Beth Soll & Company to Premiere Four Dances and a New Film at Westbeth

Beth Soll & Company
May 7 and May 8 at 8pm
Westbeth Center for the Arts, 55 Bethune Street
Tickets $18
Ticket link: sollearthlydances.brownpapertickets.com

When is the last time you went to a live performance featuring four premiere dance works and a film? And when is the last time you saw the choreographer of those works dancing with artists half her age?

On May 7th and 8th Beth Soll & Company will present Earthly Dances in Troubled Times, a concert of four new dances and a film at Westbeth Center for the Arts, 55 Bethune Street. Dancer/Choreographer Soll, now in her late 70’s, continues to choreograph for her company and perform with her dancers. The new works being shown at Westbeth were all created by Ms. Soll amidst the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The program will include Beth Soll’s film, Two Red Solos, A Formal Response, and Red Duet, its live spin-off. In the film, dancers appear in two separate solos, one for company member Abby Dias and another for Ms. Soll, in separate frames or socially distanced in one frame. The filming took place outside in spring/summer 2020 in Hudson River Park, with the vibrant red of the costumes contrasting with the lush greenery of the park. In Red Duet, a live version of the film, Ms. Soll shares the stage with Ms. Dias, showing geometric clarity and a thoughtful balance of athleticism and subtle, gesture-based movement.

The concert will show three other live works, with the movement vocabulary, tension between separation and connection, and the co-existence of formal restraint and emotional expressivity echoing aspects of the film.

Beth Soll’s weekend of dance performances prove that agism, society’s notions about age limitations, don’t always hold true. The program is an eye opener.

 

Dancer/Choreographer Beth Soll has performed with many dance companies and has frequently collaborated with artists in all disciplines. With her company, which was formed in 1977, she has performed in many U.S. locations and abroad including Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Romania, and Russia. She has been teaching since the 1960’s in varied contexts and in universities, including MIT, where she directed the Dance Program for 20 years, the Harvard Summer Dance Center, Boston University, UC Santa Barbara, Hofstra University, Manhattanville College, and the University of Wisconsin. Read more at bethsollandcompany.org.

 

Beth Soll & Company
May 7 and May 8 at 8pm
Westbeth Center for the Arts, 55 Bethune Street
Tickets $18
Ticket link: sollearthlydances.brownpapertickets.com

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