Four Quartets: A Memorable Dance Performance For Our Times
As performance venues across the country are shutting their doors to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus performers, presenters, and audiences are finding new and unique ways to experience or re-experience moving works of art. Rom Teicholz shares his thoughts about Four Quartets by Pam Tenowitz, performed at Royce Hall with UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance in February. Watch another CAP UCLA performance, available on YouTube— Grammy Award-winning South African choral group, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, performing to an empty Royce Hall auditorium. Watch the performance on YouTube.
"Coronavirus has given me the opportunity to catch up—to write about exhibitions, performances, books, that I had meant to address but that slipped by until Coronavirus got in the way. I feel like Larry David who has finally found the perfect excuse for avoiding going out and social interactions—sorry I can’t because it’s shut down/I’m socially distancing.
Four Quartets © REED HUTCHINSON 2020 But that doesn’t mean that, alone in my guest room turned office-for-the-moment, and with internet access, I don’t recall and relish those experiences. Over the next week (or weeks as the case may be) I will recall a few.
Four Quartets by Pam Tanowitz
Way back in the middle of February (which now feels like the middle of last century), I attended a matinee performance of T.S. Eliot’s ‘Four Quartets’ as choreographed and staged by Pam Tanowitz at Royce Hall presented by CAP UCLA. The poem was read by actress Katherine Chalfant, the score was by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho as performed by The Knights, and the scenic design by Clifton Taylor has four paintings by Brice Marden as its backdrop.
Four Quartets is a dance work so striking and so unique that honestly, I’ve been mulling it ever since. The UCLA performance was only the third performance of Tanowitz’s “Four Quartets” following a premiere at Bard College and a performance in London. Kristy Edmunds, executive and artistic director of CAP UCLA deserves credit for bringing this performance to Los Angeles.
Eliot’s poem published in the midst of World War Two is a meditation on time, religion, spirituality. The four poems thread unrelated themes which while not directly connected nonetheless express form a complete experience. At the time I saw the performance, I had no idea it would resonate with greater relevance during the current crisis. Now, I can’t stop thinking about it."— Tom Teicholz, Mar. 31, 2020
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the Forbes website.
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