Hallelujah USA: Uneasy Dances

2002

Lerman, Liz

At the culmination of its four-year, 15-city Hallelujah Project, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange partnered with Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at Maryland to present "Hallelujah/USA," consisting of two programs of choreography created at project's various sites, bringing participants and local performers from these communities to be part of the "Hallelujah/USA" company. This was the second of the two programs as captured by a single, stationary camera with a full stage view. 00:00:00 - Opening credits. 00:01:02 - "In Praise of Constancy in the Midst of Change," which originated at the Flynn Theatre in Burlington, Vermont, included local participants and reflected local themes. "Constancy" is represented by "Monday Night Card Girls," six area women who had been gathering weekly to play cards since the 1960s. They appear on stage throughout the performance accompanied by sound clips of their own voices in interviews. "Change" is reflected in the themes of refugee sanctuary and domestic partnership for same sex couples, including a segment where couples of varied ages and gender combinations perform to excerpts from the biblical "Song of Songs." Robert Een and his ensemble provide musical accompaniment. 00:33:35 - "Body Map" a solo excerpt performed by Liz Lerman from her "Fifty Modest Reflections on Turning Fifty." 00:37:21 - "Anatomies and Epidemics," the Dance Exchange's response to the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon of September 11, 2001, which explores the thin line between laughing and crying. Includes original music by Andy Teirstein, a "music visualization" treatment of a Spike Jones composition that consists mostly of laughing and a finale to music by Alan Hovhaness. 01:00:54 - "In Praise of Borrowed Blessings," premiered on this occasion, was a collages of excerpts from multiple Hallelujah sites (including Tucson, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles), new material reflecting on the project at large (including solo moments for Margot Greenlee, Celeste Miller, and Ted Johnson), and performance by teens who had participated at various project sites.

Liz Lerman Dance Exchange; DiMuro, Peter; Dwyer, Thomas; Greenlee, Margot; Johnson, Elizabeth; Johnson, Ted; Kast, Maggie, 1938-; Miller, Celeste; McCourty, Penelope; Nakamura, Kazu; Wittman, Martha; Een, Robert

Filmed performances

Dance--United States.

College Park, Maryland

Liz Lerman Dance Exchange videos

Special Collections in Performing Arts

English

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/

Videocassette

Catalog Key: LLDX 23-9; Catalog Key: scpa-081986