JOY: Dances for Midwinter
Thurs & Fri, Dec 12 & 13, 2024
7:00 pm
Stone Circle Theatre
59-14 70th Avenue, Ridgewood (Queens), New York 11385

For JOY: Dances for Midwinter, the Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble has brought together dances from across the generations from three traditions of modern dance. And we have invited three distinguished guest directors expert in those traditions to give the dancers an authentic understanding of the movement and its intent.

GAIL CORBIN (reconstructing excerpts of Christmas Oratorio by Charles Weidman) graduated from Hartford Conservatory of Music and is a leading exponent and Master teacher/director in the technique and repertory of Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. Her longtime association with Ernestine Stodelle, an original member of the Humphrey/Weidman Company, began with Ernestine’s reconstructions of two of Doris Humphrey’s early works – “Two Ecstatic Themes” and “Air for the G String” for the Jose Limon Company.  Gail assisted her in these early Humphrey reconstructions and served as a model for the solo roles. She possesses a rich and vast knowledge of the works and a deep understanding of the technique.  Under the direction of Beatrice Seckler, also an original member of the Humphrey/Weidman group and Deborah Carr, who worked with Charles Weidman, Gail learned many Weidman dances and was a featured dancer/soloist in The Deborah Carr Theatre Dance Ensemble. She is a featured dancer in two films, “The Technique of Doris Humphrey” and “Charles Weidman: On his Own.”  Gail is a frequent guest teacher for the Sokolow Theatre Dance Ensemble and recently staged and directed the Limon Dance Company in “Air for the G String” as part of their 75th anniversary celebration.  Most recently, she has been the guest artist in residence at University of Michigan and Goucher College where she taught technique and staged Humphrey works. 

PAMELA LEVY (reconstructing an excerpt of Schubert and the Birds by Claudia Gitelman) is a dance educator with over two decades of experience teaching, directing, and creating choreography for dancers in all phases of their development. She received her early dance training in Princeton, NJ, and then received her BFA in Dance from Mason Gross School of the Arts, studying with Claudia Gitelman, among others. She holds a Master’s Degree in ABT Ballet Pedagogy from American Ballet Theatre/New York University, and is currently the Director of that program. Pamela danced professionally with Murray Louis & Nikolais Dance Company, Claudia Gitelman Dance Theatre, Don Redlich Dance Company, and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet.

It is a particularly special process having Pamela re-stage excerpts from her mentor, Claudia Gitelman’s piece Schubert and the Birds, since it was created as an homage to Gitelman’s mentor, Hanya Holm.

As a dancer, TONIA SHIMIN (reconstructing Preludes by Anna Sokolow) performed in the companies of Martha Graham, José Limón, Pearl Lang, The Ypsilanti Greek Theater and as a soloist with Anna Sokolow’s Players’ Project, Mary Anthony Dance Theater and Repertory West Dance Company. She has had an extensive teaching career in the United States and internationally.  Her choreographic works have appeared in the United States, the Czech Republic, Russia, Germany, Turkey, Switzerland, Greece, Italy, and Mexico.   

An award winning dance filmmaker, for among others the documentary Mary Anthony: A life in Modern Dance, her awards have included support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Santa Barbara Dance Alliance. Currently she is Professor Emerita of the Department of Theater and Dance at the University of California, Santa Barbara and continues her creative work in the USA and abroad. Most recently she has curated, edited and with Mercury Press International published the award winning book, The Art of Symeon Shimin, on the remarkable work of her father, whose fine art is here shown in a collection for the first time.