Arts & Entertainment
An Interview with Delroy Donstantien-Simms
Consistency in the Midst of Change
Consistency in the Midst of Change
by Larissa Thompson
I must admit that I’m not well versed in the dance community and its culture, what performances are good, and what performances are excruciating to watch, but having just recently been introduced to the Liz Lermann Dance Exchange, I am intrigued.
The Liz Lermann Dance Exchange Incorporated, established in 1976, has traveled along a busy road, having performed at the Lincoln Memorial with 800 community performers and extensively touring the United States and Europe.
An article in the Washington Post about the Exchange’s performance in Eastport, Maine revealed how the dancers captured the bustling port and the fishermen’s lives in one solid performance. Being from Maine originally myself, it’s amazing to read how a dance troupe could pull this off. It’s one thing to act out a skit about life on the coast or to write about growing up in Maine, but the thought of putting this lifestyle into dance impressed me. The San Francisco Chronicle sums up my own personal experience by saying that the Exchange is “an opportunity to see America dancing.”
Vermonters are now the lucky ones who will get to see their community in motion in the performance of Hallelujah on Friday, March 16, at the Flynn Theatre in Burlington.
The performance about Vermont will include movement created by stories from youth-at-risk, local artists, children and seniors. It will show us an artist’s unique perspective on how Vermont’s community works and how it will strive to answer the question: “What are we in praise of?”
After four years in Vermont, collecting stories from the young and old from the St. Albans, central Vermont, and Burlington regions, the Exchange has put together a performance that honors work, family, animals, the land, and most importantly, the theme of consistency in the midst of change.
The New York Times articulates the Exchange’s thoroughness in studying their subject; “Liz Lermann has made a vibrant, provocative career out of fixing on a moment—an idea, an emotion, and everyday events—and making it come alive in simple, plain spoken dance. God is in the details of her work.”
I look forward to witnessing the performance that will give us this fresh, yet familiar, outlook on Vermont.