Movies, Music, and a Special Rescue Dog Tribute
Hello from all of us at Northrop, where this week’s excitement revolves around preparations to announce our 2020-21 Northrop Season! My colleagues and I have all been working for months to reinvent the upcoming year, and we’re excited to reveal our plans on Tue, Aug 4 at 7:00 pm. In the meantime, we’re continuing to share Daily Inspiration posts to keep you motivated and active.
To keep it moving this week, we shared a family dance class from Mark Morris Dance Group to learn excerpts from L’Allegro, Il Penseroso, ed Il Moderato. The work last appeared at Northrop as part of our Film Series in 2016.
In honor of the rescue dog my family adopted this month, I shared this Paw De Deux from New York City Ballet and some furry guest artists. Our other dance video suggestion for the week is from the American Dance Festival Movies by Movers festival, one of my favorite parts of ADF since my internship in 1997. Revival documents a performance by New York City based Dances For A Variable Population and artistic director Naomi Goldberg Haas. In the filmmaker’s words:
“In the spring of 2017, four older women and men started the monumental task of choreographing dances with a diverse group of New York seniors, most of whom had never danced on a stage before. Over a few intense months, these choreographers, including the first black artist to have won a Tony award for choreography and a 92-year old former dance partner of pioneer Martha Graham, brought to life their ideas and sparked immense joy in the senior dancers. The film documents this unlikely event and, in the process, reveals the heroic dedication and determination of the choreographers and dancers, for whom age does not impede but molds.”
Revival also reminds me that we should wish a happy 100th birthday this week to Anna Halprin!
Musically, we remembered Nathan Laube’s performance as the first solo recital post-restoration on Northrop’s Aeolian Skinner Organ in 2018. I’ve also spent some time this week digging into an incredible resource published last week by our friends at the Walker Art Center. Creative Black Music at the Walker: Selections from the Archives chronicles jazz and other influential Black music forms from the Art Ensemble of Chicago in the 1960’s through Henry Threadgill’s 75th birthday last year. It’s a 12-part deep dive into the artists and ensembles emblematic of the form.
Enjoy, and we’ll see you next week!