Press Release/for immediate release
From: Barbara J. Beitel
Telephone: (609) 465-3963
South Jersey Artists Join Choreographer, Film Maker, Cape May’s Susannah Newman in production of Dance Film “Sam’s World”
Cape May Court House. On May l9th, at the Middle Township Performing Arts Center, 212 Bayberry Rd., in Cape May Court House, off exit l0 on the Garden State Parkway, residents and visitors will have the opportunity to view SUNY Associate Professor emeritus, Susannah Newman’s dance short. It’s a 12 minute film, celebrating the life of renowned artist, humanist, Sam Maitin and is a jewel in an Access to Art, Inc.weekend extravaganza featuring two dance films and a premiere of a new piece of choreography by Carolyn Dorfman. Opening the evening at 7:30 p.m. is a documentary on Philadelphia artist, Sam Maitin, by Cape May film maker Craig Rinkerman, putting the artist’s life in perspective, and giving us conversational vignettes with Maitin’s friends, family, critics and colleagues.
It’s a weekend of dinners, films, master classes, live dance and live music. It celebrates life, vibrancy, and the art of internationally known Philadelphia artist, Sam Maitin. Many South Jerseyans will participate artistically in the weekend. Two film makers, who worked in both New York and New Jersey are featured. Susannah Newman, former head of the dance department at SUNY, Brockport, where she taught for 40 years, and the base from where she choreographed for over 50 companies worldwide, danced for Jose Limon as a girl. The other, initially from South Jersey, and now a New Yorker, Craig Rinkerman, working now at Partizan films as an editor, is on his second film: Sam Maitin: Celebration. Rinkerman who attended Cape May Regional High School, and Drexel College for film, won the Susan Sarandon award at the Cape May Film Festival last year.
The dance film has been a year in the making, beginning with a 6 minute dance short, as a demo film, which included South Jersey dancers and the music of Mozart. From that brief beginning, film maker Susannah Newman has transformed the work into a multimedia work, complete with animation, dancing art forms, and floating dancers, unsupported by gravity, undergirded by Sue Ann Kahn’s flute and Ibert’s music. The l2 minute short subject screen dance in which five dancers are embedded inside the color-saturated collages of renowned artist/humanist Sam Maitin features a playful approach opening with Sabatino Verlezza, internationally-known dancer/choreographer, enters tossing about the colorful shapes of Maitin and exploring them with quizzical eye and comical body. Verlezza also was a mime artist, before becoming a dancer and choreographer, so he has a Chaplinesque attitude, and lots of the fun so characteristic of Maitin himself. Conceived, choreographed, shot and edited by Susannah Newman, New York artist, now residing in Cape May, N.J,. Sam’s World is in 5 sections incorporating l6 of Maitin’s works. “Barbara Beitel, Executive Director of Access to Art, Inc. (a South Jersey not-for-profit, which Maitin helped to found in 1992), introduced me to the larger world of Sam Maitin and asked if I would be interested in creating a dance work to honor his legacy.” Ms. Newman explains. “I fell in love with Sam’s work; with its vibrancy, its inherent sense of movement, of dance, of affirmation. It has been an honor for me to do this work. It was important to Sam to bring the arts and artist together (he had a vision for making Cape May the “Aspen of the East.” ) It seemed natural to weave dance and music into his art as a screen work, where the laws of physics need not apply and magic might result; where it is possible to create layers of images, moving collages, the way one dreams, using the camera often as another dancer.” Newman said.
“In Prologue, dancers enter and exit the screen, whimsically interacting with individual shapes, extracted from the various collages. Next, Play celebrates Maitin’s playful approach to art making, and his childlike enthusiasm for life, using recognizable movement games and mischievous relationships as metaphor. The artist’s respect for form, technique and effort are explored in Journey, a lyrical expression of Maitin’s belief in the power of community as the individual struggles to be human. Here, dancer’s gradually come together, floating inside the field of color and form; they carry, fall, reach, catch and support each other as they work towards their destination together. Maitin’s transcendent self (soul) is honored in Flight, during which collages are animated as if blown by currents of air, while dancers soar and flock together seeking rebirth. Finally, in Epilogue dancers bow to Maitin and credits scroll by.” Newman stated.
The music is a selection of short, chamber pieces for flute by French composer, Jacques Ibert (l890-1962), whose quirky phrasing and sense of surpise is perfectily suited to the modernist tone of Maitin’s art and Newman’s choreography. “It was so serendipitous,” says Susannah. “I was still looking for the right music for Sam’s World when Access to Art brought flutist, Sue Ann Kahn, to Cape May for its Summer Chamber Music Festival. Ms. Kahn’s father, the great architect Louis I. Kahn, and Sam were close friends and colleagues and Sue Ann loved Sam; when I heard her play the Ibert, I knew it was a perfect fit!” she said.
Ms. Newman said: “I feel fortunate to have had the collaboration of wonderful animator, Charles Bandla, and five beautiful dancers: Jennifer Collins and Tara Pasquarello, South Jersey professionals who have also worked in NYC and Philadelphia; Philip Colucci, also a South Jersey resident and established soloist with the Pennsylvania Ballet; Kate Jordan, a professional working with several contemporary dance ensembles in Philadelphia; and lastly, Sabatino Verlezza, a long-time associate of mine,, and an internationally-known dancer/choregrapher in his own right.” Collins and Pasquerello were both first in their class at University of the Arts, a university which Sam also attended in graphic arts. Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company will be premiering a new work honoring Maitin, “He Walks on the Wings of the Wind.” It was taken from the l04th psalm, a psalm often illustrated by Maitin which was his favorite. The documentary begins at 7:30 p.m., the dance opens at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25. and $30. and include live music for the new choreography by the Mondrian Ensemble members Aurelia Mika Chang, piano, and Michael Ludwig, violin. Call (609) 465-3963 to reserve your tickets. -30-