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Once a year, Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre’s (VRDT) assemblage of pliés and leaps, jazz shoes and ballet slippers, and emotive and technically intensive choreography makes its way from its home in Kenyon Hall to Poughkeepsie’s Bardavon Opera House. An opportunity is created for local dance aficionados to experience their work for the first time and for Vassar students to see it in a new light.
VRDT’s 28th annual Bardavon Gala returns this Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. Representing a culmination of a year’s work in VRDT, the two performances will feature a variety of styles, ranging from modern to ballet to Irish step dancing; the sources of choreography vary widely as well, with student and faculty choreographed pieces standing alongside classic repertoire.
After about a semester and a half of performing for an audience predominantly composed of members of the Vassar community in Kenyon’s Frances Daly Fergusson Dance Theater, the opportunity to put on a more public, larger-scale performance at the Bardavon is exciting for dancers and Department of Dance faculty alike. Wrote Sophie Alpern ’10 in an e-mailed statement, “I think performing at the Bardavon [Opera House] gives our performances a much more ‘professional’ feel to them. The Bardavon is a famous, historical theater, and it’s a privilege for us that we have the opportunity to perform there.”
For those who have attended other VRDT performances throughout the year, they can expect something different of this performance; wrote dancer Isabel Vondermuhll ’10 in an e-mailed statement, “First showings, final showings and ModFest are basically ‘test runs’ for these shows.”
The company will perform pieces including “The Shakers,” a modern piece choreographed in the 1930s by Doris Humphrey; “Selections from Griot Dance,” choreographed by Dance Department chair Stephen Rooks; and “Exurgency,” a piece by local dance company Solas An Lae that is influenced by Irish step dancing. Additionally, David Berkey’s “Sentinel” will be performed by four of the company’s male dancers. “It’s really stretched and challenged our men,” said Professor of Dance and Director of VRDT John Meehan Meehan, “and it’s a very beautiful piece. It’s about the passing of the torch, moving onto the next generation. It’s very poignant at the end when two dancers walk off into the future, and two are left on stage in the present…It’s unusual for men in that it’s a very quiet piece. It’s almost elegiac or reflective.”
Additionally, audience members can expect a special treat with the performance of famed choreographer George Balanchine’s ballet “Valse-Fantaisie.” Wrote Vondermuhll, “Dancing his ballets is an honor and a privilege, not just because it is such a pleasure and often an incredibly moving experience, but because not everyone is allowed to dance his ballets whenever they please. Only a certain number of people, who belong to the Balanchine Trust, are allowed to stage his ballets in order to protect the integrity of his choreography.” Additionally, Merrill Ashley, a famed ballerina who worked with Balanchine, staged the piece with VRDT dancers.
“It was really a wonderful experience for our dancers to learn the piece from someone who is so well-known and so remarkable,” said Meehan about this opportunity.
For Vondermuhll, the chance to dance this piece is particularly special; as a young student at the New York City Ballet, she danced in productions of his pieces and speaks almost rapturously of the experience. “I remember being 12 years old and dancing his last ballet, ‘Mozartiana,’ at Lincoln Center, and the combination of the choreography and the music made me feel like I had reached another plane, the sublime maybe, and it brought tears to my eyes while on stage,” she said. “That’s when I knew that I had to dance, which is why I will continue dancing as a professional after I graduate.”
However, not every senior dancer will continue after graduation, adding an emotional edge to the intensity of the Bardavon performance. “There’s usually a lot of crying going on backstage because for many, this will be the last time they ever dance on stage,” wrote Vondermuhll.
She added: “Maybe I’ll be sobbing like a male figure skater and kissing the ice.”
In addition to this impressive line-up of existing repertoire, student choreography was unusually well-received this year; the work of seven student choreographers has been incorporated into this performance, including modern and jazz pieces. “Usually what happens is there’s an adjudication process and only some of the works done by the students are included in the Bardavon performances,” said Meehan. “This year, a number of faculty said these were the strongest choreographic offerings we’ve ever had... It was impossible to cut one because they’re all so strong.” Consequently, different groups of student work can be seen at each performance, meaning that in order to catch it all, one must purchase tickets to both nights.
For all of the dancers, from freshmen to seniors, a sense of caring and camaraderie amongst the intensity of preparations makes carrying out this performance a unique experience. Thomas Hochla ’13 described some of the ways dancers prepare for the event: “We have Bardavon buddies…You get a small gift from the person, and you don’t know who it is. You’re all there forever, and you have these little gifts from people, and you don’t know who it is.” He added, “[We get] advice for staying sane: bring layers of clothing, not hurting yourself, making sure you got the extensions on the papers and also to just not psych yourself out too much, not think about it in a way that is going to be detrimental.”
Added Vondermuhll, “We have this saying, ‘Be good to each other’—it’s something you will hear dancers saying during company meetings as the show approaches. You would never hear people say that in a professional company. It’s kind of nice.”
And all of the build-up to the show, according to Meehan, leads to a striking level of vigor in the result. “By the time Saturday night comes, we’re a bottle of champagne whose cork is bursting,” he said. “There’s a lot of energy that’s really ready to pour forth. The exciting thing about the Bardavon is you get a sense of the unlimited energy of youth, both on the stage and also from the audience…It’s very different from other dance performances because of that bottled-up energy that just explodes on Saturday and Sunday.”
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