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March 11, 1988 - Image 60

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1988-03-11

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

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60

FRIDAY. MARCH 11. 1988

Continued from preceding page

presented by People Dancing
dance company based in Ann
Arbor.
Whitley Setrakian, the
company's artistic director,
had never heard of Salomon
until she came across an out-
of-print book about her at a
friend's house. At first she
wasn't particularly drawn to
Salomon's story, but now she's
become compelled by
Salomon's life and the emo-
tional vitality and poignancy
of her works. "I've always had
a fascination with the human
side of history," explains
Setrakian.
Setrakian, a native New
Yorker, founded her company
— which now includes six
regulars and two apprentices
— five years ago when she
moved to Ann Arbor, after
performing
and
choreographing in the Big
Apple. "I've done better work
since I left New York and had
two kids," Setrakian says. Her
work and study vita reads like
a Who's Who in modern dance
and her own abilities haven't
gone unnoticed — she's receiv-
ed grants from the Michigan
Council for the Arts and has
been twice named Creative
Artist by the same group.
In some ways Charlotte is a
departure for Setrakian who
is known more for her ir-
resistibly whimsical and
deceptively difficult but char-
ming dances. "I work a lot
with humor," she admits.
Setrakian's tongue-in-cheek
approach even comes through
in the titles for many of her
works like Crazy Emilia Tells
Her Side of It. Some of
Setrakian's dances have
serious elements in them,
but, even then she doesn't go
for displays of angst. "I pur-
posefully avoid yearning," she
says. Another signature of
her work is the physicality of
her dances.
Setrakian, who's not
Jewish, admits that personal-
ly she had some difficulty
dealing with the material for
Charlotte. "I felt faint and
panicky reading books on the
Holocaust. There's no comfort
in it," she says. "It's so horri-
ble." Setrakian recognized the
problematic nature of the
subject matter for her. "You
can't say anything (about the
Holocaust) without sounding
trite." But she found a way
through her initial hesitan-
cies. She discovered that by
reading books about the Jews
who survived she could ap-
proach Salomon's tragic story
with a clearer vision.
"I feel that dances make
themselves," explains
Setraskian. Nevertheless,
there are several thematic
elements to Charlotte that the
choreographer has worked on

. Whitley Setrakian is the artistic director of the company which will
present the dance about the life of Charlotte Salomon.

and
developed
quite
specifically. "I'm focusing on
Charlotte and her family and
also on the general timbre of
Berlin!' she explains. As to
Salomon, Setrakian is
especially taken by the con-
tradictory qualities she finds
in her. "What kind of woman
is this?" Setrakian asks
rhetorically. Setrakian notes,
for example that Salomon
was headstrong and extreme-
ly emotionally sensitive; on
the other hand she often ap-
pears naive and easily im-
pressed by others.
Setrakian also wonders if
Salomon, who seemed to be so
vibrantly alive, had an ele-
ment within her that was
pulled by something disturb-
ingly sinister — something
related to the suicides of her
mother, grandmother and
aunt. "She had so much life
in her that came out through
her paintings. On the other
hand why would she have
painted her life story at such
a young age?" asks
Setrakian. Did she know she
was doomed?
Setrakian is not known for
choreographic literalness.
Her art is more refined,
though that shouldn't imply
daintiness or obtuseness. "My
problem is how to take all
these subtle things and make
them clear." But the themes
that she wishes to com-
municate demand an ap-
proach that goes beyond sim-
ple — or in Setrakian's case,
not so simple — movement.
Setrakian looks to different
sources to help her give
Charlotte. the right tone. In
the dance segments that deal
with life in Berlin she's been
reading The Last Jews in
Berlin. "It's a phenomenal
book!' she says. She's also
talked to Rolf Arnheim, the
internationally renowned
psychologist of art, himself a
Jewish refugee who lived in
Berlin, survived the war, and

who presently sits on People
Dancing's board of directors.
"I somehow want to try to
have a sense of the every-
dayness of life coupled with
the malevolence that could in-
fect the ordinary," says
Setrakian. Much of Salomon's
work has a similar feel to it
— paintings that reflect
everyday, ordinary scenes but
with a disturbing emotional
intensity exaggerated by
muted hues and figures
isolated with dark outlines.
They are extremely expres-
sionistic. Setrakian said she's
very excited about this par-
ticular portion of the work.
"It's quite wonderful," she
says simply.
Choreographically, her ap-
proach during the Berlin seg-
ment is to have the dancers
move in such a way that they
create a loop of serenity in a
sea of madness. Setrakian,
who's working with composer
Dick Siegel, found some
wonderful music to go with
the theme. "It's a piece by a
German composer, Georg
Katzer. It's a collage of
sounds, of speeches, martial
music, Hebrew songs,
children singing. A la of it is
extremely distorted. It's very
rich!'
"It's been a lucrative ex-
perience," says Setrakian.
Why? "Because it touches on
so many levels. It's a dance
about a period of history; a
dance about a child; a family
broken and reformed; a
woman's process in artistry."
Salomon's gift has been pass-
ed on and is safe — for now at
least.
(Charlotte will be presented
at the Performance Network,
408 W. Washington, Ann Ar-
bor, March 20 at 2 p.m.;
March 24 at 8 p.m.; and
March 26 at 8 p.m. On Sun-
day, March 20 Janice Simon,
art historian will speak about
Salomon. For information,
call the Performance Net-
work, 663-0681.)



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