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2.7.08

H. Rosenblum/The Miscellany News

Anniversary gala features works by Donald McKayle, Elizabeth Frankel

Audrey Tempelsman Guest Writer

For 138 years, myriad dance legends and other performing artists have leapt across the small stage of the Bardavon 1869 Opera House, located at 35 Market Street in Poughkeepsie. For the past 25 years, the Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre (VRDT) has maintained its place in the Bardavon’s rich history. The company will celebrate their landmark anniversary at the Bardavon with special performances on March 3 and 4.

The shows, which will take place on Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. celebrate Vassar’s place in the history of New York’s oldest performing arts venue—a history written by the likes of famous choreographers such as Martha Graham, Twyla Tharp,and Merce Cunningham.

The Bardavon performances have evolved considerably over the years. Dance Department Chair Jeanne Periolat Czula recalled the tiny studio in Avery Hall where VRDT performances once took place: “In those days we could fit 120 people, but we’d have to turn just as many away.”

Then in 1983, the Drama Department informed Czula that they could not spare the studio for VRDT’s performance. At the time, the Bardavon was in financial turmoil and facing the prospect of demolition. Czula’s dilemma quickly caught the attention of the theater’s administrators.

“We had such a small budget that we ended up choosing this beautiful, old opera house simply because it offered a better price than the Poughkeepsie High School,” Czula laughed.

The first performance was a ramshackle affair. The dancers, who sold the tickets themselves, managed to attract 163 people to a space that seats 942. With the exception of one tutu borrowed from Czula’s friend, the costumes were sewn by her husband or gathered piecemeal from her own wardrobe.

Nevertheless, that first small performance led to VRDT’s return to the Bardavon the following year and the theater’s following grew slowly but steadily. The company filled the house for the first time in 1991, and in 2000, with the help of current Director of VRDT Paul Mosley, a matinée performance was added to satisfy the demand.

“It’s amazing how far this tradition has come,” said Mosley. “We’ve gathered such a following over the past 25 years that we now come close to filling both audiences.”

This year’s program fuses the old and the new, the classic and the modern. Czula combines selections from the famous ballets “Don Quixote,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Raymonda” and “Swan Lake in Variations,” offsetting this piece with “Study,” her 1991 satire of college life. Other revived favorite dances from Steve Rooks’ repertoire, as well as a restaging of Assistant Director of VRDT Kathy Wild-berger’s “Treaty,” a devastating commentary on U.S. treatment of the First Nations People.

Seven student choreographers are showcasing their dances as well. Maya Lau ’07’s fierce, sensual “Traffick” combines the African contemporary dance she studied while abroad in South Africa with a more modern style. Liza Hoffman ’07’s duet pairs her 18 years of ballet training with a daring jazz influence. Also included in the program are pieces choreographed by Kaitlin Butler ’07, Leah Wilks ’09, Martha Leonard ’08, Cameron Lussier ’09 and Dwayne Brown ’07.

Two distinguished guests will contribute choreography, as well. This year features “Songs of the Disinherited,” a major work by Donald McKayle, one of the most influential African American choreographers of the 20th century. Dancers Lau, Hoffman and Danielle Patterson ’09 stayed at Vassar over October break, working eight hours a day with McKayle’s assistant to learn the piece.

These rehearsals culminated in a week-long workshop with McKayle himself in December. “It was so exciting to see him work with our dancers and to watch them rise to the occasion,” said Mosley. “This artist has worked with just about everybody in dance and entertainment, from the great modern dancers to Michael Jackson.”

For Lau, studying under McKayle has been “an inspiration.” Lau said, “He really knew how to direct. He could put his foot down and tell you that what you were doing was absolutely wrong, but he was also very open and easy to talk to.”

The show also features a dance called “The Room Next Door,” choreographed by esteemed alumna Elizabeth Frankel ’84, who performed at VRDT’s first Bardavon gala.

“There was—and still continues to be—such a feeling of adventure and respect for the participants and for the art itself among VRDT [faculty and students,]” Frankel said. “Working with the company again has been a magnificent process.”

Frankel arrived at Vassar believing that her academic pursuits signaled the end of her dance career. During her sophomore year, however, she enrolled in classes with Czula and “fell in love all over again.”

After graduating, Frankel went on to dance with Laura Dean and Joyce Trisler, two of the dance world’s most prestigious companies. She is now the mother of two children and a teacher at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. “It’s very important that VRDT dancers see that there are people from Vassar who actually go on to dance careers and who have success,” said Mosley.

For VRDT seniors, Frankel’s presence is well-timed. “At some point every dancer needs to ask themselves, ‘To what extent to do I still want to dance?’” said Lau. “It’s an all-or-nothing life. So for dancers like me who have other interests, the Bardavon is this big question mark. I wonder if this will be my last performance.”

Lau is not alone in those feelings. “That’s the scariest and saddest part of this whole thing—this may be the end of my dancing,” Hoffman agreed.

But in the meantime, VRDT has a show to do and a tradition to uphold. Proud of her dancers’ work over the year, Czula looks forward to filling the house once again. “Every year it gets better,” she said.