Christine Dakin: Peter C. Cook
Clarence Brooks: #billykiddstudio
The Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble are joined again for our Fall 2023 season, In the Eye of a Dream, by two extraordinary guest artists, Christine Dakin and Clarence Brooks. Ms Dakin will portray Frida in Anna Sokolow’s homage to Frida Kahlo, with long-time company member Luis Gabriel Zaragoza as Diego. Mr. Brooks will play the murderous music-lover in the “Threatened Assassin” section of Magritte, Magritte.
CHRISTINE DAKIN, for more than four decades performing, teaching and creating dance, collaborating with musicians, scholars, dancers, photographers. A foremost exponent of the Martha Graham repertory and technique, she is known for her performances of Graham’s roles and for those created for her by Graham and artists such as Robert Wilson, Twyla Tharp and Martha Clarke. Performing in the principal theaters of the world, partnered by renowned artists such as Rudolf Nureyev and filmed in the repertory, she was chosen by Graham for the company in 1976. Dakin, with Terese Capucilli were named Artistic Directors in 2002, leading the company to its rebirth.
Dakin performs works created for her by contemporary choreographers including Jaime Blanc, Brice Mousset (Oui Danse) and Alejandro Chávez (Compania Ciudad Interior) and classic repertory with American Dance Guild and Audrey Ross’ Denishawn Dances. She is honored to be guest artist with Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble. Dakin is a founding member and dancer with Buglisi Dance Theatre. (1993).
Ms. Dakin wrote and directed La Voz del Cuerpo/The Body Speaks. Created in collaboration with US and Mexican dancers and musicians, it was Official Selection of the New York Independent Film Festival (2013), Golden Door International Film Festival (2014) NewFilmmakers New York (2014) and shown in such venues as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Oaxaca, Mexico, for International Day of Dance UNESCO in Barcelona, and the 92Y in New York. Her ‘Terpsikon Vol.1’, filming and commentary on Martha Graham’s technique, is available on Vimeo on Demand.
Dakin was honored by the dance community with the Dance Magazine Award (1994), a “Bessie” Performance Award (2003), the Labat Loano Italy Grand Prix “Giuliana Penzi” 2015 Career Award and Mark DeGarmo’s Dance for Dance for Social Change Dance Ambassador Award (2023). She is the recipient of the University of Michigan Alumni Award (2001), and Honorary Doctor of Arts from Shenandoah University (1996) and the Universidad de Colima, Mexico (2007).
She was awarded the Evelyn Green Fellowship at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (2007/08), was a Fulbright Senior Scholar (1999), USIA artist (Argentina, Russia) and recipient of grants from CEC ArtsLink (Russia), Rockefeller U.S. Mexico Fund for Culture and Mexico’s Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes for choreography, teaching and research.
Since 1981 she has maintained a special relationship as performer and teacher in Mexico: with the Centro Nacional de Danza Contemporánea and Ballet Nacional de México in Querétaro under Guillermina Bravo, with the Instituto de Cultura and Compañía de Danza Contemporánea de Yucatán,(Director Graciella Torres Polanco), the Universidad de Veracruz, Xalapa and with Creación Coreográfica EnTiempoReal and Rosario Ordoñez’s Invernadero Danza. At the invitation of Director Rafael Zamarripa, she is guest artist/teacher at the Universidad de Colima and its Ballet Folklórico and contemporary company, Univerdanza (Directors Adriana Leon and Alejandro Vera).
A Visiting Lecturer at Harvard and a decade on the faculty of The Juilliard School (1993 – 2003), she is currently faculty at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, the Ailey School, and guest teacher for Tecniche di Danza Moderna and Graham for Europe.
Read Mysterious Ways — An Interview with Christine Dakin.
For more information about Ms. Dakin’s career and current projects, visit christinedakin.com.
CLARENCE BROOKS has performed with more than 80 American companies and toured the USA, Europe, and Asia working with Nikolais & Murray Louis Dance Company, Marcus Schulkind Dance Company, Loyce Houlton’s Minnesota Dance Theater, Laura Dean Dancers and Musicians, Ohio Ballet, and Anna Sokolow’s Players’ Project at prestigious venues like the Paris Opera, Joyce Theater, American Dance Festival, and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. Clarence tours with the Dance Exchange (DC), Pioneer Winter Collective (Miami), Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble (NY), danceTactics Performance Group (NY), and David Parker & The Bang Group (NY). He can be seen in the video documentary The World of Alwin Nikolais and his essay “Dancing with the Issues” was published in One Teacher in 10: LGBT Educators Share Their Stories (Alyson Books).
Clarence has taught, choreographed, and lectured at universities across the nation. Now a retired associate professor, he directed the dance program at Florida Atlantic University and founded the Repertory Dance Theatre Ensemble, the University’s resident professional dance company. The Ensemble performed in festivals from Miami to Boston including Rebound Dance Festival (New Haven), NewGrounds (Tampa), Inkub8 (Miami), Green Street Studio (Cambridge), Daniel Lewis Miami Dance Sampler (Miami), and Piccolo Spoleto (Charleston) performing works by Talley Beatty, Danielle Jolie Dale, Bill Evans, Michael Foley, Juliet Forrest, Demetrius Klein, Andrea Ollarvide, Crystal Patient, Kristin Bender Polizzi, Marcus Schulkind, Jinx Strelkauskus, Charles Weidman, and Leni Wylliams.
Awards and honors include induction into the OCU Performance Hall of Honor, two Associate Artist-in-Residences at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Japan Foundation Fellowship, and recipient of the Clyde Fyfe Award and the Randolph A. Frank Prize for Performing Arts. The Library of Congress recorded Clarence performing Talley Beatty’s seminal solo “Mourner’s Bench” (1947) for the national archive. A founding member and past president of the Florida Dance Education Organization, he holds an advisory position with FDEO and sits on the boards of the Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble, danceTactics Performance Group, Miami Dance Futures, Natural Movers Foundation, and the Doris Humphrey Foundation for Dance.
A high school dropout, Clarence holds an MFA (University of Washington/Seattle), a bachelor of performing arts (Oklahoma City University), and a certification in Laban Movement Analysis (Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies). A 200-hour yoga teacher and National Registered Dance Educator, he is certified to teach the Bill Evans Method of Teaching Dance Technique. In his free time, he enjoys biking, kayaking, hiking, camping (tent), and traveling.
In the Eye of a Dream
Thursday – Saturday, November 9-11, 2023 at 7:30 pm
Saturday & Sunday, November 11 & 12, 3:00 pm
Thursday – Saturday, November 16-18, 7:30 pm
Saturday & Sunday, November 18 & 19, 3:00 pm
Theaterlab
357 W 36th St. 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10018
theaterlabnyc.com
Tickets
$35, $25 students and seniors
This production is made possible in part by THE HARKNESS FOUNDATION FOR DANCE.