Susan Hess Modern Dance

In Performance

Saturday, May 30, 8 p.m.
IN PERFORMANCE:
REMEMBERING DANIEL NAGRIN
Featuring classic Nagrin solos performed by
Shane O’Hara and Donald Laney
TICKET PRICE: $15

Photo credit: R. Finkelstein

This special one-night performance at the Hess Studio offers rare glimpses into the life and work of late legendary modern dancer, choreographer, author, and teacher Daniel Nagrin. Featured are Nagrin’s classic solos Strange Hero, Path, Wordgame, and Someone, performed by Shane O’Hara, associate professor at James Madison University and a dance-theater artist. O’Hara was selected as artistic director of the Nagrin Foundation by Nagrin himself, prior to the artist’s passing at age 91 in December 2008.

"Daniel had an unyielding passion and dedication to the art of performing," O’Hara says of his longtime mentor and collaborator. "And that’s something that I took from him that’s always helped me push my work forward."

In addition to O’Hara’s faithful interpretations of these works, Donald Laney, co-Artistic Director of West Virginia Dance Company, will perform another of Nagrin’s most famous pieces, Spanish Dance. The show also presents original video materials provided by The Nagrin Project and never-before-seen clips from the SHMD’s archives that chronicle Nagrin’s participation in SHMD’s Five American Dance Pioneers, a lecture and film series the studio hosted in 1984. Susan Hess and Dance/USA Philadelphia Director Lois Welk, both of whom studied and worked extensively with Nagrin, will share their memories of this pioneering choreographer known as the "Great Loner of American Dance."

Susan Hess Modern Dance
2030 Sansom Street, Third Floor
Philadelphia PA 19103
Contact hessdance@aol.com for more information.