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Echoes
A collaboration between Carolyn Dorfman and Bente Kahan
Ms. Dorfman and Bente Kahan, a celebrated Jewish-Norwegian artist residing in Wrølaw, Poland, are currently collaborating on a work entitled Echoes. The work incorporates choreography from Dorfman’s highly acclaimed dance piece, Cat’s Cradle and Kahan’s one woman “tour de force” theatre piece, Voices of Theresienstadt. Their desire to blur the lines between their art forms will result in a powerful evening of dance and music that continues these artists’ profound exploration of their common Eastern-European Jewish heritage.
The project will evolve in several stages.
I. Development
In late March CDDC and Bente Kahan will spend time at the Kaatsbaan International Dance Center in Tivoli, NY. Ms. Dorfman and Ms. Kahan will continue to develop the piece. The artists will present individual work there on March 29-30, 2008.
II. Artist Preview
On July 16-17, 2008, CDDC will present a fully produced cabaret style evening at Dance Theater Workshop in New York City displaying the individual artistry of Ms. Dorfman and Ms. Kahan and how their work intersects. The evening will include performance of pieces from CDDC repertory and solo performances by Bente Kahan featuring her singing and playing guitar. The highlight of the evening will be a preview of Echoes, featuring musicians Dariusz Swinoga, (piano/accordion) Dave Richards (percussion) and Jeremy Brown (violin), along with Ms. Kahan (vocal). This preview is an opportunity to share the inspiration for the collaboration, demonstrate the creative process, and perform a completed excerpt of the work. It will be followed by an audience/artist dialogue and reception.
III. Artistic Creation
Ms. Dorfman and Ms. Kahan will work together between late July, 2008 and early May, 2009 to complete Echoes. They will incorporate the DTW experience, including responses from the artists and audiences, into their work. A similar process using audience feedback at Kaatsbaan International Dance Center, in Tivoli, NY in the fall of 2006 had significant impact on the development of Cat’s Cradle and ultimately led to the desire to expand upon the work in this way.
IV. Premiere
Echoes will premiere in its full-length completed form at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts as part of its Summer Residency Dance Festival on May 28 and 29, 2009. The complete work will feature six musicians. Those musicians already noted will be joined by Greg Wall (clarinet) and Aaron Alexander (percussion). Both evenings will include discussions where all performers will interact with the audience.
V. Multi-Nation Tour
Echoes will tour to numerous venues in the United States and Europe. Plans are currently being made for spring 2009 dates in New Jersey, Detroit and Denver and fall 2009 dates in Oslo, Norway and Berlin, Germany.
Historical Background for the Work:
On November 24, 1941, the Nazi regime transformed the town of Terezin, Czechoslovakia, occupied by 5,000 residents, into the Theresienstadt ghetto and transit camp on the route to Auschwitz. Before liberation, the ghetto housed more than 100,000 German, Czech, Dutch, and Danish Jews. Elderly and prominent Jews were also sent to Theresienstadt to further the propaganda of the ghetto as a “spa town” designed for peaceful retirement. In preparation for a Red Cross visit in June, 1944, the Nazis planted gardens, renovated barracks and painted buildings. The Germans wanted to present a “model” city for the world to see and music, theater and opera. Despite the terrible living conditions and the constant threat of deportation, the population of Theresienstadt continued to practice and develop its rich cultural life. Outstanding Jewish artists, mainly from Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Germany, created drawings and paintings, some of them clandestine depictions of the ghetto's harsh reality. Writers, professors, musicians, and actors gave lectures, concerts, and theatre performances. The ghetto maintained a lending library of 60,000 volumes. From Dorfman’s perspective, “even more astonishing than the pain they endured is the life and light the people embodied and the ability of the human spirit to soar amidst the darkness.” It is all this and more that Dorfman and Kahan hope to “echo” for now and always.
