Tweet
IN `DARKNESS,' DANCE GROUPS COLLABORATE TO EXPLORE THEME OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
by Janine Parker
The Boston Globe
March 21, 2008 Friday
MEDFORD - In a bright rehearsal studio, a group of young dancers ends a
rather dark scene: The characters are trying to escape unseen forces,
and those that have "died" are gestured over, touched, and cradled in
the others' arms. The room grows quiet; several older women looking
on are moved by what they see. Soon the girls will be giggling and
doing their homework on the sidelines - but for one moment, real time
has stopped while this beautiful dream of a nightmare unfolds.
The dancers are members of the local Armenian folk group Sayat Nova
Dance Company preparing for "Out of Darkness," an evening-length
performance exploring the themes of genocide in general and the
Armenian genocide in particular. Sayat Nova is pairing up with
the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in this joint concert showcasing
the two companies separately and together, including work created
collaboratively in the companies' respective studios in Washington,
D.C., and Watertown.
If art imitates life, yet it is often expected to bring beauty to the
world, what is the artist to do when life is particularly ugly? How
can art portray the horrors of, say, genocide and still be bearable
to an audience? How can it strike the right balance: power without
preaching, clarity without condescension?
Such questions have fueled Lerman's work as a dancer and choreographer
in her 30-plus years as founding artistic director of her company. And
they seem particularly appropriate for this project, which grew out
of a political drama that became intensely local last August. That's
when the New England regional director of the Anti-Defamation League
was fired for disagreeing with the national ADL's continued refusal to
term the Ottoman Turks' 1915-1923 massacre of 1.5 million Armenians a
genocide. Since then, the national ADL has acknowledged the Armenian
genocide (and the regional director was rehired, then resigned). The
turmoil was yet another reminder of the controversy that continues to
surround this issue; the US government has yet to formally acknowledge
the genocide as such, and some maintain that US military ties with
Turkey may be a factor.
"Out of Darkness" was born when the local Jewish-sponsored New Center
for Arts and Culture, in cooperation with the educational nonprofit
Facing History and Ourselves, engaged Lerman's company to collaborate
with Sayat Nova.
Of course, for many Armenian-Americans, the genocide has never strayed
far from their minds. Like many ethnic groups no longer living in
their homeland, Armenian communities in the United States seek to
proudly carry on their heritage.
"These were the rules of our household: We ate, drank, spoke, and
sang all in Armenian," says Sayat Nova director Apo Ashjian, who
immigrated with his family in 1970, by phone before the rehearsal.
Ashjian and his wife have raised their children in a home steeped in
Armenian traditions and objects, "to the point where even our puppy
dog only understands Armenian commands," he says.
As a teenager, Ashjian began studying Armenian folk dance, and it
quickly grew into a passion not only to perform, but to preserve a
tradition. "Right away I knew that my love was studying the dances
of our ancestors," Ashjian says. "The older I got, the more I felt
responsible to educate our young through music and dance." Founded in
1986, Sayat Nova has blossomed into a nonprofit company of 72 dancers
that has performed in the United States, Canada, and, triumphantly,
in Armenia, as well as a school that serves students age 4-17.
Last weekend, Ashjian's dancers joined members of Lerman's company to
begin the last set of group rehearsals before the performance, which
will include Lerman's company reprising its stunning "Small Dances
About Big Ideas," a piece commemorating the Nuremberg trials, and Sayat
Nova depicting Armenian culture and history through storytelling and
the vividly joyous language of Armenian folk dance.
Dozens of dancers spread out between two studios, and the wide age
range (late teens through 60-plus), varying body types, and bilingual
instructions seemed like one big visual metaphor for the community
that binds us all as humans. The two companies have in common an
intergenerational performer pool - striking not because of the mix
of ages in what used to be a youth-ruled form, but because of the
apparent comfort the dancers enjoy with one another. During breaks
in the rehearsal, conversations between teenagers and their elders
flowed, with no shuffling feet or downcast eyes.
If anything, it was the dance dialects that seemed to need the
most translation as Lerman's modern-dance-based company took on the
intricacies of Armenian folk dance and vice versa. Helping one of
the Sayat Nova dancers achieve more of the weightedness appropriate
to a particular step, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange artistic director
Peter DiMuro told him, "The moment you start to feel buoyant, you
know you're in the wrong world."
DiMuro was talking about physical weightedness, but of course there is
much about "Out of Darkness" that is emotionally laden. The scene in
which Sayat Nova dancers cradle the dead like so many pietas references
a particularly searing moment that occurs in Lerman's "Small Dances,"
in which bodies are laid out, measured, "autopsied."
"This question of beauty is a very interesting one," says Lerman
by phone from Washington. "At times, I've wondered if it's even
appropriate to think of beauty in relationship to any of this
subject matter." Reactions may vary widely, when the subject is this
difficult. "It's always been curious to me as an artist, why some
subjects were OK and some weren't," Lerman says.
At one point in "Small Dances," audience members are invited to stop
and mull over what they're seeing; in a rather overt dissolving of
the so-called fourth wall that exists between audience and performers,
dancers break out of character and go into the house to discuss with
audience members their answers to the question "when did you first
hear the word `genocide'?" DiMuro, acting as the narrator in "Small
Dances," gently and elegantly guides the dancers and audience through
this somewhat unusual exercise. "The subject matter is so delicate
that, while you don't want to be ineffectual, you don't want to be
so bombastic and didactic, either," DiMuro says. "I think this moment
allows people to reevaluate their own relationship to reality."
DiMuro concedes that "Out of Darkness" won't be a light evening at
the theater: "The subject matter is deep, it's difficult, it's hard,
it's all that." But he says that Lerman knows how to portray such
issues poetically. "It's not so much that the choreography goes to
lighter places, but it goes to a variety of interesting places."
Dance may seem an unlikely art form to tackle something like
genocide. Alternatively, perhaps its very muteness is a particularly
effective way to address the unspeakable.
by Janine Parker
The Boston Globe
March 21, 2008 Friday
MEDFORD - In a bright rehearsal studio, a group of young dancers ends a
rather dark scene: The characters are trying to escape unseen forces,
and those that have "died" are gestured over, touched, and cradled in
the others' arms. The room grows quiet; several older women looking
on are moved by what they see. Soon the girls will be giggling and
doing their homework on the sidelines - but for one moment, real time
has stopped while this beautiful dream of a nightmare unfolds.
The dancers are members of the local Armenian folk group Sayat Nova
Dance Company preparing for "Out of Darkness," an evening-length
performance exploring the themes of genocide in general and the
Armenian genocide in particular. Sayat Nova is pairing up with
the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in this joint concert showcasing
the two companies separately and together, including work created
collaboratively in the companies' respective studios in Washington,
D.C., and Watertown.
If art imitates life, yet it is often expected to bring beauty to the
world, what is the artist to do when life is particularly ugly? How
can art portray the horrors of, say, genocide and still be bearable
to an audience? How can it strike the right balance: power without
preaching, clarity without condescension?
Such questions have fueled Lerman's work as a dancer and choreographer
in her 30-plus years as founding artistic director of her company. And
they seem particularly appropriate for this project, which grew out
of a political drama that became intensely local last August. That's
when the New England regional director of the Anti-Defamation League
was fired for disagreeing with the national ADL's continued refusal to
term the Ottoman Turks' 1915-1923 massacre of 1.5 million Armenians a
genocide. Since then, the national ADL has acknowledged the Armenian
genocide (and the regional director was rehired, then resigned). The
turmoil was yet another reminder of the controversy that continues to
surround this issue; the US government has yet to formally acknowledge
the genocide as such, and some maintain that US military ties with
Turkey may be a factor.
"Out of Darkness" was born when the local Jewish-sponsored New Center
for Arts and Culture, in cooperation with the educational nonprofit
Facing History and Ourselves, engaged Lerman's company to collaborate
with Sayat Nova.
Of course, for many Armenian-Americans, the genocide has never strayed
far from their minds. Like many ethnic groups no longer living in
their homeland, Armenian communities in the United States seek to
proudly carry on their heritage.
"These were the rules of our household: We ate, drank, spoke, and
sang all in Armenian," says Sayat Nova director Apo Ashjian, who
immigrated with his family in 1970, by phone before the rehearsal.
Ashjian and his wife have raised their children in a home steeped in
Armenian traditions and objects, "to the point where even our puppy
dog only understands Armenian commands," he says.
As a teenager, Ashjian began studying Armenian folk dance, and it
quickly grew into a passion not only to perform, but to preserve a
tradition. "Right away I knew that my love was studying the dances
of our ancestors," Ashjian says. "The older I got, the more I felt
responsible to educate our young through music and dance." Founded in
1986, Sayat Nova has blossomed into a nonprofit company of 72 dancers
that has performed in the United States, Canada, and, triumphantly,
in Armenia, as well as a school that serves students age 4-17.
Last weekend, Ashjian's dancers joined members of Lerman's company to
begin the last set of group rehearsals before the performance, which
will include Lerman's company reprising its stunning "Small Dances
About Big Ideas," a piece commemorating the Nuremberg trials, and Sayat
Nova depicting Armenian culture and history through storytelling and
the vividly joyous language of Armenian folk dance.
Dozens of dancers spread out between two studios, and the wide age
range (late teens through 60-plus), varying body types, and bilingual
instructions seemed like one big visual metaphor for the community
that binds us all as humans. The two companies have in common an
intergenerational performer pool - striking not because of the mix
of ages in what used to be a youth-ruled form, but because of the
apparent comfort the dancers enjoy with one another. During breaks
in the rehearsal, conversations between teenagers and their elders
flowed, with no shuffling feet or downcast eyes.
If anything, it was the dance dialects that seemed to need the
most translation as Lerman's modern-dance-based company took on the
intricacies of Armenian folk dance and vice versa. Helping one of
the Sayat Nova dancers achieve more of the weightedness appropriate
to a particular step, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange artistic director
Peter DiMuro told him, "The moment you start to feel buoyant, you
know you're in the wrong world."
DiMuro was talking about physical weightedness, but of course there is
much about "Out of Darkness" that is emotionally laden. The scene in
which Sayat Nova dancers cradle the dead like so many pietas references
a particularly searing moment that occurs in Lerman's "Small Dances,"
in which bodies are laid out, measured, "autopsied."
"This question of beauty is a very interesting one," says Lerman
by phone from Washington. "At times, I've wondered if it's even
appropriate to think of beauty in relationship to any of this
subject matter." Reactions may vary widely, when the subject is this
difficult. "It's always been curious to me as an artist, why some
subjects were OK and some weren't," Lerman says.
At one point in "Small Dances," audience members are invited to stop
and mull over what they're seeing; in a rather overt dissolving of
the so-called fourth wall that exists between audience and performers,
dancers break out of character and go into the house to discuss with
audience members their answers to the question "when did you first
hear the word `genocide'?" DiMuro, acting as the narrator in "Small
Dances," gently and elegantly guides the dancers and audience through
this somewhat unusual exercise. "The subject matter is so delicate
that, while you don't want to be ineffectual, you don't want to be
so bombastic and didactic, either," DiMuro says. "I think this moment
allows people to reevaluate their own relationship to reality."
DiMuro concedes that "Out of Darkness" won't be a light evening at
the theater: "The subject matter is deep, it's difficult, it's hard,
it's all that." But he says that Lerman knows how to portray such
issues poetically. "It's not so much that the choreography goes to
lighter places, but it goes to a variety of interesting places."
Dance may seem an unlikely art form to tackle something like
genocide. Alternatively, perhaps its very muteness is a particularly
effective way to address the unspeakable.