerpt just this phrase for you to see one of the components of this last section. One last thought--the number 18 in Hebrew is chai, which is the same word as the Hebrew word for life. It is through remembrance that those who have died live on. “

Program

OVPR grant

Preview article excerpt 1993 Ann Arbor News

Preview article 1993 Jody Frank, The Michigan Daily

Review by Jody Frank of the September, 18, 1993 performance

Review by Lauren Ray Pollard, February 5, 1993, Ann Arbor News

Photos below by David Smith, University Dance Company, University of Michigan, February 1993 Power Center performances