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Published on March 14, 2011
Photo by John Deane
Falling Away in Life and Death Dances
Deaths and Entrances by Martha Graham and Chasing by Bulareyaung Pagarlava....
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The Dance Enthusiast was fortunate to attend a rehearsal where excerpts of both of these pieces were shown. Bulareyaung Pagarlava's new piece, Chasing, was commissioned to comment on Graham's Deaths and Entrances ,one of her first psychological ballets.
Graham's 1943 work touches on Victorian intrigue, repressed desire and dark emotions disrupting and threating life, while Pagarlava's premiere , or rather the we saw of it, deals openly, directly and even joyfully with humanity's darkest mystery --death. It is a stirring pairing, as the old and new work play in completely different ways with similar themes.
The excerpts were captivating.
An excerpt of Deaths and Entrances in rehearsal.
At the open rehearsal, artistic director, Janet Eilber, told the story of a woman, who upon seeing Deaths and Entrances ( in which the women are costumed in sumptuous taffeta ball gowns) said to Graham, "Miss Graham, you are dressed in this beautiful ball gown and yet you fall on the floor and roll around, if I were dressed like that Icertainly wouldn’t roll around on the floor."
"And that is the psychology of Deaths and Entrances," explained Eilber.
An excerpt of Chasing in rehearsal
