Caitlin Corbett Dance Company
Premieres “Undone” at Green Street Studios
By Susie Davidson
CORRESPONDENT
The thirty abstract vignettes in Caitlin Corbett’s new evening-length work Undone won’t satisfy those looking for endings. However, they will inspire appreciation for the now, as they capture the current freneticism of the moment in eclectic multichotomy. Somehow, it all links.
“These vignettes may begin in the middle or they may end at the beginning of an idea,” said Corbett, who holds a Masters in Fine Art from Massachusetts College of Art and a Bachelor of Art degree from Bennington College, recently received a grant from Cambridge Arts Council and is an Assistant Professor of Dance at Salem State College. “Thoughts are not finished, or are interrupted.”
It’s easy to see how continuity is challenged as the accompanying sounds in Corbett’s work include wolves howling, Thai children singing a nursery rhyme, and the Grateful Dead classic Uncle John's Band. While movement discovery is central to her work, an entirely fresh infusion of energy is present in the piece, which reflects an urgent need to get the stories told now, and not later.
Corbett, who has lived in Cambridge since third grade, went to the Peabody School in North Cambridge and graduated in 1974 from Cambridge High and Latin. Her Caitlin Corbett Dance Company, which is listed on the Performing and Touring Roster of Massachusetts Cultural Council, is located at 73 Norfolk St. in Central Square.
She has been showing her work in the Boston area since 1984. Her influences, steeped in the ordinary and pedestrian, result in choreography which is both original and offbeat, incorporating the hectic disjoint of ordinary life and including both dancers and nondancers in the mix.
Nondancers in Undone, including four high school girls, two nine year olds and veteran nondancers David Prum and Keith Maddy, perform alongside company members, who include Yenkuei Chuang, Mia Keinanen, Erin Koh, Kaela Lee, Nathalie Lossky and Irene Lutts.
The inspiration for Undone was a tragic one. “Last February my niece Molly Hanna died of cancer,” Corbett related. “At a time when it is difficult to form a complete sentence, carry out a simple task, these broken bits accurately reflect these sad and hard days. Molly is present in every one of them.”
Past presentations include Interrupting Sleep (1994), Dancing with Rose-Ann (1985), which has the dance company joined by a college professor, construction workers, and a lawyer who rise from the audience to the stage, and Joycie's Pie (1992), where a lowbrow chorus line provides a foil to the stylistic and formal dancers and and a monologue is delivered by stand-up philosopher Dennis Downey. Her Car Dance (1988) features ten cars among a folk song movement setting including a Polish polka, and Verdi’s music, and Bicycle Dance (1995) is designed for 16 bicyclists.
Though international and far-reaching in her scope, she remains true to her local roots. “As a life-long resident of Cambridge,” she said, “I am thrilled to be once again dancing for this wonderful community.”
Green Street Studios, located at 185 Green St. in Central Square, premieres the Caitlin Corbett Dance Company’s evening-length work, Undone, on Dec. 12-14 at 8 p.m. and Dec. 15 at 6 p.m. Tickets are $15 general admission, $12 for seniors and children. Please call 617-864-3191 for information and reservations, and/or visit http://www.greenstreetstudios.org. This project is made possible in part by a grant from Cambridge Arts Council and Massachusetts Cultural Council.