INTERVIEW: Sokolow’s ‘Rooms’ takes on new meaning during COVID-19 pandemic
Photo: Margherita Tisato performs in Rooms2020, presented by Sokolow Theatre / Dance Ensemble. Photo courtesy of Sam Waxman / Provided by Michelle Tabnick PR with permission.
When choreographer Anna Sokolow created the unconventional dance piece Rooms in 1955, she was responding to the newfound isolation and privacy in the post-World War II years. The topical thrust of the dance, according to press notes, dealt with worries over the Atomic Age, the Red Scare and a mid-century polio epidemic.
These themes have become even more prescient and powerful in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that’s why Sokolow Theatre / Dance Ensemble is reviving the work for a virtual presentation, dubbed Rooms2020. (Prophetically, the company had made the original decision to revive the work back in 2019, and then the world was turned upside down. Rather than outright cancel, they pivoted to a Zoom presentation.)
Samantha Geracht, artistic director of the dance company, performed with Sokolow’s Player’s Project for 11 years, according to her official biography. She has served as artistic director of the company for the past three years, having served as a founding member before that. She, along with directors Eleanor Bunker and Lauren Naslund, has been instrumental in mounting Rooms2020, which will premiere Thursday, June 25 at 7 p.m. on the company’s official website.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Geracht about what audience members can expect from Rooms2020. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
How long has the company been working on Rooms? What originally inspired the company to tackle this piece?
Sokolow Theatre / Dance Ensemble began work on Rooms for this spring season’s concerts last fall; 2020 is the 65th anniversary of Rooms. I decided to pair Rooms on the concert, which was to be titled Real & Surreal, with Sokolow’s surrealist masterpiece Magritte Magritte (1970) — celebrating its 50th anniversary this year — because the arc connecting the two theatre pieces shows both of these Sokolow works as ground-breaking dances.
Did the piece take on new meaning when the pandemic hit?
All of a sudden we were living Rooms: Literally closed in our homes, facing our fears and emotions head-on. It was crazy. We all felt it immediately and viscerally. I don’t think the emotional pull of Rooms is ever dated, but what had been an artistic emotional investigation became everyone’s present story. It became impossible to think about Rooms as anything else.
When we began Zoom rehearsals, I actually switched the company to rehearsing another dance in order to give us time to process and manage all of our reactions to quarantine and Rooms. We filmed an international cast performance of The Unanswered Question (1971) on Zoom — which is more of a prayer. Then we could all take a deep breath and get back to Rooms.
How difficult is it to present the dance virtually?
What started off as a way for us to continue work, for our own sanity, became an enormous undertaking. We had to learn how to coach the dancers over Zoom. We were six weeks away from performance when everything shut down, so the company was close to performance level when we left the studio. But details can easily be lost, and Lauren [Naslund], Ellie [Bunker] and I went back to directing the sections until everyone was back to their best versions.
We could work on timing for the group sections, but with music delays over Zoom, that can be complicated, too. I actually started sending the company timestamps for certain entrances.
Lauren is in charge of the film. She is editing the whole thing. We agreed from the beginning that the whole project had to be done with what the dancers had at home. I didn’t send them the costumes; they are dressed in their own clothes, using their own furniture and filming with their phones.
It was also important that there were no handheld shots, which would inherently imply another person’s presence, so the dancers could not ask roommates to film them. We had to have one-on-one rehearsals with each dancer to figure exactly where in their spaces they should film the dance, what time of day, what lighting from various lamps helped. Each dance required several different camera angles and sometimes changes of location. The dancers had to carry their laptops and phones all over their apartments so that we could see how their shots were set up.
The whole company was very good-humored about it while we were all learning. The dancers would film on their own, upload all of their footage to the company Google drive, and then Lauren could go through and use footage to edit the dance together. If she was missing something, the dancers would go back and retake.
For example, in ‘Going,’ we need to hear the sound of the dancer’s claps and hands slapping the floor. Brad had to film himself while wearing earbuds so that Lauren could use the ambient sound — but his timing would be correct. So there were many details to presenting this virtually. As I said, Lauren is driving this project, but I also have to say that the dancers have been incredible. It is only because of their commitment to making this work, and the time it takes to do it, that we could present this virtual production.
How much of the 1955 choreography is still retained for this 2020 interpretation?
Rooms is Rooms. It is the original choreography. It is the format that is new. There are a few places where we made slight changes because of spatial constraints, as well as a few acknowledgements that the dancers are performing at home rather than on stage. The realism of the apartments changes how we see the dance, and as directors we have tried to accommodate that for the audience. In that sense, this virtual film has some additional layers that we would strip back down for the stage, but this is the real thing.
How much has the coronavirus set back your dance company?
This was a hard spring. We were supposed to perform at the Mark O’Donnell Theatre at the Actors Fund Arts Center and then again at NYLA. Six-and-a-half months of rehearsals without a concert is heartbreaking. The biggest setback is fundraising. We usually do our important fundraising events in the spring, just before the concert. That didn’t happen — and then, of course, the loss of ticket sales. That has all been difficult for us. I don’t know how long it is going to be before we are allowed back in the studio, or anyone wants to sit in a theatre. For now, we are set to teach Rooms excerpts remotely to quite a few dance programs in the fall. And, of course, we have a few more virtual ideas up our sleeve — stay tuned.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Sokolow Theatre / Dance Ensemble, led by artistic director Samantha Geracht, will present Rooms2020 Thursday, June 25 at 7 p.m. Click here for more information on the virtual presentation.
