Title: The Path Between
Premiere: May 17, 1990, McIntosh Theater, Ann Arbor, MI. Subsequent performances May 18 &19. Presented in excerpted form as a work in progress November/December 1989. Funded by The Grant Program for Interdisciplinary Artists, a program administered by Randolph Street Gallery and funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Michigan Council for the Arts and Randolph Street Gallery. Additional support was from the U of M's Office of the Vice President for Research
Dancers: Jessica Fogel and Bruce Rabey
Baritone: Scott Jensen
Duration: 30 minutes
Music and texts:
Ithaca, by C. P. CavafyFreisinn, Op. 25, No. 2 by Robert A. Schumann “The saddle is the only place for me. You can linger in your huts, your tents, while I go cheerfully riding off…” Pianist: Stephen Rush
Sonata No. e in G Minor, Op. 22 Vivacissimo, by Robert A. Schumann. Pianist: Sviatoslav Richter
Das Wandern, Op. 25 by Franz Schubert “To travel, travel is my delight. O master and mistress, permit me to go in peace and travel, travel.” Pianist: Stephen Gathman
Transcendental Etude No. 4, Mazeppa, by Franz Liszt. Pianist: Claudio Arrau
Ganymede, by Hugo Wolf “Where to? Upward draws it, upward!” Pianist: Stephen Rush
Kreisleriana, Op. 16, Second Movement, by Robert A. Schumann. Pianist: Helene Grimaud
Video: Conceived and directed by Jessica Fogel, produced by Michael Knight
Costumes: Patricia Bova and Jessica Fogel
Lighting design: Mary Cole
Funding: The Grant Program for Interdisciplinary Artists, with support from the NEA, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Michigan Council for the Arts; University of Michigan Office of the Vice President for Research
Description: As stated in the press release: “The Path Between is a performance work for two dancers, Bruce Rabey and Ms. Fogel, which combines live dance with video projection, and is set to 19th century piano music and song by Franz Schubert, Franz Liszt, Hugo Wolf and Robert Schumann. The work revolves around the concept of transport, both literal and metaphorical, tracing the journey taken over a varied terrain by the two dancers. The title suggests some of the themes of the work--it is about the path between two people, the path between illusion and reality, the path between the live stage action and the video projection, the path between two dualities. Shown as a work in progress in November 1989, the dance was praised by the Ann Arbor News as ‘radiating a quality of freshness, with both intimate and hilarious moments’.”
Initially performed as a work-in-progress with tenor Stephen Hurley in 1989, it was subsequently performed in its entirety with dancer Bruce Rabey and baritone Scott Jensen in May 1990. Within the work the dancers traveled by water, land, and air. The relationship between the two dancers was at turns exploratory, passionate, tumultuous, combative, loving. The video backdrop, conceived by Fogel as an accompaniment to the live action on stage, included footage of a dirt road being traveled as if by horseback; a toy sailboat set a-sail on breezy water; Jessica performing rock climbing stances on an escalator (filmed at the University of Michigan Taubman Medical Center); a chess game being played; Jessica dancing on a magic carpet against clouds, just as she was doing the same movement material on stage on a carpet with an industrial fan blowing the air; a fork lift moving earth at a construction site; Jessica’s hands placing plants in earth. Props included a ladder, two chairs, buckets with landscape rocks, a table, a fan, an oriental carpet, a model airplane, a newspaper. The rocks were used to create four foundational corners in the space toward the end of the dance—ie a home. During the earth/rock climbing section, Jessica climbed along the ledge of the proscenium stage, gripping the edge, and then entered the audience and climbed over the seats to deposit an American flag on a low wall, in triumphant conquest, while meanwhile, Bruce placed rocks onstage. During the flying carpet section, Jessica began reading a newspaper while Bruce worked on his model airplane on the other side of the stage. Jessica then turned on the fan, and performed her flying carpet dance. At the end of the work, the two chairs, which had been mounted as two horses in the first section, were pushed together to become a loveseat, and the two dancers, backs to audience, began to watch a movie on a screen from their loveseat as the lights faded. The films they watched were pixellated but recognizable—one of a 1940s movie love scene (I think it was from An Affair to Remember, starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr), and then they switched the channel and the movie seen was Kramer vs Kramer. The jury was still out on the relationship.
Review
Rehearsal notes
Program November/December 1989
Program May 1990
Poster
Jessica Fogel in The Path Between, photo Robert Smith