FIVE SITE-SPECIFIC WORKS
COMMISSIONED BY DANCING IN THE STREETS
(1988 - 1991)
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After the premiere of Fenesterations (1987) at Grand Central Terminal, Elise Bernhardt, Artistic Director of Dancing in the Streets, continued to commission Stephan Koplowitz to create large scale site-specific works in the following locations:
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1988 - Fanfare for New Building and
Phantom Fenestrations
Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH,
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1989 - Big Thirst
American Museum of Natural History, NYC,
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1990 - Union City
Union Station, Washington D.C.,
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1991 - Governed Body
State of Illinois Center, Chicago, IL
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1991 - Fenestrations 3.0
30th Street Station, Philadelphia, PA
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(1988) FANFARE FOR NEW BUILDING & PHANTOM FENESTRATIONS, WEXNER CENTER FOR THE ARTS, COLUMBUS, OH
Short Documentary on 12 and 1/4 Degrees Event
These two works were part of the event 12 and ¼ Degrees which was a performance event that took place in and around the Wexner Center for Art, one year before the building was completed. The purpose was to introduce the building, designed by architect Peter Eisenman, to the Columbus community who at the time, thought the building's modernity was somewhat jarring. The performances were produced by Dancing in the Streets and The Ohio State University Fine Arts Department. The whole event also featured choreography by Elizabeth Streb, Susan Hadley, Ellen Cornfield and John Giffen.
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Fanfare For New Building (on the roof)
Phantom Fenestrations (inside the building)
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Choreographed by Stephan Koplowitz
Original score by Brooks Williams and the Harmonic Ranch
Dancers: Mary Middeler, Romy Noltimier, Kate Cushman, Heather Sultz, Lori Katz, Veronica Maxwell, Maria Campo, Jennifer Mizenko, Jim Cappaletti, Mary Tinsley, Jacqueline Collins, Loretta DiBianco, Sharon Uhrau, Helen Myers, Dana Levy, Becca Ley and Lisa Benson
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Performed on June 8, 1988, Architect, Peter Eisenman
This work was funded in part by the SOM Foundation: here is a link to their archive of this event: SOM WEXNER
(1989) BIG THIRST- AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, NYC
Dancing in the Streets in association with the American Museum of Natural History
presents: Dancing Into Natural History
Big Thirst
a site-specific performance for the Hall of Oceanic Life
Conceived, Directed and Choreographed by Stephan Koplowitz
Songs and Chants: Andrew Warshaw
Sound Score: Stephan Koplowitz
Lighting Design: Tony Giovannetti
Costumes: Judy Wirkula
Core Company Performers: Diane Esper, Maiya Greaves, Jenny Klion, Rachel List, Maggie Manetti, Gabrielle Machinist, Wendy Marlow, Catherine Sands, Ken Schatz, Morgan Thorson
Ensemble: Tony Andercopoulos, Joy Anh, Joan Benham, SuzanneCamastro, Keely Jo Cook, Dana Dick, Ann Hanson, Peter Honchaurk, Sara East Johnson, Nina Jones, Elizabeth Litvak, Rachel McNish, Nancy Payea, Lindsey Rockwell Lori-Jean Saigh, Elynn Skove, Sallly Souders, Jane Weiner, Zita Wenzel
6 minute EXCERPTS
FULL PERFORMANCE
Reviews
“Mr. Koplowitz’s work ... was inseparable from the space in which it was presented. Shadowy Figures leaned over the balcony rail, making swimming gestures in the air and waving to imaginary ships at sea. It was easy to believe that they were at the water’s edge, an impression intensified by the liquid sounds in a taped score by Stephan Koplowitz. Then the dancers rushed up and down the stairs, as if running into water and retreating from it because they feared its cold or depth. Gesturing rhythmically, they burst into chants by Andrew Warshaw that described both people desiring action and fearing to act. It soon became clear that the deep water into which they were venturing was that of experience itself.”
--Jack Anderson, New York Times, 5/20/89
“Stephan Koplowitz delivered a smashing, spectacular Big Thirst-designed on several levels of the Hall of Oceanic Life- for which the audience was seated underneath gigantic whale...Unison gestures and a cappella melodies added narrative fragments to this grand-scale work. Koplowitz’s theatrical savvy even brought off a maritime lighting design, by Tony Giovannetti, that managed to give the impression that this entire event was taking place under water.”
--Camille Hardy, Dance Magazine, 8/89
(1990) UNION CITY - UNION STATION, WASHINGTON D.C.
PERFORMANCE EXCERPT
Union City (1990)
As part of Union Station Dancing, produced by Dancing in the Streets and Dance Place, Elise Bernhard and Carla Perlo, Producers
Union Station, Washington D.C. October 10, 11, 1990
Conceived, Directed and Choreographed by Stephan Koplowitz
Music Arranged by Peter Wilhousky
Sound Score by Stephan Koplowitz
Music performed by the Easter High School Choir-Joyce Garrett, Director
Lighting Design by Tony Giovannetti
Rehearsal Director: Carla Perlo
Dancers: Misa Acox, Joan Amrol, Matthew Brown, Molline Fowlkes, Lynn Gladstone, Elinor Grayson, Syliva hall, Alice Howes, S. Robert Morgan, Maureen O’Donnell, Kathryn Steucek, Nancy Szabo, Peter Whitten, Cathy Williams, Union Station, Washington D.C.
architect Daniel Burnham, building completed 1908
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The opening event of Dancing in the Streets/USA-The First National Program of Performances in Public Spaces.
This event also featured the work of Liz Lerman, Marta Renzi and DJimo Kouyate who performed works in different parts of the station.
Reviews
“Union Station seemed to be destined and waiting for the extraordinary event that graced it Thursday night....The participating artists...have worked previously in the realm of ‘environmental’ performance, but ‘Union Station Dancing.’ brought them together for the first time...The most spectacular was saved for last. Koplowitz arrayed his performers high on a ledge over the gateway to the station’s eastern wing, framed by tall sculpted figures, roofed by a magnificent glass arch, and punctuated in the middle by a giant clock. In surging movements suggestive of adventure, determination, aspiration and struggle, the dancers took on the aspect of imagination’s angels....The amazing tableaux of these dancers at that height, in those surroundings, basking in the musical radiance of the choir’s rich voicings, is something no one who saw it is ever likely to forget.”
--Alan M. Kriegsman, The Washington Post, 10/7/90
“When Koplowitz’s people have finished their finely composed images of parades and battlefields and heroic deaths and hope, the choir has to sing encores for the whooping crowd.”
--Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice, 11/6/9
Photo GALLERY- Union City
b&w photos by Jason Miccolo Johnson
(1991) THE GOVERNED BODY, STATE OF ILLINOIS CENTER, CHICAGO IL
PERFORMANCE EXCERPT
Reviews
“Stephan Koplowitz, veteran creator of large-scale modern dances, will soon unleash his most oversize work to date in Chicago’s gigantic State of Illinois Center….Koplowitz’s dance... has fun with the surrounding space- its futuristic, unadorned asymmetries and towering verticals, as well as its function as the seat of the Illinois government. The work...satirizes government in the abstract, without putting forward its own agenda or addressing specific issues.”
--Nicole Dekle, Dance Magazine, 9/91
“The performers and Koplowitz defy the simple reality that the giant building is dwarfing their dance. Their tiny anonymity becomes part of the point, so that their final exit... is a stirring, one-of-a-kind triumph.”
--Sid Smith, Chicago Tribune, 9/13/91
Photo GALLERY- The Governed Body
photos by Robert Lieberman and Stephan Koplowitz
The Governed Body was a huge work, featuring almost 80 dancers in the cavernous atrium of the State of Illinois Center, the building, designed by Helmut Jahn has one of the worlds largest indoor atriums which houses the offices of many municipal and state agencies and that of the Governor of Illinois. This work was the fourth event of Dancing in the Streets/USA, The First National Program of Performances in Public Spaces.
Dancing in the Streets and the Dance Center at Columbia College presents
The Governed Body
Conceived, Directed and Choreogdraphed by Stephan Koplowitz
Music by Jack Freudenheim and Stephan Koplowitz
Lighting by Tony Giovannetti
Costumes by Judy Wirkula
Sound Design by Richad Sirois
Performed by Lewis Anaguano, Pat Anderson, Sheri Augenstein, Claire Barliant, Danery Barraza, Diana Barraza, Amy Barthelemy, Cindy Bemis, Mary Benker, Terry Brennan, Morris Butler, Caroly Cacal, Latoya Campbell, Peter Carpenter, Margi Cole, Renee Davenport, Njwa Davis Pearce, Martha Donovan, Judy Elledge, Devonna Eubanks, Bridgette Farley, Bill Fox, Mesha Gailey, Dustin Harris, Janet Heintz, Suet May Ho, Janice Hundreiser, Gina Johnck, Donica Johnson, Kara Kaplinger, Ellen Karp, Sharon Kwong, Zelisa Lane, Danielle Legros-Georges, Kara Leigh, Marisa LeRette, Debra Lavasseur, Veronica Levine, Heather Lindahl, Mary Pat Livorsi, April Lopez, Carol MacLeod, Blanca Magallon, Cheryl Magiera, Joyce Mangelsdorf, Caronline Mathues, Michelle Maxner, Anna Maxiorka, Tobey Mendelson, Suzanne Merkel, Rachael Milder, Patricia Moffit, Natalie Mukatis, Laura Nelson, Kim Nowak, Jamie O’Donnell, Liz Pelton, Coranee Perillo, Sharon Porter, Jennifer Read, Adriana Reyes, Ttiana Sanchez, Ginny Siano, Karen Scinski, Maureen Smyth, Louie Stallone, Heather Sultz, Jacqui Ulrich, Lori Vinson, Lucy Vurusic, Nsilo Ward, Cory Wechsler, Rachel Wolf-Dodder, Jennifer Wolz, Laura Zaransky
(1991) FENESTRATIONS 3.0 - 30TH STREET STATION, PHILADELPHIA, PA
LOCAL NEWS EXCERPTS
“The... piece that served all interests was... Stephan Koplowitz’s Fenestrations. As the dancers did their first dart across the walkways, the audience burst into applause...The lights kept modulating in color and intensity, and so did the tenor of the piece... Most of all, Fenestrations was plain pretty, and did the space proud.”
--Nancy Goldner, Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/11/91
“Fenestrations 3.0...generated incisive patterns of order and chaos. Becoming angels of the architecture, the lines of dancers were part of the building and its sense of movement, travel, and missed connections. It was impossible not to find satisfaction in the spectacle and wonder in the possibilities of an old space seen through new eyes.”
--Brad Rosenstein, New Art Examiner, Philadelphia, 1991
“Setting up a piece on so inconvenient a space as the back wall of a train station is as much a technical tour de force as a creative one…Koplowitz’s moving pictures shone through the windows. There were sensuous wave effects, when the same phrase flowed from floor to floor, and geometric effects, when each floor of dancers moved in counterpoint, and an occasional strobe-lighting effect when the dancers darted from window to window.”
--Nancy Goldner, Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/6/91
This work was the culmination of Dancing in the Streets national tour of site work from 1990-1. I had done large site works as part of this series, in Washington D.C. (Union Station), Chicago, Illinois (State of Illinois Building). This work was obviously inspired by our experience at Grand Central Terminal, given the similarities of the windows in the two terminals. This was a unique opportunity for me to stage the same work but have it re-configured to fit the design of the 30th Street Station’s windows.
Photo GALLERY- Fenestrations 3.0
photos by Stephan Koplowitz
Fenestrations 3.0
Presented by Dancing in the Streets, Elise Bernhardt, Artistic Director, with the Philadelphia Dance Alliance
30th Street Station, Philadelphia, October 10, 11, 1991
The closing event of Dancing in the Streets/USA-The First National Program of Performances in Public Spaces
Directed and Choreographed by Stephan Koplowitz
Lighting Design by Tony Giovannetti
Musical Score by Jack Freudenheim and Stephan Koplowitz
Performed by: Joe Cicala, Jennie Diggs, Jennifer Frank, Anne Marie Mulgrew, Mary Perez, Crystal Thomas, Mary Ann Bucklin, Laird Holby, Lynn Robinson, Gina Zappia, Holly Axtell, Laurie Barker, Anita Bondi, Rebecca Gottere, Christine Bee, Sarah Culver, Kama Linden, Jonathan Stein, Amy Browne, Cassandra Cavuto, Carolanne Leone, Deborah Tuitt, David Bellarose, Jim Bunting, John Genovese, Faye Kahn, Mamiko Kawai, Roko Kawai, Sandra Kozach, Kim O’Connor, Linda Raimondi, David Webster, Shu-Chin Yang
