Six Diverse Dance Pieces in Our Spacious Sanctuary Space
The highly regarded and always innovative Olga Dunn Dance Company will perform at Saint James Place on May 15th at 7:00 pm. We’re thrilled to have the company here as the first performance – live dance performance at Saint James Place! – since the shut-down of arts, culture and music venues here in the Berkshires. Read on to learn more!
The Olga Dunn Dance Company celebrates a unique blend of diverse movement styles, unusual music choices, and theatrical humor – perfect for our Sanctuary stage. Saint James Place has space for social distancing and state-of-the-art ventilations systems. Now is the time to come out and enjoy this wonderful dance performance featuring dancer Ava Girard.
We had the opportunity to catch up with artistic director and choreographer Olga Dunn to ask her a few questions about the performance and how the dance company has navigated the pandemic.
SJP: How did your dance company hold up during the pandemic? What were the challenges? Any joys?
Olga: There WERE joys during the pandemic: we released a film that is now on YouTube and our website; Long-time supporters continued to do so with donations, contact with our film, Instagram, and Zoom gatherings; our board members redoubled their efforts and time to help keep us going; keeping in touch with Company dancers with FaceTime, texting, and one-on-one rehearsals; and continuing to produce new work and plan for near future dates.
The challenges during the pandemic? Wearing masks while dancing; not being able to have group rehearsals; two of our dancers have young children and were unable to access child care. We have held up so far by focusing on the positives!
SJP: Why are you ready now to do a live performance at Saint James Place?
Olga: We trust the scientists, Governor Baker, the vaccination processes success, and the extremely cautious and considerate community we will perform for. All of these suggest that, with unique mandates, we can safely schedule certain performances for certain dates, like the upcoming performance at Saint James Place.
SJP: Tell us about the performance!
Olga: The show is titled “Six by One” and features one of our dancers, Ava Girard. Ava will perform six very diverse pieces – 4 pieces are premieres. The accompaniment ranges from a Billie Holliday song to a popular poem, and more. The entire program will last about forty minutes. By reservation only: call 413.528.9674. Masks are required, of course. The performance is free with donations appreciated.
SJP: What are you looking forward to as far as your company and performance in 2021?
Olga: We are looking forward to more performing! Besides May 15th, we are already also booked for Friday, July 30th, and Saturday, July 31st ( July 31st we will be back at Saint James with a group performance). We are currently in the midst of more projects and plans to be ready for other bookings.
Again, to register for the performance, call 413.528.9674. The performance is free but donations are welcomed.
Thanks, Olga! Please follow the Olga Dunn Dance Company on Facebook and Instagram. Watch a recent performance film on this YouTube channel.