Title: North of Here
Wind
Camille on her Deathbed
Freeze/Thaw
Flood
Clement Weather
Premiere: January 24, 1998. University Dance Company. Commissioned by and performed at the University of Michigan Museum (UMMA) of Art gala opening of the “Monet at Vetheuil” exhibit, UMMA, Ann Arbor, MI. Subsequently performed at the Power Center February 5-8, 1998, Ann Arbor, MI., as a part of the Department of Dance’s major annual production “Choreography of Geography.”
Duration: 20 minutes
Music: Claude Debussy (see link to program below for detailed music credits)
Dancers: Missy Bischoff, Jodie Colone, Lindsey Dietz, Anna Gelino, Corinne Imberski, Ayako Kato, Jason Marchant, Colin Mysliwiec, Courtney Murphy, Michael Spencer Phillips, Laila Sales, Angela Youells
Costumes: Rebecca Valentino
Lighting design: Barry LaRue for the museum performance. Mary Cole for the Power Center performances.
Set Design: Cindi Blank
Props: Arthur Ridley, University Productions
Description: See UMMA program below for program notes that describe aspects of the work. The work was commissioned by the University of Michigan Museum of Art in honor of their “Monet at Vetheuil” exhibit, which included paintings that depicted the frozen ice floes that France experienced with the freezing, thawing and flooding of the river in 1879. The dance, in five sections, depicted a turbulent period in Monet’s life, when his wife Camille was dying. This was also the year the Seine froze, thawed, and flooded. Monet was involved at this time with Alice Hoschedé, whom he eventually married. While Camille was dying, Hoschedé and Monet combined households, including eight children, and Alice took care of them.
Of note, the splendid and beloved dancer who was originally cast in the lead role of Claude Monet, Joseph Wojzczynski, was tragically killed in a car accident over the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, just six days before the opening at the museum. Jason Marchant swiftly learned his role. The performances, dedicated to Joe, were cloaked in the shock and grief of that loss. The dance itself depicted in one scene the lingering death of Camille Monet, and included an image of Monet’s 1879 painting, Camille on her Deathbed. The breaking up of the ice of the Seine River was depicted with a large tarp that was rattled by the dancers. There were two casts of dancers who switched roles in the four nights of performances at Power Center; performers were either the stage assistants or the actual dancers. I used the device of Japanese kuroko—stage assistants—who delivered the numerous props and rearranged the stage between scenes. Several of Monet’s paintings were projected onto an easel on the stage. The music was by Debussy, written for piano.
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Mary Cole light cues