DANCE PREVIEW: West Stockbridge native explores particular person and collective grief by dance at TurnPark Artwork House
West Stockbridge — After twenty years spent dancing throughout myriad phases within the Berkshires, Fern Katz skilled a proverbial chasm upon the dying of her mom final October. Having grown up in a culturally Jewish family, she was greater than acquainted with the idea of “shmita”—a yr of launch—during which the fields lie fallow and saved meals are redistributed to these in want whereas the earth rests, restores, and strengthens. Simply because the Torah requires Jews to work six days and relaxation on the seventh, so does it name for them to work the land for six years and relaxation through the seventh. Whereas this present sabbatical yr, 5782 within the Hebrew calendar, is nearing its finish, it was a time of nice reflection for Katz who spent the previous ten months exploring her personal grief, loneliness, and craving for connection. This weekend, she is going to take to the stage in her hometown—on the grounds of TurnPark Artwork House in West Stockbridge—the place she is going to current CHASM, an immersive dance, theater, and sound occasion (together with two up to date dance items, one accompanied by reside authentic violin composition) on Saturday, August 27 at 1:30 p.m.
“Earlier than a time of replenishing can happen comes nice loss, [and] this dance was created within the void that loss leaves behind,” Katz advised The Edge, leaning into the agricultural follow of shmita—one she and her mom practiced in their very own yard backyard yearly by placing a small patch of earth to relaxation, masking it with hay, and letting it’s.
“Letting the fields relaxation is so mandatory with a purpose to come again from these exhausting occasions,” Katz says, pointing to shared grief—from the COVID-19 pandemic to the precarious well being of the planet—as not solely affecting us all however begging, “this nice want for pause and reconfiguration of societal constructs [that dictate] how we’re [currently] residing and dealing.” Whereas some have been fortunate sufficient to step again and create house within the midst of seismic shifts, for others this was not potential. Therefore Katz’s latest work, one which creates a bridge between her personal “very private and particular person loss as mirrored in a larger means with the environmental losses that we’re coping with, and dropping all these people to a very intense pandemic.”
Dance, in all its numerous iterations, left an indelible mark on Katz whereas rising up within the Berkshires. She remembers watching VHS tapes of Martha Graham and Mikhaiyl Baryshnikov earlier than taking to the stage herself—first beneath the steerage of choreographer Laurie McLeod, then at Cantarella Faculty of Dance in Pittsfield the place she studied for greater than a decade. Katz cites her mom, the late Montana Katz, as being “actually tapped into the native dance tradition within the Berkshires, [one] she took benefit of by taking [her daughters] to each efficiency that she may,” at venues throughout the area, together with Jacob’s Pillow in Becket.
“Dance grew to become ingrained in me,” Katz stated, as evidenced by her efficiency on the aforementioned dance pageant (based by trendy dance pioneer, Ted Shawn, in 1931) earlier this season. This weekend, at TurnPark, Katz will probably be joined by Alice Chacon, Sierra Hendrix, Elisa Hernandez, Leighann Kowalsky, and Katie Messina—a wonderful and numerous forged, hailing largely from New York Metropolis—together with dancers of various talents and technical coaching, together with Rehearsal Route/Choreography Assistant Anna Gichan with Composition and Musical Accompaniment by Mariya VasileuskayaIn. Along with grappling with grief, private loss, and degradation of the planet, there exists house for the opportunity of regeneration.
“All of us expertise so many losses—day by day, each week, each month—to various levels, [and] I wished all of the artists to have the ability to herald their very own private tales and reminiscences of loss and share them within the house,” Katz defined of a dialog that was not spoken about, per se, moderately explored by our bodies and motion—all of which allowed CHASM to take form on account of the shared human expertise.
“The dancers come collectively and depart one another [amidst] moments of nice connection the place we’re holding one another, supporting one another and discovering new methods to construct group,” Katz says, likening the choreography to a “juxtaposition of claiming goodbye 1,000 occasions, again and again.” Every dancer follows their very own paths to seek out reference to self earlier than branching out to 1 one other and the encircling atmosphere—an intention that requires the person to first carve their very own map to uncover not solely what they honestly need however ask for achievement. By following their impulses, they uncover what’s inside, hidden beneath the floor, at their facilities. Finally, the dancers discover regeneration and mending of fractured connections by shared power, emotion, sweat, and spirit—all of which begs the rhetorical query of what’s going to develop right here after the sabbath yr?
The performers’ connection is palpable, as is their need to share it with the viewers. “Witnessing us constructing group collectively, I hope will trigger little ripples out into the world about how we talk [as humans].”
NOTE: Fern Katz is a contract up to date dancer and choreographer most curious concerning the intersection of dance and dramaturgy, and transmit uncooked emotion from the stage to the viewers; she will probably be in residence at Performact in Portugal beginning in October 2022. Saturday’s efficiency will probably be adopted by a Q+A session with the artists known as, “Breaking Bread” (together with some gentle snacks and drinks). Tickets can be found right here.
