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.