CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Dance at Illinois will celebrate its history of excellence in choreography and commemorate the life of Beverly Blossom with its “November Dance: Attachment” performances.
The dance department will present “November Dance: Attachment” at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 12-14 at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.
The performances will feature a new presentation of “Brides,” a signature work by the late Beverly Blossom, a renowned dancer and choreographer and a professor of dance at the U. of I. from 1967 to 1990. “Brides” also will be performed at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College in New York City on Nov. 1, as part of a memorial tribute on the anniversary of Blossom’s death.
Blossom was a principal dancer with the Nikolais Dance Theater in New York City in the 1950s and 1960s. After retiring from her teaching career at Illinois, Blossom returned to New York City to perform as a solo dancer and “became the darling of the avant-garde crowd,” said Jan Erkert, department head of dance at Illinois.
“She was a riveting presence,” she said.
Blossom also had a great comic sensibility, and her choreography was witty and made poetic use of costumes and props, Erkert said. In a famous work, “Dad’s Ties,” she danced in a skirt made from her late father’s ties.
“Brides” features a cast of women dressed in bridal dresses with long trains.
“Beverly was always questioning our assumptions about the most basic ideas,” Erkert said.
The production of “Brides” by the dance department will include several male brides, a nod to the Supreme Court’s decision on gay marriage this year.
“The addition of men situates this feminist piece of the ‘80s into the politics of today,” Erkert said.
“Brides” is one of the works that the dance department will present on the theme of attachment – to bodies, objects and processes. The theme is the result of a partnership with Krannert Art Museum, which is currently featuring an exhibition, “Attachment,” that examines the concept of attachment.
“November Dance: Attachment” is a “celebration of the choreographer, a maker who lives a life of making fleeting, ephemeral moments, a wisp of an attachment and nothing more,” according to the dance department’s news release about the performances.
“Brides” deals with concepts of attachment to rituals and to another person through marriage.
Dance professors Tere O’Connor, Cynthia Oliver and Linda Lehovec will present works that will all go on to professional premieres around the country and in Chile. O’Connor will debut a new work, “Cloud Parade,” that references dance history as well as film and popular culture. Oliver explores gestures and movements associated with the landscape of black America, and the idea of how we see one another and how our perception changes under differing conditions. Lehovec will present a two-part dance based on the Sanskrit word “kaivalya,” translated as “final liberation or detachment.”
Undergraduate dance students Charles Gowin and Katherine Williams will present an examination of club culture that is a hybrid between a nightclub and a boxing match.