Great Neck based Dance Visions NY, Long Island’s Isadora Duncan based dance company, will perform excerpts from their award-winning program “Zeus’ Garden” outdoors on the lawn of the Universalist Unitarian Congregation at Shelter Rock, 48 Shelter Rock Rd. , Manhasset on Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 11, at 1:30 p.m. There is no admission charge for this event.
“Zeus’ Garden” features Isadora Duncan’s dances celebrating Myth and Nature. This exciting, life-affirming body of work is based on Greek mythology and the fullness and beauty of nature. The program and company, under the direction of Beth Jucovy, consists of a full company of Duncan dancers. Dancer Visions NY is well known for their glorious programs which bring Isadora Duncan’s visions and works to life, rejuvenated and contemporary.
The program will include “Tribute to the Greek Gods.” This work, to Schubert’s Symphony no. 9 in C major, is in three movements. The first is Tribute to Apollo, god of the sun, the 2nd is Tribute to Dionysus, god of wine and the 3rd is Tribute to Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. The company’s youth ensemble will perform a suite of original Duncan dances to Schubert as well, made for children. Renowned actress and arts advocate, Shirley Romaine, is narrator and host for the event.
Dance Visions NY presents both original works as well as the authentic dances of Isadora Duncan (1877-1927)—the revolutionary founder of modern dance, as passed on by the late Julia Levien and Hortense Kooluris, who were dancers with the Irma and Anna Duncan’s companies. Dance Visions NY has been paramount in enriching local audiences with the beauty of the Duncan Dance aesthetic.
“The dances by Duncan preserved by her disciples after her death in 1927 are as precise in form as they are eloquent in content… In the remarkable Schubert no. 9 in C Major (the Great) Duncan used only five dancers to interpret a mighty symphony. Yet the way they [the dancers] kept entering and exiting, plunging in diagonal patterns across the stage made them as impressive as an entire corps de ballet, their kinetic flow recalling the simple but miraculous rhythms of the human breath,” wrote Jack Anderson NY Times.
Dance Visions NY, based in Great Neck, was originally formed in 1990. They have performed extensively at throughout Long Island, the metropolitan area and beyond.
Located on the grounds of a former gold-coast estate, the Universalist Unitarian Congregation at Shelter Rock is a perfect venue for these Duncan-inspired dances celebrating nature and humanity. Breaking with convention in the early 20th century, Isadora developed a dance form that was derived from natural movements inspired by the Greek ideal, mythological archetypes and nature. Dance Visions NY brings these universal qualities, elements and images to life.
