Amazing Grace
SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to the Jewish News
ontemporary leg-
work often partners
with cultural legacy
when the Carolyn
Dorfman Dance Company
moves on stage, and that
combination will be the cen-
terpiece as the Michigan-
raised choreographer brings
her namesake troupe home
for a performance.
Over the 18 years that
Dorfman has been develop-
ing her dance company in
New Jersey, the choreogra-
pher, who grew up
Southfield, has never lost
touch with the Jewish fami-
ly values she learned from
her parents, Mala and
Henry Dorfman, current
residents of Franklin.
She's made them the
main subjects of her latest
dance work, "The Klezmer
Sketch," which will be per-
formed 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Sept. 20, at the
Seligman Performing Arts
Center at the Detroit
Country Day. School in
Beverly Hills.
What her parents taught
her about the Holocaust
and their lives as Polish sur-
vivors immigrating to
America has been at the
core of earlier dance pieces,
but this time, the choreog-
rapher has decided to go
back further and recall some
of the happier times before
the Nazi terror.
"I was inspired to create
The Klezmer Sketch because
of my love for klezmer
music, which was the music
of the celebrations of my
family," explains Dorfman,
artistic director of the not-
for-profit company.
"I was at a Chanuka cele-
bration a couple of years ago
with my children, and there
was a klezmer band. I
thought, This is really [at the
heart of the] next piece I
want to make,' and it was the
and aunts, Rosa
Schaumberg and Franka
Charlupski, whose
Holocaust losses forged
their commitment to stay
connected as they raised
their families together in
the Detroit area.
"The Table" celebrates
holiday meals and the energy
released by the sharing. "The
Arrangement" captures a
couple whose marriage was
not their choice, and the
her daughter's troupe per-
form in other cities. "I told
her that I had already paid
for lessons, and she would
have to take them but could
stop after that.
"As it turned out, those
lessons worked out well, and
from that time on, dancing
was it for her. She said that's
what she wanted, and we
never discouraged her. "
After the Julie Adler
School of Dance, master
Detroit-area native Carolyn Dorfman
brings her renowned dance company
to hometown audiences.
first time I said to myself that
it's not just the pain that's the
legacy of my family
"There's a whole kind of
joy for the Jewish idiom,
expression, values, sense of
family and intergenera-
tional connection that was
really significant to me
that I also wanted my chil-
dren to know about."
The Klezmer Sketch, on
the planned program with
another Jewish-Chemed
work and two more secular
pieces, has four parts.
"My Father's Solo" fol-
lows the spirit and strength
of her father as a survivor,
while "The Three Sisters"
is about Dorfman's mother
piece ultimately returns to
the tragedy of the Holocaust.
A Career Blossoms
Dorfman, at the helm of a
company of eight dancers
on salary for 24 weeks a
year with the help of full-
time administrative staff,
has reached a level of suc-
cess she never anticipated.
At age 7, a year after she
started dance lessons, she
was not sure she even liked
them.
"Carolyn really wanted
to quit as she was about to
begin her second year of
dance," recalls Mala
Dorfman, who travels to see
classes at the Jewish
Community Center, a bach-
elor's degree at the
University of Michigan and
a master's degree at New
York University, Carolyn
Dorfman found work
teaching at Centenary
College in New Jersey and
was there for five years.
"I choreographed outside
of that and did annual con-
certs in New Jersey and
New York," Dorfman
recalls. "I began to feel sup-
port for my work and real-
ized I could forge a path as a
professional, creating
[dances] and having a strong
community education and
outreach component.