Christmas A Dancers Christmas
By ARTHUR JONES
NCR Staff
At Christmas each year Bostonians
are reminded of what the rest of the world is less likely to know -- that
Jesuits have a tradition of dance.
Now in its 20th season at Boston College, A Dancers
Christmas is Jesuit dance in contemporary dress. Jesuit Fr. Robert
VerEecke, dancer-choreographer, stages the ballet annually in Boston
Colleges Robersham Theater Arts Center in Chestnut Hill, Mass. The
Boston Globe calls it a beautiful spiritual alternative to secular
Christmas shows.
Dance, said VerEecke, was a curriculum requirement at Jesuit
universities in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. That was highly
stylized royal court dance, some contrast to what VerEecke choreographs.
America magazine describes VerEeckes work as having a supple
eloquence that is anything but showy.
Not that VerEecke isnt part showman. The job of producer
calls for showmanship. Over the years, he has attracted such high-caliber guest
performers as Andrew Le Beau of the New York-based Paul Taylor Dance Company,
and dancers from Riverdance, the Irish music and dance show touring
North America, Europe and Asia.
VerEecke, 52, Boston Colleges artist-in-residence, limits
his own performance in Dancers Christmas to the role of a
lame beggar. Its a role that fits him, said VerEecke, who began
developing his dancing talent at age 5, if only for an audience of one,
himself, and a loyal family obliged to watch. Im a beggar in all
things, VerEecke said. Im a pastor.
A Dancers Christmas, performed to taped music,
is staged for seven nights in the middle of December, with two abridged
performances in Catholic schools. The nightly shows play to audiences of 400 to
500. Though VerEecke has rewritten elements of the three segments over the
years, the production remains similar to that presented for the first time two
decades ago: 10 dancers and an audience of four dozen in a college chapel.
Its basically the scriptural story of Christmas,
VerEecke said. The first act is called Triptych. In
earlier years, the opening was stories from Hebrew scriptures. It is danced to
The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
The opening changed after a retreat VerEecke made three years ago.
I was reading one of Benedictine Sebastian Moores books where he
said, We need to begin with the Passion and move back to the birth to try
to understand what this is about, VerEecke said. Thats
a direct quote.
VerEecke was inspired to rewrite the first act. I revisioned
the piece as a memory on the part of Mary, the mother of Jesus, after the
crucifixion. She is seeing what you are seeing on stage: a juxtaposition of the
images of birth and death. Its her memory of the Annunciation, the
Visitation and Nativity woven together with her memories of moments in
Jesus adult ministry -- such as the wedding feast at Cana.
The act closes with Mary downstage at the time of Jesus
birth while upstage behind her is the Pietà, Mary holding Jesus
body. Its an extremely affecting moment for people, he
said.
The middle act, a sort of Chaucerian interlude, comes from the
more boisterous and animated tradition of medieval mystery and morality plays
and traveling players. It is danced to medieval and Renaissance Christmas music
by the Boston Camarata.
Prime among the dancers are an angel, a bossy monk, children
cavorting and the lame beggar danced by VerEecke. Professional dancer Paul
Taylor has frequently danced the angel role.
Originally, when I first did this act, said VerEecke,
I
was trying to make a comment on the official churchs
uptightness about the body, and movement and celebration, through dance. So I
had this character, this very uptight monk who would come on stage and stop all
the dancing. As soon as he left the stage, everyone would start dancing again,
having a great time.
These days, in the second acts recently developed sequel,
The Town of Miracles, the monk is transfigured by watching from the
shadows everything in Act One, said VerEecke. His heart is transformed,
and he joins in the dance in Act Two, he said.
The final act, On the Eve, is danced to a suite of
Christmas carols. Pieces like, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,
Lo! How a Rose, What Child is This? Three
Ships.
A Dancers Christmas is a sizeable production --
50 dancers. Because of its large scale, the novel Noël dance performance
attracts much regional media coverage. All favorable.
National Catholic Reporter, December 22,
2000
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