Lori Belilove's Isadora Duncan Dance Company Returns to Untermyer Gardens
Company:
Isadora Duncan Dance Company
LORI BELILOVE'S ISADORA DUNCAN DANCE COMPANY
RETURNS TO UNTERMYER GARDENS WITH DANCES BY DUNCAN
AND "TRIBUTE TO UKRAINE" by BELILOVE, of Ukrainian heritage
Sunday September 3rd at 5 PM
(RAIN DATE: Monday, September 4 at 5 PM)
Untermyer Gardens Conservancy, 945 North Broadway, Yonkers NY 10701
Tickets are $50
Receive tickets on Untermyergardens.org
Lori Belilove's Isadora Duncan Dance Company returns to the exquisite setting of Untermyer Gardens in Yonkers with a program of dances by Isadora Duncan, along with original works by Belilove, including her "Tribute to Ukraine," Sunday September 3 at 5 PM.
The first half of the program will feature new creative works by Lori Belilove set to music by Max Richter, Vivaldi, and Bach.
The evening will include signature works by Isadora Duncan to the music of Chopin, and Belilove's new piece titled “Tribute to Ukraine” honoring the heroism, valor, and grit of the Ukrainian people. Belilove, herself of Ukrainian ancestry, takes her inspiration from Isadora Duncan's heroic dances (Marche Heroique, Varshavianka) that evoke the cry, the terror, the loss.
More About Tribute To Ukraine:
In 1921, Duncan returned to the USSR to start a school of dance at the invitation of the new Soviet government, whereby she believed she was participating in the formation of a free and heroic society. Ignited, she assimilated her personal passion for political change with a vision of the universal humanitarian fight.
Belilove was inspired to re-stage Isadora’s dance Varshavianka (1924) to the Ukrainian National Anthem, in response to the horrors of the current Russian invasion. In the dance, heroes die and are re-born, but ideals outlast the trials and tribulations of war. What began as a single soldier on stage grows to an ever accumulating force as the dancers mourn the dead, share in suffering, and finally rise heroic.
Complimenting Belilove’s interpretation of Varshavianka is her original choreography, titled Comrades, reflected in a lone female voice of universal grief. Opening the suite is Duncan’s Marche Heroique (1916), staged by Belilove and set to Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, "Pathétique,” III. Allegro molto vivace, where a formidable, proud march inspires the dancers' call to action and endurance.
Belilove, a foremost interpreter of Isadora’s work, understands the timeless freedoms Isadora sought - the same freedom that Ukraine seeks, all humanity seeks.
History of Duncan & Untermyer:
The historic heritage of Duncan dance and Untermyer Gardens first began in 1923 when Samuel and Minnie Untermyer watched The Isadorables perform at Untermyer Estate Park, then called Greystone, which was Samuel Untermyer's Yonkers estate.
The tradition continued when Isadora Duncan Dancers, the troupe formed under the direction of Irma Duncan returned to the site in 1932. The garden fete, held in the Greek Gardens, was under the auspices of the Women's Division of the Architects' Emergency Committee benefiting unemployed Architects and Daughtsmen.
After Untermyer’s death in the 1940′s, the gardens began a long decline. The City of Yonkers took over a portion of the gardens, but until 2010 when the the Untermyer Garden Conservancy was formed, the gardens were basically in ruins. Today, after years of intense work, key features of the gardens have been lovingly recreated.
The restoration of Samuel Untermyer’s glorious gardens in Yonkers is a sight not to be missed. Once long forgotten and in ruins, today the renovated Untermyer Park and Gardens is a City of Yonkers public park and a veritable paradise of 43 acres overlooking the Hudson River.
“Art can succeed where war fails” — Lori Belilove
“With boundless indignation I watched these poor grief-stricken workmen carrying their martyred dead… If I had never seen it, all my life would have been different. There, before this seemingly endless procession, this tragedy, I vowed myself and my forces to the service of the people and the downtrodden.” — Isadora Duncan
*Program subject to change
Photos: Isadora Duncan Dance Company in a recent performance at Untermyer Gardens vs. Irma Duncan Dancers performing at Untermyer, 1923.
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