Page 513 - Demo

A r t s :Kent Baker Keeps HalfA Dozen On Their ToesK e nt B a k e r, Director and C horeographer o f A Bakers H a lf D o ze n .BY JUDITH STUARTAt the comers of Vanderbilt Avenue and Sterling Place in Brooklyn stands the Old P.S. 9 school structure, looking as if it has been abandoned. When the city relocated that particular school site, it gave into community demands to rent the building to local artists for teaching and shows. In this unlikely setting, with paint peeling, a chill in the air, mirrors collected in a variety of shapes and sizes to meet some of the needs of a dance studio, Kent Baker conducts the business of his dance company, %u201c A Baker%u2019s Half Dozen,%u201d and his school. He uses the blackboards to articulate the various physical developments that are created in his choreography, that occur in movement as he sees it.Kent Baker began his training in dance when he was already in college. While at Southern Illinois University, enrolled as a Speefih major, he was exposed to modem dance techniques developed primarily by Alwin Nikolais, one of the leading dance companies in the United States. The dance program was connected to the Speech program and he continued his study in both areas.From college, Kent Baker went West, to California more specifically, where he found the study of dance to be too haphazard to satisfy his needs. Thus he traveled East to New York, where he soon became a member of the Phyllis Lamhut Dance Company.While %u201c A Baker%u2019s Half Dozen%u201d has been in operation for two years now, he still remains a member of Miss Lamhut%u2019s group. Baker refers to Lamhut as the %u201c mainstay of my growth in starting to dance%u201d . Now, he says, %u201c I%u2019m trying to find myself. I%u2019m not quite there yet but I think I%u2019m making progress. I%u2019m sure I%u2019ll probably stick with the Nikolais philosophy, at least as a way of holding things together.%u201dHe went on the explain: %u201c The things I stick to are Nikolais%u2019 basic philosophies of space, shape, time and motion, abstracted.%u201d It is %u201c a way of dancing which is the total body.%u201dTWO WORKS DEBUTThis weekend, October 20-22 at 8 p.m.,%u201c A Baker%u2019s Half Dozen%u201d will perform at Old P.S. 9. There will also be a children%u2019s matinee on October 22 at 2 p.m. The evening performances will include two new works, one of which was composed this past summer for outdoor concerts. Baker confessed to having been frustrated by this work. %u201c It had to be light and airy for the outdoors and I was in the mood to do something serious.%u201d Despite the struggle, though %u2018Spatial Delight%u2019 pleased him, at least %u201c for that kind of piece%u201d .The other new work on the program bears the name of a prehistoric dinosaur, %u201c Ichthyosauria%u201d . Baker created this as a solo for himself and when he performs sections of it in the children%u2019s performance, the title is shortened to %u201c Ick%u201d . In fact, the children%u2019s concert consists of segments of all the works, no one piece lasting more than eight minutes. That program will be narrated by puppets, provided by the Big Apple Puppet Company under the direction of Bob Wollencheck. %This was made possible through the Brooklyn Arts and Cultural Association (BACA) program.%u2018For Openers%u2019 and %u2018Equilibria%u2019 have been reworked to new music and the remainder of the repertory, including the charming %u2018Suite Country%u2019, remains the same as performed in previous engagements.Kent Baker and his company members still need to work outside the performance area in order to support themselves. The company survives on donations, small grants from the city and BACA, bake and candy sales and the like. Baker feels that in another two years he will be in a position to pay his dancers steadily.%u201c In the fall of 1976, at our first concert, the audience consisted of a few friends. At the next there were thirty to forty people. Last spring there were one hundred and fifty people at the three performances.%u201d Growth has been evidenced, yet will take time. The dancers understand, want to work with him, and are willing to accept the fees made possible by the sporadic grant money that comes in.PLANS FOR THE FUTUREAfter this concert, Kent Baker is planning a new system of working with his dancers. They are very diverse in theirbackgrounds, most having come from different methods of training. Although they have shown themselves to work well together to date, a credit to Baker himself, Baker tends %u201cto work more individually with them for a while.%u201d He is attempting an even greater cohesiveness than has already been achieved.Concurrent with the development of the company, there is the start of a school at Old 9. While most of the students are community people who %u2018just want to dance and exercise%u2019, Kent Baker hopes to attract %u2018dancers%u2019 and to create a fully professional school. Since many of the World%u2019s finest schools for dance exist right over the bridge in Manhattan, it is immenselydifficult to start something new in one of the boroughs. Nevertheless, with the heightened interest in dance, there is a greater need for good local schools. Young people should not have to travel all the way into the city when there are good facilities nearer home.The October 20-22 concert tickets can be purchased at the door for $3.50, $2.50 for students and senior citizens. On advance sale tickets there will be a dollar discount. TDF vouchers are also accepted. The tickets are on sale in Old P.S. 9 from 9-5 and the number to call for information during the day is 783-2011. In the evening, call 499-5620.Debroah Aquiia (left) as Jacqueline and Marilyn Beck as Mrs. Ogre in theHeights Player's presentation of %u201c Once Upon A Vine or Jacqueline and theBeanstalk.%u201d%u2018Jack and the Beanstalk%u2019Goes Modern for KidsBY MIRIAM KUZNETSA surprisingly entertaining and profes-. sional modern version of the familiar tale of %u201c Jack and the Beanstalk,%u201d aptly titled %u201c Once upon a Vine...or Jacqueline and the Beanstalk,%u201d is being presented at the Heights Players Theatre for Children.The story remains basicallv the same but has been brightened with colored lights, dancing, music and audience participation. The story also has several serious messages conveyed skillfully between the fun and the giggling. Loud applause came from both the children and the adults at every appropriate moment.In case %u201cJack and the Beanstalk%u201d was not included in your fairy tales, it has entertained children for many years. Jacqueline, (played by Deborah Aquiia, who is gifted with both a sweet face and voice) is a poor girl living along with her mother. She is forced to go to the local fair to sell the cow who has gone dry. At the fair she is approached by amusing and skilled tapdancing vendors all trying to make a buck. No one is interested in purchasing the cow until a peddler enters the scene. The peddler convinces Jacqueline to trade the cow for some %u201c magic%u201d beans. Jacqueline%u2019s mother is extremely angry because she sees no magic in her beans. Jacqueline manages to the vine (her mother cannot see this vine), and when asked why she must olimh it she replies, %u201c Because it is there.%u201d She steals the bag of gold, the hen that lays golden eggs and the golden harp from the mean ogre%u2019s castle. Jacqueline and her mother hug and of course everyone lives happily ever after.But this play is not just comical. Mostimportant it is instructive. The children are shown that Jacqueline is not shy and passive as a girl %u201c should be.%u201d She believes in herself. Even though she has no father, little money or friends, Jacqueline has happiness because she does have the love her m other gives her and she has imagination. Jacqueline tries to make the hen, symbolizing security, the golden harp, symbolizing creativity and the bag of gold, symbolizing prosperity, work separately. The message that money is not everything is also conveyed in the lyrics of one song, %u201c Not always gold glitters, life is not to be bought or sold. %u201dThe costumes and the sets are simple and m ulti-functional. The actors are community players. Regina Rodnite who plays the cow and a human bean is especially charming and graceful. The technical aspects were quite complex. The music was appropriate to each change. Wind chimes, a slide whistle, bongo drums, piano, trumpet and beads in an old vitamin jar provided special sounds for special moments.The adults loved the performance. One woman%u2019s shoulders were shaking with a good laugh throughout the play, it%u2019s delightful for children ages five to fifty. The play is having such a well deserved popular response that the Brooklyn Heights Players were invited to the Hunterfd llp tJ P Plavhnllc#> fr,r a Nn,r%u00bbmW 11performance.The play can be viewed October 21-22, 2 p.m. at the Heights Players Theatre, located at 26 Willow Place in Brooklyn Heights. For more informational call 237-2752.October 19,1978, THE PHOENIX, Page 17