Project Description

Using dance, chamber music and the spoken word, "Unsilenced Voices," choreographed by Dafna Rathouse-Baier and Jean-Marc Baier is a sweeping journey of the spirit, from the devastation of war to an inner world, a place of shared pain, a search for beauty and meaning.

After a musical prologue, the journey begins with a procession. A man and a woman emerge from the past, with a dance suggesting loss and adversity. The music is by Rebecca Clarke.

The detritus of war - disembodied limbs, gas masks and military uniforms - show us to the battlefield. Here, the famous pas de quatre from "Swan Lake" is danced, but with the pointe shoes on the dancers' hands, a world turned upside down. Into this world comes a witness in the form of actor Nicholas Hughes reciting Wilfred Owen's great antiwar poem "Dulce et Decorum Est" ("It is sweet and decorous to die for your country"). Shelly Walker portrays the spirit and tortured memory of the poet who died in battle at the age of 25.

The weight of memory also animates the next segment, a duet of two soldiers partnering a mannequin and a living corpse. It is set to music composed by Bright Sheng that evokes lost innocence; Sheng was a prisoner of conscience during China's Cultural Revolution.

Scott Heinrich brings to life the spirit of a mother and her dead child. The music, by Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera, is performed by pianist Daniel Lau.

The indomitable spirit of women in the Nazi death camps is recalled next by a haunting dance - a procession of a different sort - set to Benjamin Lees' cello solo "Night Specters." The music, performed by Nancy Baun, was commissioned by the Chamber Music Series at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The sublime order of the Sarabande from Bach's Fifth Suite for solo cello (here arranged for the consoling timbre of Simon Maurer's viola) offers a moment of calm before Hughes returns with the ghostly poetry of Arthur Rimbaud, a tender description of a soldier lying on a bed of flowers, dead. The music is Dmitri Shostakovich's towering E minor Piano Trio. The dance begins with the spectral harmonics of the cello, summoning the lost innocence of the past. The folk dance of the second movement gives way to the anguished return of a couple, displaced by war. The finale combines the celebration and commentary of klezmer music. The celebration is then turned upside down, becoming a terrifying death march that dissolves into a simple and heart-rending elegy. The procession of the beginning of "Unsilenced Voices" has reached its destination: a place where voices whisper, sing and scream, "I am here!"

Educational & Residency Activities

Dafmark offers master classes in Ballet and Modern Jazz as well as workshops on the art of creating motion. Programs may be offered for dancers and non-dancers alike, from age 12 to senior learners. Dafmark incorporates three classical musicians in an interdisciplinary workshop designed to accompany "Unsilenced Voices."  Together, Dafmark and the Ravel Trio explore motion and music as modes of expression and communication.

Dafmark's Jean-Marc Baier and Shelly Walker are Pennsylvania Roster Artists who also work with disabled and aging individuals.

Biographies

The Ravel Trio
The piano trio composed of Nancy Baun, Daniel Lau and Simon Maurer, was formed initially to tour with Dafmark Dance Theater. The group continues to cultivate partnerships where classical music can fuse artistically with poetry, art, world history and movement. The Ravel Trio maintains a fervent commitment to spreading the love of chamber music by coaching amateurs of all ages, presenting interactive concert events, and developing programs for intergenerational learning.

Nancy Baun, cellist and Unsilenced Voices music director
Nancy has appeared as soloist with over a dozen orchestras throughout her home state of Pennsylvania. She has won awards and festival fellowships to the Bach Aria Institute and the Aspen Music Festival. As founding cellist in the Eaken Piano Trio, she performed across the United States including three appearances at Carnegie's Weill Hall. Nancy has performed throughout Europe, at the Icelandic New Music Festival and the Banff Centre for the Arts, and appears on recordings issued under the Naxos International and Catalpa Classics labels. She plays with the Western New York Chamber Orchestra and recently performed at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City. Producer of a Chamber Music America/WQXR award winning record, she is also an arts and recording consultant. Past faculty member of Dickinson College and Bennington College's Chamber Music Festival of the East, Nancy served as semifinals judge for the renowned 2002 Koussevitzky Competition.

Daniel Lau, pianist
Originally from California, Daniel received his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from Peabody Conservatory. He is currently on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory Elderhostel Program, the "Piano at Peabody" summer festival, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Music in Lancaster, PA; he has also taught at Columbia Union College. An active educator, lecturer and soloist with special interests in Asian American and African American composers, Daniel received the coveted Dean's Award from Loma Linda University. He performs community and educational outreach programs for the Baltimore Opera Company and is a founding member of the contemporary ensemble Morpheus Trio (horn, voice, piano). He has performed throughout Europe and the United States, including the Los Angeles Music Center and the Kennedy Center, and recently made his Canadian debut.

Simon Maurer, violinist
A native of Switzerland, Simon has studied at the Music Conservatory in Biel, and in this country at Swarthmore College and SUNY Stonybrook. Currently concertmaster of the Schuylkill Symphony Orchestra and the Pennsylvania Sinfonia, he maintains an energetic solo career with upcoming engagements at Lyndon State College in Vermont, and with Viva Vivaldi Allentown, Bloomsburg Chamber Orchestra, and Lancaster's Music Naturally Festival Orchestra. Simon has performed in Switzerland and France as featured artist with the St. Jean Orchestra of Geneva, Switzerland. He is a former member of Concertante Chamber Players and has founded numerous classical ensembles including The Gabriel Chamber Ensemble and The Lyra Trio. Simon is also an accomplished jazz soloist who enjoys folk and rock collaborations. On the faculty at the Pennsylvania Academy of Music, he teaches violin, chamber music and jazz improvisation.

Nicholas Hughes, actor
Nick grew up in Devon, England and is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cambridge University. He has lived in the Harrisburg area since 1978 and worked as Financial Director of TV Host magazine prior to its sale to TV Guide. In 2000 he appeared at Open Stage of Harrisburg as Edward Carson in "Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde."  Nick has portrayed Ebenezer Scrooge for the past four years in "A Christmas Carol."  He is also the voice of the BBC in Open Stage's "Diary of Anne Frank."   He currently serves on the boards of Open Stage and The Modern Transit Partnership.

Dafmark Dance Theater is a tax-exempt 501 (c) (3) organization registered with the Commonwealth of PA Bureau of Charitable Contributions. Your contributions and donations are tax-deductible.

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