Anna Sokolow and the Reimagined Roots of Anti-fascist Dance

About

Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble’s artistic director Samantha Géracht introduced the story of restoring early activist dances of American choreographer Anna Sokolow in a program of performances, panel discussion and movement as demonstration. After the Library of Congress announced the extraordinary discovery of handwritten scores composed by Alex North for two of Sokolow’s dances, Géracht reimagined the dances using archival evidence and the music. “Ballad in a Popular Style” is a wistful lyrical excursion into jazz first performed in 1936. “Slaughter of the Innocents” is Sokolow’s 1937 lament for Basque women suffering under Nazi aerial bombing. Both were performed by members of the Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble to the original scores for the first time in 80 years, showing that the creative collaboration of Anna Sokolow (1910-2000) and Alex North (1910-1991) remains fresh, compelling and relevant for today’s audiences. A panel discussion of the revival of the music and dance and the lives of North and Sokolow was followed by an audience question and answer session.

Participants Samantha Géracht, artistic director, Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble James May, founding director, Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble Eleanor Bunker, associate artistic director, Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble Lauren Naslund, associate artistic director, Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble Ilana Ruth Cohen, Erin Gottwald, Margherita Tisato, dancers Lakey Evans-Peña, associate director, Ailey School Horton…

Human-made No record of this work says a model made it. What this means.

Archive

Library of Congress, in Library of Congress: talks and concerts

Licence or status

Rights statement at the Library of Congress, as the Library of Congress states it.

Rights statement

While the Library of Congress created most of the videos in this collection, they include copyrighted materials that the Library has permission from rightsholders to present. Rights assessment is your responsibility. The written permission of the copyright owners in materials not in the public domain is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. There may also be content that is protected under the copyright or neighboring-rights laws of other nations. Permissions may additionally be required from holders of other rights (such as publicity and/or privacy rights). Whenever possible, we provide information that we have about copyright owners and related matters in the catalog records, finding aids and other texts that accompany collections. However, the information we have may not be accurate or…

Credit

Library of Congress

Country

United States

Who can watch

The archive gives no rating. Invisible Network shows it to Adult profiles and older, judged from its collection and subjects. How films are placed