Title: Quaternity
Premiere: July 8, 1996. Commissioned by carillonist Margo Halsted for the summer carillon series, “Seven Mondays at Seven.” Performed by Ann Arbor Dance Works on the Ingalls Mall, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Duration: 8 minutes
Choreography: Jessica Fogel
Music: Sonatine I, by Sjef van balkom
Carillonist: Margo Halsted
Dancers: Lisa Darby Clark, Jason Marchant, Scott Read, Amanda Stanger
Description: Margo Halsted, who led the carillon program at UM for many years and was a generous and gracious colleague, invited Ann Arbor Dance Works to perform on her summer carillon series. I don’t recall a lot about this dance, but the title suggests I used the concepts of four and the squareness of the site: four dancers, four triangular quadrants and criss-crossing pathways on the north end of Ingalls Mall, as well as the music itself, to craft the work, which was only performed once. The print file of research for this work includes a musical score, with my inked in notes about the choreogaphy, including such words as “promenade, soutenu, run, crawl, grab hands, somersault, stand, run forward, soutenu, lift, run, arabesque turn, add material, lift, passe, developpe, go down, roll , stand, stage right circle partner, run into line, line, make circle, sit, clock, second hand.” Besides the four-ness ideas, I was also playing with ideas of clocks and clock faces, given those notes (“clock, second hand”), and given the setting of the Burton Tower and its clock face and time keeping. I also think I used some square dance ideas, given the prompts of “circle partner” and “promenade.” I am not aware of any photos or videos of the work.