Lorraine Chapman Premieres Her Company

Nov. 2 at Dance Complex

By Susie Davidson

CORRESPONDENT

The multifaceted offerings of Central Square’s Dance Complex reflect a grand melange of the laborious and resolute efforts of arts organizers in the face of the current budget-slicing climate. With Mass. Cultural Council funding cut by 62 percent, these valiant innovators continue to provide provocative entertainment for viewers as well as venues for artisans.

This weekend’s shows, Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 6 and 8:30 p.m., will portray the formidable efforts of Lorraine Chapman to form a dance company and put together a diverse and unusual program of dance acts.

Chapman, who teaches teaches both ballet and modern dance at Emerson College of Art, The Ballet Arts Centre of Winchester, Cambridge School of Weston and Ballet Workshop New England of Waltham, was chosen for the prestigious Bessie Schonberg Choreographers Residency at the Martha’s Vineyard-based group The Yard, A Colony for Performing Artists, for the summer of 2002, where she premiered her piece The Traveler's Cabaret, to be shown at the Dance Complex.

“The Yard was truly more of a blessing than simply an incredible creative experience,” she said. “It gave me the push in the right direction to go forward with my long-time thoughts of forming my own dance company." She realized her goal of becoming incorporated, and set upon raising outside funds for this weekend’s shows.

Chapman trained at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School and L' Ecole Superieure De Danse Du Quebec. She has danced for Prometheus Dance, Spencer/Colton, Ballet Theater of Boston, Eliot Feld Ballets/NY, Ballet British Columbia, Ballet De Montreal Eddy Toussaint and currently, for renowned choreographer Marcus Schulkind.

Her choreography has been performed locally at the Green Street Studios, the Dance Complex, the Loeb Mainstage and Experimental Theaters, the Agassiz Theatre, Tower Auditorium, Wellesley College and the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, as well as at the Betty Oliphant Theatre in Toronto, the Next Stage Theater in New York, the Civic Light Opera Theatre in Seattle, the Shoreline Performing Arts Center and On The Boards-Behnke Center for Contemporary Performance, where she was chosen for their 2000 Northwest New Works Festival.

She has been awarded grants to present her work from the Arlington Arts Lottery and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

The Nov. 2 and 3 program will feature Company members and guests Jimena Bermejo, Irene Lutts, Jennifer Polyocan, Patricia Estorino Lojos, Audra Carabetta, Lorraine Chapman, Kate Cross, Shawn Mahoney, William McLaughlin, Clint Lutes, Andrew Neal Beasley, Amanda Schiller and Helen Simoneau.

The shows will include The Traveler's Cabaret, with an original cast from The Yard and a score evoking the celluloid world of Marlene Dietrich, and the Creation Hymn, a collaboration with longtime Twyla Tharp dancer Shawn Mahoney. Here, two beings are cast into a world of unfamiliarity, with the isolation serving as a test of their familiarity.

In the mix as well will be If Bob Fosse Choreographed For Hamsters, a cryptic and entertaining work. Crescent Moon Bear includes her first and second year Ballet Arts Centre modern dance students, who range in age from 13 to 16. “It quests true knowledge of the instinctual psyche and the creative acts of which it is capable,” she said. Ouvertura, a work-in-progress set to the overture of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, and Let Bygones Be, a solo act choreographed by Marcus Schulkind, round out the show.

Following this, Chapman will continue her dreams. “My goal is to have a salaried dance company in which I can work with my dancers for a couple of hours a day and not worry about much else, just like the experience that The Yard provides.” She encourages others to apply for the Schonberg Residency. “No matter how long it takes, it will be well worth the effort!”

The Dance Complex is located at 536 Mass. Ave. Central Square. Tickets can only be purchased at the door, and are $12 for DAN and BDA members, $15 for adults and children and $10 for seniors and students. For reservations, call 781-899-4526 or email alanlorraine@email.msn.com.