Ballet Mink Colbert

Newsletter - Ballet Mink Colbert at UNLV HFA January 31, 2009

Transit(ion) II – Dancing on the Edge of a Dream

A modern ballet about migration & immigration.

In the second part of the Transit(ion) trilogy, we’re back in New York in the 1910’s, 20’s and 30’s. Reexperiencing the trek across the ocean and the trials of arriving at Ellis Island is in sharp contrast to the new life. The Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe have settled in and found a place for themselves in American culture.

A new generation has grown up insisting on becoming full-blooded Americans. They are discarding the traditions of the old country, refusing to speak Yiddish and pursuing careers according to talent and inclination, rather than restrictive rules and expectations. The generation and culture gap between parents and offspring widens.

Many of the young American Jews embraced the arts with a passion -musicians, composers, moviemakers, scriptwriters, authors, painters, sculptors, singers and dancers - all struggling to make their voice heard, and many succeeding. Even women.

Based on her own family history, numerous books, articles and music, Margot Mink Colbert has created a new ballet in her characteristic choreographic vocabulary: technical finesse and flowing elegance, spiced with a touch of humor and occasional dansant lightness. As the father in Anzia Yezierska’s novel ‘Bread Givers’ says to his headstrong and emancipated daughter, who wants to be an American girl, a ‘person’ in her own right, she is ‘Blood and Iron’

Concept and Choreography: Margot Mink Colbert

Composers: Gerswin, Clark, Copland, Harburg, Arlen, Kahn, Korngold and others.

Dancers: Sophie Devore, Tamara Lohrenz, John Bruun, Theresa Duhon, Jan Gonscak, Dolly Kelepecz and Rose Rørdam.

Narrator: Svend Bunch

Technical Director: Thomas Bek

Ballet Mink Colbert is suported in part by Nevada Arts Council, University of Nevada Las Vegas & MBT/Teaterkalenderen.

Transit(ion) II premiered in Copenhagen, DK June 13th, 2008 and has also been performed at the Medicine Show Theater in New York City, NY August 2nd.

Transit(ion) features dancers Sophie DeVore, Tamara Lohrenz, Clarice Rathers, Theresa Duhon, Jon Gonscak & Mark Lovas…narrator Svend Bunch…technical director Thomas Bek…and original klezmer music performed live by Henrik Goldschmidt and his ensemble.

This year choreographer Margot Mink Colbert gives us a very personal and yet universal story about migration and immigration. It is a story about thousands of European Jews who traveled the long route to America in the late 1800s and early 1900s, arrived at Ellis Island and then settled in New York City’s lower east side in pursuit of freedom and the promise of becoming equal citizens in their new homeland. With her usual twinkle in the eye and eclectic approach to classical ballet techniques, Mink Colbert tells a story true to her sources of inspiration: the author I.B. Singer’s characters, Jewish folklore, her own family, the phenomenon of the impermanence of home, and the miracle of existence.