Fall 1987 … Children of the Dark Kingdom

In the Fall of 1987, the company had expanded to include Suzi Bulger, Teri Copeland, Carol Ernst, and Sophia Thomas, Denise Chakerian, and myself. Denise, of earlier years, had returned, several of the dancers from earlier concerts (high school and college students) had moved on, and new dancers had begun working with me.

No doubt influenced by the process of working on Phenomenology, this concert was another foray into a thematically unified evening work. Children of the Dark Kingdom was many things… among them the idea that some part of us remains a child forever, and sometimes that child feels lost, no matter what their age. Some of the pieces were choreographed around on childhood games (Follow the Leader, Mother May I? and She’s Got a Lot of Balls… Yes, I loved that title!) Other sections were entitled After Dark, Voices of Old People, We Talked Last Night Into Darkness, and Coming Home) Music included work by Edgar Meyer, Christopher Bauer (with the Ken Hardley Play Boys), Bronski Beat, Simon & Garfunkel’s recording of “old people’s voices”, and Meatloaf.

One of my favorite sections was the lighting that we used to project huge shadows on the background cyc, and I liked the range of music on this one.

An early section, depicting childhood.

A later section, with dancers wearing the summer dresses that are still in the company collection…. I almost “recycled” them this summer, but at the last moment, I just couldn’t d it!

Yes, I stole everyone’s balls… greedy, greedy, greedy!

We borrowed grocery carts from Albertson’s (Yes, we got permission) which acted as both props and more…

Carts were also a vehicle for dancers and allowed them to “grow” and be much taller than dancers on the stage.

Cool lighting created images that danced with me.