DaNCe2U #mentalhealth Performance and Panel Tour
Ohio State Dance and BalletMet 2 Collaborative 2019-2020 Tour utilizes dance to ignite discussion about mental health issues with two 20th Century choreographic masterworks excerpts: the ballet The Four Temperaments by George Balanchine and the modern dance Rooms by Anna Sokolow.
DaNCe2U #mentalhealth tours two masterworks in the dance canon to foster discussion about mental health and its stigma, Anna Sokolow’s Rooms from 1954 set to music by Kenyon-Hopkins and George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments from 1946 set to music by Hindemith. The Four Temperaments refers to the four humors of the Ancient Greek Philosophy: sanguine, choleric, melancholic, and phlegmatic. Rooms, sections “Alone” (isolation), “Panic” (anxiety), “Desire” (unrequited love), “The End” (inner turmoil) and “Daydream” (feelings of longing) all align with aspects of mental health in today’s society.
Restaging of George Balanchine’s “Third Theme” from The Four Temperaments in collaboration with BalletMet 2 and ©The George Balanchine Trust
Director of Education, BalletMet 2 Associate Director and Alumna Ambre Emory-Maier, partnered with Dr. Valarie Williams, professor at The Ohio State University, to research, reconstruct, and direct from Ann Hutchinson Guest’s and Mary Corey’s Labanotation scores of George Balanchine’s 1946 “Third Theme” from the masterwork The Four Temperaments with the support of The Ohio State University Energy Partners Grant sponsored by Engie. Students in Williams’ Analysis class and dancers from the BalletMet 2 company collaborated on master classes and rehearsals with ©The George Balanchine Trust Répétiteur Paul Boos during his September Residency.