Historic Rooms

Twin Cities dance audiences are lucky to see a wide variety of new modern dance each month. What we don’t see is historic work—masterworks from modern dance pioneers. Most local companies perform works from their own repertory, and even the venerable Zenon is little more than twenty years old, so we’re missing out on more than fifty years of dance history.

The University of Minnesota’s dance program tries to bridge that gap by performing a masterwork each year. Anna Sokolow’s Rooms from 1955 is this year’s piece. Sokolow, who died in 2000 at the age of ninety, was the daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants. She studied and performed with Martha Graham before pursuing her own more politically engaged work. Rooms—an hour-long examination of urban culture, its isolation, and fear—is “definitely a dark piece,” says Nora Jenneman, U of M dance program coordinator. But “it’s really about the human spirit. We thought the work would still resonate really strongly today.”

Lorry May, director of the Sokolow Dance Foundation, adds, “You feel you’re not alone [after seeing Rooms].” May, who will set the work on the university’s dance program students, sets Rooms an average of once a year, but Jenneman believes the piece has never been seen in the Twin Cities.

What will you see in this half-century-old work? First, expect a theatrical performance that means to move you. “Entertainment was not the primary thing,” says May. “[Sokolow’s dance] was a way of communicating.” If you see familiar elements, chances are Sokolow invented them: Her ideas have passed into the standard repertoire. Finally, there’s the power of Sokolow’s choreographic craftsmanship.

May compares attending historical dance with attending historical theater. Dance, she says, is a “living art, just like theater is.” Audiences are fortunate that May, who owns the rights to Sokolow’s work, is dedicated to training a line of successors. Tragically, other bodies of choreographic work have been lost without such care.

This chance to see and support America’s modern dance heritage should not be missed. Oct. 27–29. Southern Theater, 1420 Washington Ave. S., Mpls., 612-340-1725

Reach Lightsey Darst at lightseyd@ hotmail.com.