Above: dancers Yoko Sugimoto-Ikezawa and Joseph Jehle in a 2011 performance of Robin Becker’s INTO SUNLIGHT at the 92nd Street Y; photo by Kokyat
~ Author: Oberon
Thursday September 27th, 2018 – Having followed the development of Robin Becker’s profoundly moving anti-war dancework INTO SUNLIGHT from its early rehearsals in 2010, I was honored to be invited to a screening of the new documentary film about the piece this evening.
Robin Becker did not set out to create a dancework about the Vietnam War; her idea was to make a piece that would grow out of her sense of helpless despair when the US commenced its war against Iraq. In researching for her project, she came upon David Maraniss’s book THEY MARCHED INTO SUNLIGHT. She immediately felt its power as a depiction of the human aspects of war and of war’s effect on both the people fighting it and on their loved ones waiting at home for them to return (or not), as well as thoughtful citizens enraged by the policies and careless disdain for the value of human life of the politicians who wage wars.
INTO SUNLIGHT was inspired by the David Maraniss book ‘They Marched Into Sunlight‘, an account of two days in October 1967 when “…war was raging in Vietnam as the anti-war movement was raging in America.” I’m eyeing my copy of the book on my bookshelf as I write this, and will start re-reading it in a few days.
The book – and the ballet – revolve around two events that took place on those days in October of 1967: the ambush of a battalion of American soldiers in the Vietnam jungle, and a protest against the Dow Chemical Company at the University of Wisconsin.
Robin Becker has given the tragic tale a new dimension thru her choreography. Set to a score Chris Lastovicka, Robin’s ballet entwines both threads of the book – the war abroad and the reaction at home – in a cohesive narrative, as dark and haunting as any dancework I have witnessed. Along with Jacqulyn Buglisi’s deeply resonant TABLE OF SILENCE, INTO SUNLIGHT stands as a truly meaningful dance experience. Both works share a common root: they are about something.
Watch a trailer for INTO SUNLIGHT here. And visit the documentary’s website here.
Above: Robin Becker and company photographed while in Vietnam in 2015 for performances of INTO SUNLIGHT
Ron Honsa’s film is outstanding on every count. He brings us gorgeously-shot performance footage, segments of Ms. Becker and David Maraniss speaking of the connection between the dancework and the book; and Mr. Honsa follows the Becker company to Vietnam, where INTO SUNLIGHT was performed in 2015.
But Mr. Honsa delves deeper, bringing us interviews with people whose lives were permanently affected by the events of October 1967: Consuelo Allen, Clark Welch, and Paul Solgin.
Consuelo Allen’s father, Lieutenant Colonel Terry Allen, Jr., had been home on leave and was saying goodbye to his family before heading back to Vietnam when his five-year-old daughter Consuelo cried out: “You can’t leave! You’re going to die!” On that fatal morning of October 17, 1967, as he led his Black Lions battalion on a search-and-destroy mission in the Long Nguyen Secret Zone, Terry Allen, Jr. and sixty of his men were killed in an ambush.
Clark Welch was one of Terry’s commanders. He suffers extreme mental torment over the loss of his men. Both Clark and Consuelo are deeply touching as the tell their stories for the film.
Paul Solgin was one of the demonstrators at the University of Wisconsin; many of the demonstrators sustained injury at the hands of club-swinging police. Ironically, their freedom of speech and of dissent might be thought to be among the ideals that the soldiers serving in Vietnam were fighting to protect.
Above: me and Robin Becker after the 92nd Y showing of INTO SUNLIGHT in 2011; photo by Kokyat.
Among the audience at this evening’s showing of the documentary was dancer Nicole Sclafani, who plays a major role in Robin Becker’s INTO SUNLIGHT. In the ballet, Nicole’s duet with Oisín Monaghan depicts a woman who dreamed of the death of her brother from a horrific abdominal wound sustained in battle, only to awaken the next day to find that her dream was prophetic.
Another true story that is told in INTO SUNLIGHT is of the death of West Point football hero Don Holleder, who – with his comrades – rushed headlong onto the battlefield that October morning and was immediately gunned down. Compellingly danced by Chazz Fenner-McBride, it’s one of the ballet’s heart-stopping moments.
Yet another of the most poignant scenes in the dancework is that of a young widow, danced by Yoko Sugimoto-Ikezawa, visiting the grave of her soldier-husband, portrayed in the film by Ricky Werthen. The distraught woman clings to the gravestone, unable to comprehend the loss of her beloved.
This was written by me after initially reading Mr. Maraniss’s book:
“For all the emotional power behind the factual re-telling of these events, by far the most overwhelming aspect of the story comes many years after the incidents when the leaders of the two factions who met on that battlefield that October morning meet once again – now old warriors – and explore the anonymous patch of Vietnamese land where so many young men (from both sides) laid down their lives. If only the two commanders could have met before the battle, they might have realized their differences were vastly outweighed by their common humanity. They could have shaken hands and walked back to their respective camps, refusing to kill each other simply because someone had told them it was the thing to do.”
UPDATE: This documentary will be shown at AMC Loew’s on Saturday October 20th at 4:00 PM as part of the Chelsea Film Festival.
~ Oberon
Oberon's Glade 