Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble will present a symposium on Anna Sokolow's Rooms on December 5, 2020. This FREE event will be moderated by Dance Enthusiast Founder and Editor in Chief Christine Jowers, and feature speakers from the Library of Congress, Prof. Neil Baldwin, and dancers who have performed Rooms across a half-century. The symposium will be open to the public and hosted as a Zoom webinar. To register, visit www.sokolowtheatredance.org.

 

Artistic Director Samantha Geracht, Associate Artistic Directors Eleanor Bunker and Lauren Naslund and company members have been teaching - virtually - sections from Rooms this fall to college dance departments around the country. 

 

"The pandemic is still with us and we are all in uncharted artistic territory," said Ms. Geracht. "The creativity and determination with which the dancers, faculty, and staff have met these new challenges have been inspirational."

 

Students at seven colleges are studying and presenting excerpts of Rooms this year, and no two schools produced the piece the same way.  In attendance at the symposium will be members of each college, including Kansas State University, Loyola University Chicago, CSU Fullerton, Williams College, University of Southern Idaho, Kanopy Dance, and Ailey/Fordham. 

 

The speakers who will present include Neil Baldwin, PhD, author of Martha Graham: When Dance Became Modern, forthcoming from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.; Library of Congress Dance Curator and Archivist Libby Smigel, PhD; and Library of Congress Senior Musicologist Loras John Schissel. Smaller group panels will include dancers who have performed Rooms over a half-century: Jim May, Hannah Kahn, Susan Thomasson, Luis Gabriel Zaragoza, Kristen Foote, Daniel Fetecua Soto, and Pablo Francisco Ruvalcaba.

 

Panels will also include several film makers, creators of pandemic virtual

Rooms events. The event will incorporate a collage from virtual performances made during lockdown