Tuesday, February 18, 2025

News and Ideas Worth Sharing

HomeArts & EntertainmentDANCE PREVIEW: West...

DANCE PREVIEW: West Stockbridge native explores individual and collective grief through dance at TurnPark Art Space

Fern Katz will take to the stage in her hometown—on the grounds of TurnPark Art Space in West Stockbridge—where she will present CHASM, an immersive dance, theater, and sound event (including two contemporary dance pieces, one accompanied by live original violin composition) on Saturday, August 27 at 1:30 p.m.

West Stockbridge — After two decades spent dancing across myriad stages in the Berkshires, Fern Katz experienced a proverbial chasm upon the death of her mother last October. Having grown up in a culturally Jewish household, she was more than familiar with the concept of “shmita”—a year of release—in which the fields lie fallow and stored foods are redistributed to those in need while the earth rests, restores, and strengthens. Just as the Torah calls for Jews to work six days and rest on the seventh, so does it call for them to work the land for six years and rest during the seventh. While this current sabbatical year, 5782 in the Hebrew calendar, is nearing its end, it was a time of great reflection for Katz who spent the past ten months exploring her own grief, loneliness, and yearning for connection. This weekend, she will take to the stage in her hometown—on the grounds of TurnPark Art Space in West Stockbridge—where she will present CHASM, an immersive dance, theater, and sound event (including two contemporary dance pieces, one accompanied by live original violin composition) on Saturday, August 27 at 1:30 p.m.

Fern Katz. Photo by Sara Wallach.

“Before a time of replenishing can occur comes great loss, [and] this dance was created in the void that loss leaves behind,” Katz told The Edge, leaning into the agricultural practice of shmita—one she and her mother practiced in their own backyard garden every year by putting a small patch of earth to rest, covering it with hay, and letting it be.

“Letting the fields rest is so necessary in order to come back from these hard times,” Katz says, pointing to shared grief—from the COVID-19 pandemic to the precarious health of the planet—as not only affecting us all but begging, “this great need for pause and reconfiguration of societal constructs [that dictate] how we are [currently] living and working.” While some have been lucky enough to step back and create space in the midst of seismic shifts, for others this was not possible. Hence Katz’s newest work, one that creates a bridge between her own “very personal and individual loss as reflected in a greater way with the environmental losses that we’re dealing with, and losing all these humans to a really intense pandemic.”

Dance, in all its various iterations, left an indelible mark on Katz while growing up in the Berkshires. She remembers watching VHS tapes of Martha Graham and Mikhaiyl Baryshnikov before taking to the stage herself—first under the guidance of choreographer Laurie McLeod, then at Cantarella School of Dance in Pittsfield where she studied for more than a decade. Katz cites her mother, the late Montana Katz, as being “really tapped into the local dance culture in the Berkshires, [one] she took advantage of by taking [her daughters] to every performance that she could,” at venues across the region, including Jacob’s Pillow in Becket.

“Dance became ingrained in me,” Katz said, as evidenced by her performance at the aforementioned dance festival (founded by modern dance pioneer, Ted Shawn, in 1931) earlier this season. This weekend, at TurnPark, Katz will be joined by Alice Chacon, Sierra Hendrix, Elisa Hernandez, Leighann Kowalsky, and Katie Messina—a fabulous and diverse cast, hailing largely from New York City—including dancers of different abilities and technical training, including Rehearsal Direction/Choreography Assistant Anna Gichan with Composition and Musical Accompaniment by Mariya VasileuskayaIn. In addition to grappling with grief, personal loss, and degradation of the planet, there exists space for the possibility of regeneration.

“We all experience so many losses—every day, every week, every month—to varying degrees, [and] I wanted all the artists to be able to bring in their own personal stories and memories of loss and share them in the space,” Katz explained of a conversation that was not spoken about, per se, rather explored through bodies and movement—all of which allowed CHASM to take shape as a result of the shared human experience.

“The dancers come together and leave each other [amidst] moments of great connection where we’re holding each other, supporting each other and finding new ways to build community,” Katz says, likening the choreography to a “juxtaposition of saying goodbye 1,000 times, over and over again.” Each dancer follows their own paths to find connection with self before branching out to one another and the surrounding environment—an intention that requires the individual to first carve their own map to uncover not only what they truly desire but how to ask for fulfillment. By following their impulses, they uncover what is inside, hidden below the surface, at their centers. Ultimately, the dancers find regeneration and mending of fractured connections through shared energy, emotion, sweat, and spirit—all of which begs the rhetorical question of what will grow here after the sabbath year?

The performers’ connection is palpable, as is their desire to share it with the audience. “Witnessing us building community together, I hope will cause little ripples out into the world about how we communicate [as humans].”

NOTE: Fern Katz is a freelance contemporary dancer and choreographer most curious about the intersection of dance and dramaturgy, and how to transmit raw emotion from the stage to the audience; she will be in residence at Performact in Portugal starting in October 2022. Saturday’s performance will be followed by a Q+A session with the artists called, “Breaking Bread” (including some light snacks and beverages). Tickets are available here.

spot_img

The Edge Is Free To Read.

But Not To Produce.

Continue reading

CONCERT REVIEW: Bach’s organ music warms the audience that came in from the cold

Renée Anne Louprette playing the Johnson Organ at the Housatonic Unitarian Universalist Church, Saturday, February, 8, 2025.

On With the Dance: Poems about ballet

Poets have long been drawn to ballet, and not surprisingly, they write about their favorite dancers and ballet companies.

Barenaked Ladies will appear at Tanglewood on July 8 with Sugar Ray and Fastball

Archives of the Boston Symphony Orchestra contain no prior record of Barenaked Ladies appearing at Tanglewood or Symphony Hall.

The Edge Is Free To Read.

But Not To Produce.