Having the opportunity to revisit and revise a twenty-year-old dance work has been part reunion and part makeover. While the accompaniment is virtually unchanged, what is seen onstage has been enlarged from four to five performers in new phrases, costumes, and configurations.
Inspired by a two-month trip to Europe in 1981, Dances of Many Lands harkens back to the era of Ronald Reagan – Star Wars defense, the ‘me’ generation, an embattled National Endowment for the Arts – and yet sounds a note of optimism which, I hope, is welcome today.
-Charlie Vernon
Concept, Composition & Text: Charlie Vernon
New Movement Development: the dancers
Music Composition & Performance: Richard Woodbury (1982)
Voice Overs: Marybeth Schroeder with Elizabeth Horan Andrews, Anthony J. Stephens, Michael Zerang and the original cast
Costumes: Alison Heryer
Bench Modifications: Bryan Saner
Original Cast: Jan Bartoszek, Sharon Thacker, Richard Woodbury, Charlie Vernon
Mei-Kuang Chen, Eric Eatherly, Sarah Haas, Peter Sciscioli, Denise Zdenek
Originally performed in 1982
MoMing Dance & Arts Center
Hedwig Dances Spring Concert
April 18-20, 2002
The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago