Performances will honor lives lost during the time of COVID, transforming grief into a celebration of life through the lens of 20th century dance.
Bronx Dances / REVIVAL 7 Revelries will honor the beloved individuals who have been lost during the time of COVID through new dances that focus on joy: a transformation of grief into a celebration of life. Presented by Dances for a Variable Population (DVP), this project is conceived in the context of a series of works that create opportunities for legendary older dancer artists, linking multigenerational communities in a celebration of movement. By devoting each dance to an individual person and their impact on the community, REVIVAL 7 Revelries will highlight the power of legacy, further extending the reach, impact, and artistic vision of this important project. The performances are envisioned as shared moments of celebration, remembrance, and catharsis emerging from the COVID pandemic as a period of significant loss.
Now, as part of DVP’s 14th year of free performances in iconic spaces, REVIVAL 7 Revelries will take place Saturday, September 30 at Yolanda Garcia Park in the Bronx at 4PM. The event will include an All Together Dance workshop at 3PM at Yolanda Garcia Park. These interactive workshops, open to the public, highlight movements by guest artists and include core warm-ups from DVP’s MOVEMENT SPEAKS©.
REVIVAL 7 Revelries is a series of individual dances, with choreographers devoting each piece to one person, drawing on the memories of those who knew them but didn’t have the chance to publicly remember them. Individuals honored through these dances will range from community organizers to grandmothers to friends and neighbors.
For REVIVAL 7 Revelries, Dances for a Variable Population welcomes choreographers Ellen Graff (Martha Graham Company), Audrey Madison (Charles Moore Dance Theatre), Myna Majors (The WNBA N.Y. Liberty Timeless Torches), Sandra Rivera (founding member of Ballet Hispanico), Marnie Thomas Wood (Martha Graham Company) and Alfred Gallman (Pepsi Bethel, Talley Beatty and Alvin Ailey), along with DVP artistic director Naomi Goldberg Haas and the multi-generational DVP dance company. DVP also welcomes back Daniel Carlton (NYC playwright) as dramaturg. REVIVAL 7 Revelries will also feature 50 seniors from DVP’s free MOVEMENT SPEAKS© Zoom and phone conferencing classes, which take place in homes across the city. To learn more about the choreographers, please visit our website: www.dvpnyc.org or www.revival7.org.
DVP’s REVIVAL series, begun in 2017, is a project of historical, social, and artistic innovation highlighting six choreographers, extraordinary artists who trained in dance traditions of the 20th century. They transmit and interpret the essence of Martha Graham, Charles Moore, and Alvin Ailey, celebrating the past performing careers of these artists and the impact these techniques have had on dance history and their lives in a completely new way. Through exploration in rehearsals, in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens, REVIVAL 7 Revelries will bring audiences the unique expression of older adults mixed with the power of older trained professionals.
This one-of-a-kind event will be free to the public. The event will provide diverse audiences an opportunity to see movement distilled from the seminal techniques of legendary geniuses, to see the eloquence of the older brain/older body and witness the intergenerational connection in the spirit of creation and collaboration. Performances in Manhattan and the Bronx will also include a free, interactive, open-access workshop, fostering community, creativity, and movement. Through these workshops, audiences, including adults of all ages and abilities, will dance in ways that are new to them, be stretched physically and intellectually, and gain new experiences of personal mastery. Reservations are recommended and tickets can be reserved at www.revival7.org.
Saturday, September 30d, 2023, Yolanda Garcia Park, Bronx, NY
Live, In-Person Performance: 4 PM
Pre-Performance All Together Dance workshop: 3 PM
Melrose Ave and East 159th St, Bronx, NY, 10451
Reservations recommended at revival7.org.
Bus BX 15, BX 21 to 3rd Avenue East 158th St
BX 41 to Melrose Avenue East 160th St
BX 6, BX 13, BX6-SBS to Elton Ave 161st St
Subway 2, 5 to 3rd Ave at 149th St.
