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UMS Liz Lerman Dance Exchange with Rudy Hawkins Liz Lerman, Artistic Director and Founder Liz Lerman Dance Exchange Company Peter DiMuro, Associate Artistic Director PROGRAM Saturday, October 6, 2001 at 8:00pm Hallelujah: Gates Of Praise Invocation: The 26th Day Blessed Intermission Hallelujah: In Praise Of Paradise Lost And Found Welcome, On September 10, we arrived in Michigan for the final period of work on the Hallelujah project that we have been developing with the University Musical Society (UMS) since 1999. We came expecting to stage a new dance about losing and finding paradise, a theme that surfaced through dozens of conversations with people in Detroit and Ann Arbor. We looked forward to continuing the collaboration we had begun with the wonderful Dr. Rudy Hawkins and his amazing singers. We knew that here–as at all the sites of our fifteen-city Hallelujah project–we would be partnering with a wide and varied group of people, all of them taking a leap of faith by committing to the process of making a dance piece in a short, intensive amount of time. And we knew we would be performing here at the Power Center tonight. And then came Tuesday, September 11, and we, like the rest of the country, found ourselves in a vastly changed climate. Most of the company was still at home in Washington, DC, unable to get out. Two of the dancers, in fact, had been sitting on the runway at National Airport at 9:30 that morning. All eventually made it to Ann Arbor by car, and together, along with the full cast, we began to ask ourselves what we should do. We decided to stay with our theme of paradise lost and found, but to let the piece develop informed by the global events surrounding us. We hoped to make room for the questions and feelings that were emerging in the days following as we all tried to sort out what had happened. As we moved forward, some of those question and feelings even seemed to be reflected, in a small way, by the challenges that a project such as this entails, as it called on us to work through both frustrating moments of misunderstanding and beautiful moments of connectedness. It has left me with this thought, which sounds like a platitude but feels like a reality: if we can really collaborate, perhaps we can reach a deep enough understanding to take us through discord. When people who are different agree to make something together, especially when the stakes are high, it forces us to compromise, change, and understand new ways of thinking and being. I am grateful to all the people you see on stage tonight, each of whom has been willing to engage in a process that made us confront our aesthetics, ideas, and expectations, not just about paradise, but about dance, how you make art, and even about God. None of this would have been possible without the extraordinary efforts by so many individuals. David Scobey from the University’s Arts of Citizenship program did an incredible job of organizing our relationship to the academy, and Joyce Meier of the English Department provided other vital links and insights. Penny Godboldo did so much to connect us to the dance community in Detroit, and had the grace and generosity to put her choreographic work in our hands to be woven into the new dance. Beatrice Buck offered human and historical connections to the story of Paradise Valley. Tony Smith gave of his time, teaching, and leadership to allow us to work with his company. It takes the dedication of whole institutions to make projects like this effective, and we thank all the people at Winans Academy, Matrix Theater and Hannan House who worked hard to make possible the participation of their groups. Gay de Langhe and Robin Wilson of the U-M Dance Department, and Peter Sparling and Susan Byrnes at Dance Gallery, all helped to make our time in Ann Arbor a pleasure. Finally, Larry Copperd of the Community Foundation of Southeastern Michigan was a constant advocate for the larger context of this work. On behalf of all of the Dance Exchange, I want to offer a very special thanks to Dr. Hawkins and his singers for their commitment and belief in this piece. I have learned so much from them and they have rekindled in all of us a passion in our lives as artists. The sound they make is now living in our bones, and that is a good thing. And of course to Ken Fischer, Ben Johnson, Dichondra Johnson, Warren Williams, and Michael Kondziolka as well as to the entire UMS staff, who worked tirelessly to accommodate a project of this scale. Our thanks to them and to you for coming this evening. Liz Lerman Tonight's performance is one outcome of a series of collaborations between Liz Lerman Dance Exchange and myriad institutions in southeastern Michigan. Over the course of almost two years, the partnerships nurtured by UMS and the University have brought forth many outcomes, including last October's performance in Detroit's Music Hall, coursework and student projects engaging serveral University departments, workshops and artistic collaborations with partner groups in Detroit and Ann Arbor, many of whom are taking part in tonight's performance. The thematic focus of tonight's performance began during a conversation between Liz Lerman and Dr. Hawkins last April. They were discussing plans for the new piece and Liz wanted to know more about Detroit’s history. Dr. Hawkins told her about Paradise Valley, the black entertainment district where his godmother was a chorus dancer…before the highway construction tore it down. Later that night, Liz searched the Thomas Milton website and in the morning she had our theme: Paradise Lost and Found. We always start with a question. In this case: "What is your vision of Paradise?" At a choir rehearsal, Alice answers, "Streets paved with gold." I remember this the next day as I pass a field of September soybeans. How would it feel to walk barefoot between the rows? At our next rehearsal, Armond tells us that Moses’ shoes never wore out on his forty-year journey. A miracle? And on the TV that night Martha learns that women escaping the World Trade Center threw down their high heels so that they could run faster. During a conference call to discuss production plans, our lighting designer decides to create a backdrop of shoes. Again with the choir, Dr. Hawkins launches, "All God’s Children Got Traveling Shoes." From historical memory to personal vision, from fantasy to religion, from CNN news clips to set design; thematic development gradually takes shape. Movement, music, character and staging elements all come from the artistic exchange that is the Hallelujah project. Thank you, cast members, for everything you have done to bring this event to life. Margot Greenlee Hallelujah: Gates Of Praise Choreography Music Set Design Costume Design Original Lighting Design Gates of Praise forms a prologue, anchoring Hallelujah at each of its performance sites. It is inspired by the idea that even in our darkest moments we might discover — or be pushed through — a gateway leading toward celebration or the light. Invocation: The 26th Day Introduction Community spiritual leaders Blessed Choreography Music Original Lighting Design Costume Design Performed by Hallelujah: In Praise Of Paradise Lost And Found Concept and Direction Music Composition and Arrangement Project Director Choreography and Text Additional Choreographic Excerpts Lyrics for "Paradise Valley" and "Bar Hoppin’" Lighting Design Production and Stage Management Music performed by
In Praise Of Paradise Lost And Found is structured loosely around two ideas: the loss of Eden, and the journey to find paradise again. Adam and Eve (portrayed by two couples, one dancing and one singing) are first seen in The Garden Eden and then in several subsequent scenes in which they are seeking Eden. The journeys are structured as migrations of large groups of people, one informed by three stories of paradise lost, and one by a longer story of paradise found. Cast Rudy Hawkins Singers Linda Adams, Principal Karen Cook Band Ann Arbor Community Members (*Denotes U-M Dance Repertory Class Participants) All-City Men’s Dance Company Detroit Liturgical Collective Hannan House Seniors Matrix Theatre Company Paradise Valley Dancers Winans Academy of Performing Arts Dr. Rudolph V. Hawkins (Composer, Music Director) has an impressive array of musical direction, performance and composition. Dr. Hawkins was Musical Director of Artistic Inspirations starring Cab Calloway at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington DC and was Choral Director for the Martin Luther King Celebration featuring Bette Midler at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Dr. Hawkins completed a three-month tour of Japan with the Phoenix Singers and has directed the only gospel version of Jesus Christ Superstar. He was appointed Musical Director and Chief Song Writer/Arranger for Mamma I Want to Sing, the longest-running off-Broadway black musical. His television appearances include "Gospel Music in America" on the Phil Donahue Show and the Regis Philben Show. A native of Detroit, Michigan, Dr. Hawkins received the "Spirit of Detroit" award from the Honorable Mayor Coleman A. Young and received a Letter of Recognition from former President Bill Clinton in 1996 for his dedication to the community. The Rudy Hawkins Singers was founded by the University Musical Society (UMS) and The Arts League of Michigan in the Fall of 1998 to serve as an active, community-based choir for several special projects during the Ellington Centennial Year, including Donald Byrd’s The Harlem Nutcracker and Bob Telson and Lee Breuer’s The Gospel at Colonus. Since then, the choir has performed two seasons of The Harlem Nutcracker and has appeared with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Detroit. The Rudy Hawkins Singers is currently comprised of fifty adult singers, all from the Detroit area. Under the musical direction of Dr. Rudolph V. Hawkins, the choir has been able to connect with both regional and national audiences through performances and a series of musically-based educational events sponsored by the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor and Detroit. In the late Fall of 2000, the Rudy Hawkins Singers embarked on their first nation-wide tour of the US, presenting performances of A Gospel Christmas in cities such as St. Louis, Cleveland, Kansas City, and Buffalo, culminating in a holiday performance at Detroit’s Music Hall. Current projects include extensive residency activities with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange and A Tribute to Gospel Legend Mattie Moss Clark, a special mass-choir gospel event in January 2002 in Hill Auditorium. The Rudy Hawkins Singers have performed regionally on the stages of the Detroit Opera House, Music Hall, and Ann Arbor’s Power Center, and were seen in the national television broadcasts of Amercia’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in November of 1998 and 1999. Tonight’s performance marks the Rudy Hawkins Singers thirty-eighth appearance under UMS auspices. Penny Godboldo is Artistic Director of the Dance Ministry at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church, Department Head of Dance at Marygrove College, and Owner of the Pemajju School of Dance and Related Arts with her sister, Maryanne. She formed the Detroit Liturgical Dance Collective in May 2000 in order to bring untrained community members together with dance ministries, dance artists and other spiritual people interested in using dance as a medium to praise God. The first Liturgical Dance Conference: "Dancing for God," was hosted by Marygrove College. The full membership includes well over 200 people. Ms. Godboldo holds a Bachelor’s degree in Education and a Master’s degree in Dance and Theater. She was a scholarship student at the Alvin Ailey American Dance School in New York and a principal dancer with the Harbinger Dance Company. Her dance company, Writhm Dance Co. of Detroit, has performed in Aurillac, France, Edinburgh, Scotland, Toyota City, Japan, and has performed lecture/demonstrations for over 30,000 school children through such organizations such as Young Audiences, Inc., OmniArts in the Schools, and Michigan Dance in the Schools. Her research of fifteen years, "Dance in Traditional Religions," has taken her to such countries as Haiti, Brazil, Israel, Egypt, Cuba, and Benin, West Africa. She is a certified instructor of the Katherine Dunham dance technique. |
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