Dance Kaleidoscope, IMA join forces to fill void left by opera cancellation

-
DK's Jillian Godwin in "Picture This."
Many arts fans in the metropolitan area have been saddened and disturbed by Indianapolis Opera's decision to cancel its final production of the 2013-14 season, Benjamin Britten's "Albert Herring."

Now Dance Kaleidoscope and the Indianapolis Museum of Art are reaching out to opera patrons to expand the audience for their forthcoming collaboration, "DK@IMA: Picture This." Performances will be May 1-4 in the IMA's Tobias Theater.

The show consists of two pieces inspired by paintings on view in the Noyes Suite of American Art Galleries. They are "Jimson Weed" by Georgia O'Keeffe and "Girl at the Piano: Recording Sound" by Theodore Roszak. The O'Keeffe work is titled  "Heart of Joy"; the one inspired by Roszak carries that painting's title.

DK artistic director David Hochoy provides this guide (slightly edited here) to the two works on the company's website:

“When  'Heart of Joy' was originally put together onstage with costumes and lighting, many of the sections reminded me very much of Georgia O'Keeffe's spectacular swirling landscapes and desert coloring, especially her flower series. While her work wasn’t a conscious inspiration as I created this piece, I would have to say the feel is very much Georgia O'Keeffe.”

“In Theodore Roszak's painting, 'Girl At The Piano: Recording Sound,' I was attracted to the expression on the girl's face. She presented a mystery to me that I felt compelled to solve. For the music, I chose Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a Theme of Paganini, which allowed me to invent several vignettes of the girl interacting with various family members and friends. We meet her dominating father, her mother, brother, teacher, and an artist friend.”

Indianapolis Opera ticket-holders wanting to exchange their "Albert Herring" tickets for "DK@IMA: Picture This" should call the IMA ticket office at (317) 955-2339 or e-mail tcocagne@imamuseum.org.  More information about the contemporary-dance troupe and the show can be found at www.dancekal.org.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Actors Theatre Indiana romps through a farce — unusually, without a founder in the cast

-
Image
"Don't you love farce?" runs a memorable rhetorical question in Stephen Sondheim's "Send In the Clowns." There's lots to watch on the screen for characters in "Unnecessary Farce." Desiree's bitter song points to the conditions that underlie farce: Misunderstandings, false assumptions, confused or deceptive identities, upsets, personal disasters. None of that is any fun when you're  living it. If relatively minor, the conditions of farce may seem risible shortly after the dust has settled. If more serious, they will be permanently unsettling. As a literary or dramatic genre, however, most people do indeed love farce. But, frankly, the whole bag may seem unnecessary —  and not just as part of the pun in the last line of Paul Slade Smith's "Unnecessary Farce."  Actors Theatre Indiana opened the show Wednesday night in the Studio Theater at the Center for the Performing Arts . The premise is a police sting operatio
Read more

Indianapolis Opera presents 'A Little Night Music,' a sexy comedy of Scandinavian manners

-
Image
"Send In the Clowns" is a rarity among modern musical-theater hits in being selectively lifted from the show by singers who simply want to do it, even though Stephen Sondheim's most popular song is thoroughly nestled in, and essential to, "A Little Night Music." A production of the sometimes blithe, sometimes sentimental operetta by Indianapolis Opera runs through today at the Toby at Newfields . Predictably, "Send In the Clowns" went over superbly as delivered by the aging actress Desiree Armfeldt in the second act. The song can best be understood in context, despite the way it has been put across by everyone from Frank Sinatra to Renata Scotto. Desiree and Frederik refresh their bond.  Here it was beautifully set up by the orchestra, under the sensitive direction of Alfred Savia, and performed within an aura of Desiree's cherished memories and indelible regret by Heather Hertling Narducci. In the reprise, she was joined by Daniel Narducci (her hu
Read more

DK's 'Divas A-New': What's past is prologue (so is what's present)

-
Image
  Ensemble exuberance in "Stories from the Corner Bar" Joshua Blake Carter's curtain speech gave Dance Kaleidoscope 's opening-night audience Thursday a concise, graceful indication of how the transition from his illustrious predecessor as artistic director, David Hochoy, is settling in. Before "Divas A-New" took the stage, the audience at Schrott Center for the Arts (a new venue for the company) got brief exposure to DK's educational wing as two student troupes performed. That was a charming showcase for what's been possible since DK moved into a new permanent rehearsal and educational home in 2020. The solidity of the professional company no longer had to pose questions as to whether its growing profile was anything more than a castle in the air.  Setting aside what the hyphen in the program title must mean (since "anew" would seem to convey the idea), it's clear the "divas" idea builds upon the popular focus in earlier pr
Read more