BILL GAITHER/The Register-MailKnox students perform routines Thursday night in auxiliary gymnasium at Knox College during the David Dorfman Dance practice. The professional troupe will perform at 7 p.m. Saturday in Harbach Theatre.
Dance explores activism, terrorism
Choreographer delves into diverse issues
Friday, April 6, 2007
GALESBURG - A collaborative dance performance with a political edge from internationally known choreographer David Dorfman is coming to Knox College on Saturday.Throughout this week, about 25 students, faculty and staff have been rehearsing with two members of Dorfman's professional dance troupe, David Dorfman Dance, for the Midwest premiere of "underground," a new work from Dorfman based on the activities of the 1960s-era protest organization The Weather Underground.
Dorfman, who specializes in community-based dance projects and has received seven New York Dance and Performance Awards, will perform a solo dance prior to "underground," which will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the Ford Center for the Fine Arts' Harbach Theatre on the Knox campus.
The performance is free and open to the public.
Ten members of David Dorfman Dance, including Dorfman, will be performing "underground" with the Knox students, faculty and staff. Kathleen Ridlon, lecturer in dance and director of the Center for Community Service at Knox, equated the chance to perform with Dorfman and his troupe to "shooting hoops with a professional basketball player."
"It's such an opportunity," she said.
Karl Rogers, a Knox alum and a member of David Dorfman Dance, has been on campus this week teaching dance workshops and working with the Knox participants on their roles in "underground," which he described as a "dance/theater spectacle" that includes video, music and dance.
Rogers said only half of the Knox participants have backgrounds in dance, while others were drawn to the project because of the subject matter. The piece uses dance to explore issues of activism and terrorism.
"It demonstrates that dance doesn't just have to be entertaining and pretty to look at. It can address serious subjects," said Ridlon.
David Dorfman Dance has developed more than 30 community dance projects and the company has performed worldwide.
