Moving Moments: Vassar Repertory Dance Theater

For nineteen years, it’s been one of the most anticipated, hardest-to-get tickets in town. We’re talking about the Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre’s annual Bardavon Opera House Gala performance. This year was no exception, only more so: for the first time the company offered two performances at the theater in downtown Poughkeepsie.

"I’ve been trying to get tickets to this performance for years," said Poughkeepsie area resident Muriel Kahn Lampell ’51 from her seat moments before the lights dimmed and the curtain opened on night number one.

Paul Mosley, VRDT’s new artistic director, added a Sunday matinee performance to the group’s schedule in response to popular demand. "I’ve worked at many different colleges, and I’ve never seen this level of support for dance before," Mosley reports. The 900 -seat Bardavon was sold out for the Saturday night performance and 50 percent sold for day two. "We considered it a phenomenal success, and plan to make it a tradition" says Mosley.

In true Vassar fashion, the VRDT performance is seen as an opportunity for education, not just entertainment. Diminishing Landscape, choreographed by postmodernist Jeff Duncan, fit the bill. The 17-minute-long work challenges traditional notions of dance and music. In it dancers walk, skip, run, and perform other everyday movements to recorded ambient sounds of machinery, pipes knocking, and various industrial sounds.

Other works in the two-hour program–such as Study Break, a classical ballet piece choreographed by Director of Dance Jeanne Periolat Czula, and Blues in Pieces, with steps by Meggin Rose, a Washington, DC-based choreographer–gave audience members a taste of the variety in dance styles and a sense of the sophistication and skill of the company’s 31 dancers. Motown í¡ la Mode , by guest choreographers Martha Tobias ’83 and Abby Saxon, showcased dancers grooving to music by Aretha Franklin, Linda Ronstadt, and Marvin Gaye; and Bite Me, choreographed by Kimberly Barrett ’03 to music by Michael and Janet Jackson, had the audience cheering and clapping and were just plain fun.

Topping off the evening was Burlap to Cashmere, an energetic and emotional piece in three parts, choreographed by resident choreographer Steve Rooks. The corps’ dancing brought down the house–a standing ovation that no doubt made the endless hours of classes, rehearsals, sore muscles, and sleepless nights more than worth it.

Next Year's Gala

Consider this advance notice of what is sure to be a grand celebration of the Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre’s 20th anniversary next spring. "We’re going to make it a big deal," confirms Mosley, who would only say that the group is already planning next year’s repertory piece, a reconstruction of a work by modern dancer and choreographer Louis Falco, widely known for doing the choreography for the movie Fame. The gala dates are set: March 2 and 3, 2002.

In the studio shots presented here, photographer Sarah Silver ’98 captures company dancers in moments from this year’s repertory. Silver graduated this spring from the School of Visual Arts in New York City and has developed a unique aesthetic that combines dance and fashion photography. She first photographed VRDT while still a Vassar student.

Photos by Sarah Silver ’98