DANCE NEWS: Boston Dance Theater Presents "together apart," a Dance Video Commissioned by the Goethe-Institut Boston
Join Boston Dance Theater for the livestream premiere of the commissioned dance video "together apart" on Wednesday, March 31st, at 5 p.m. ET
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Commissioned by the Goethe-Institut Boston, Boston Dance Theater creates a new choreography which translates themes of division, polarization, reunification and coming together into the language of contemporary dance. The work plays hommage to three decades of German reunification and at the same time reflects the current state of American society. The pandemic lends the theme additional timeliness.
Prompted by Goethe-Institut Boston’s newly appointed director Christoph Mücher to imagine a coming together again post COVID-19, BDT founder/co-director Jessie Jeanne Stinnett teams up with videographer Ernesto Galan, costume and set designer Zane Kealey, composer Grant Stinnett, and the dance artists of Boston Dance Theater to envision a dance installation created for film. Informed by documentary interviews sourced from 1989 Germany following the collapse of the Berlin wall, an event that sparked a complex process of healing and reunification, Stinnett and her collaborators explore connections between those stories and their experiences of the ongoing effects of the pandemic.
"Last year, we reflected on the three decades of German reunification in several events," comments Mücher, "In the process, it struck us that the phenomenon of separation and division and the longing for reunification around the globe is more topical than ever — not least because of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Against this backdrop, we came up with the idea of inviting BDT to translate this specific underlying feeling into the language of contemporary dance."
Nearing the first anniversary of the United States' nationwide lockdown, the dance film titled "together apart" premieres virtually on Wednesday, March 31st, at 5pm ET. This free live stream event, hosted by GIB, includes messages from Mücher, expert statements, and an interview from Stinnett with BDT artists Gabriela M. Amy-Moreno and Henoch Spinola.