Press Release

Caitlin Corbett Dance Company presents Tom’s Wealth: A Dance for the Masses

September 19 & 20, 2008, 8 pm
Tsai Performance Center at Boston University
685 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Tickets $25, students/seniors $12 (general admission)
Box Office: (617) 353-8725

Choreographer Caitlin Corbett presents Tom’s Wealth: A Dance for the Masses, an evening length piece for 35 performers: five Caitlin Corbett Dance Company dancers and 30 non-dancers (men, women and children) based on text taken from Mark Twain’s *Tom Sawyer.

Dancers: Leah Bergmann, Erin Koh, Rebecca Lay, Kaela Lee, Marjorie Morgan

At a time when the amassing of huge fortunes has resulted in global calamities (the crash of the housing market, soaring fuel prices, food shortages, climate change), the 16 “treasures” that Tom Sawyer collects as trade for an opportunity to whitewash a fence remind us of the invaluable beauty and pleasure that can be found in simple objects and everyday moments. Corbett and fellow artists Chris Eastburn, music; Akos Szilvasi, photography; and Ann Steuernagel, production design, use this text as the score with which to structure the choreography, music and set design. Corbett further accentuates Twain’s theme of openness by incorporating into the piece the frank and vulnerable performances of the non-dancers. Says Corbett of Tom’s Wealth rehearsal process, “Working with 30 nondancers has been a thrill. My work steps away from hierarchy and virtuosity and celebrates human gesture and the everyday. I have long been interested in idiosyncrasy as a way of communicating something profoundly personal. Additionally, and really an extension of this set of ideas, I am interested in redefining the very narrow and unimaginative standards of beauty in our culture today. Seeing these people perform the simplest gesture takes my breath away.”

*“And when the middle of the afternoon came, from being a poor poverty-stricken boy in the morning, Tom was literally rolling in wealth. He had&helip; twelve marbles, part of a jews-harp, a piece of blue bottle-glass to look through, a spool cannon, a key that wouldn’t unlock anything, a fragment of chalk, a glass stopper of a decanter, a tin soldier, a couple of tadpoles, six fire-crackers, a kitten with only one eye, a brass doorknob, a dog collar-but no dog, the handle of a knife, four pieces of orange-peel, and a dilapidated old window sash."

Caitlin Corbett, artistic director of Caitlin Corbett Dance Company, has been presenting work in the Boston area since 1984. Most recently, Caitlin has received a Fulbright fellowship to teach and create new choreographic work in Helsinki, Finland in the spring of 2009. Corbett’s early involvement with the leading voices of New York’s avant-garde helped shape an aesthetic that juxtaposes the sublime beauty of everyday movement with the innovation of contemporary dance. Caitlin received her BA from Bennington College where she studied with Martha Wittman and Judson choreographer Judith Dunn. She also holds a MFA from Massachusetts College of Art. She has danced with Johanna Boyce, Lisa Kraus, Wendy Perron and Susan Rethorst. Her work has been shown in Boston, Los Angeles, and New York City. She has received commissions from Dance Umbrella and First Night as well as grants from the New England Foundation for the Arts, Massachusetts Cultural Council and Cambridge Arts Council and a Carnegie Foundation Copper Scholarship. Caitlin is an Associate Professor at Salem State College where she teaches dance.

Christopher Eastburn is a music director, arranger and award-winning composer. In addition to composing music for Tom’s Wealth, in the past year Chris orchestrated a piece that was performed twice at Carnegie Hall, composed a string orchestra and chorus score about the triangle trade for the Moses Brown School, and composed an evening length score for Island Moving Co. called Newport Stories. His chamber opera-ballet score Consent to Gravity is being produced in the upcoming season by Enterprise Opera Co. where he is composer in residence. For more information on Chris’s work, see also www.eastburnmusic.com.

Ann Steuernagel is an experimental video and sound artist who has collaborated with Caitlin Corbett for over 20 years. Ann’s work has been presented throughout the United States and in Canada, Mexico, and Europe. She is the recipient of the grand prize at the XX VideoArt Festival in Locarno, Switzerland, a Massachusetts Cultural Council Media Fellowship, a LEF grant, and a fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Ann is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Design at Northeastern University.

Akos Szilvasi is a photographer who was born in Hungary in 1955. In 1985, shortly after graduating from medical school, he left communist Hungary to live in Germany during which time he began working with black and white photography. In 1989, he came to Boston and freelanced for local newspapers like the Boston Phoenix and Stock Boston, a photo agency, while also maintaining a day job in biotechnology. Akos is primarily a portrait photographer although recently, he has begun photographing events in a journalistic style. Please visit his website at www.secondfloorstudio.com.

“Her movement vocabulary - which is lush and spare at once - is so distinctive that it has the kinesthetic effect of a rich flavor lingering on your tongue&helip; Corbett’s work not only addresses intellectual questions but also has humor and heart.” —Thea Singer, Boston Globe

“Caitlin Corbett has been presenting intelligent, well-crafted works in the Boston area since 1984. One of the most assured of Boston area’s choreographers&helip;” —Iris Fanger, Boston Herald

“;A perfect postmodernist&helip; the work was honest, engaging, physically and emotionally dangerous, and unpredictable.” —Christine Temin, Boston Globe

“One of Boston’s foremost choreographers is entering her prime. All seven dances by Caitlin Corbett, shown last night at the Tower Auditorium, are examples of stunning organization and infinite expression.” —Theodore Bale, Boston Herald

More photos of Tom’s Wealth may be seen in the Photo Gallery.