Oberon's Glade

Tag: Robin Becker

  • Robin Becker’s INTO SUNLIGHT: A Documentary

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    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.

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    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.

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    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.

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    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.”

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    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

  • Robin Becker’s INTO SUNLIGHT

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    Above: the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington DC

    Friday October 25th, 2013 – My association with Robin Becker’s dancework INTO SUNLIGHT, set during the Vietnam War era, stretches back to November 2010 when my dancer/friend Paul (Oisin) Monaghan suggested that Kokyat and I drop in to one of Robin’s rehearsals. I was immediately drawn to Robin’s movement style and to the theme of the work.

    Inspired by Pulitzer prize-winning author David Maraniss’s book THEY MARCHED INTO SUNLIGHT,
    Robin Becker has crafted an hour-long dancework with a musical score by Chris
    Lastovicka. While the events depicted –
    the ambush of a batallion of American soldiers in the Vietnam jungle and
    the protest against Dow Chemical at the University of Wisconsin – took
    place on two consecutive days in October of 1967, INTO SUNLIGHT
    resonates far beyond those specific incidents, and will continue to
    resonate as long as mankind resorts to warfare as a way of settling
    religious and idelogical differences – differences which will never be settled anyway.

    INTO SUNLIGHT was shown in June 2011 at the 92nd Street Y; now it has come to
    the Florence Gould Theater. For the most part, the leading dancers have
    retained their roles from the original cast: Nicole Sclafani, Yoko Sagimoto-Ikezawa, Lisa Clementi, Oisin Monaghan, Chazz Fenner-McBride and Edwardo Brito.  Sarah Parker is new to the Company and makes a beautiful impression.

    Over the two years since I saw this dancework, the original dancers have matured: in physique, technique and stagecraft, they now give the work more nuance and complexity while maintaining their individual appeal as personalities. This developmental process has given INTO SUNLIGHT a more polished and compelling look, without sacrificing freshness. The Company are supplemented by an ensemble of nine young dancers who bring their own faces and forms into play.

    Among the most vivid moments of INTO SUNLIGHT are
    two duets: in one, Nicole Sclafani and Paul Monaghan depict the dream a
    young woman had of her brother’s horrific death from a massive abdominal
    wound – a dream which came true. Later – in the work’s most poignant passage – Yoko Sugimoto-Ikezawa visits
    the grave of her beloved (the ensemble dancer Ricky Wenthen) where she seeks to
    connect with his spirit.

    There is also an animated trio for three soldiers – Oisin Monaghan, Chazz
    Fenner-McBride and Edwardo Brito – recalling the innocent rough-housing of their younger days while dealing with the realities of serving in a war in a far-away land and watching their buddies being killed or maimed. Chazz also has a physically demanding solo depicting the moment that West Point football hero Don
    Holleder rushed heedlessly onto the battleground towards his vanquished
    comrades only to be gunned down. The three boys are distinctive stage personalities: Oisin, pale and enigmatic; Edwardo with his easy moves, handsome torso and expressive face; and Chazz, who has lost his puppy-dog boyishness and is now a muscularized young man, moving with compelling energy.

    The work shifts between solemn rites and more animated emsemble passages; only near the end does the balance go off somewhat: the final two movements are perfomed mostly in slow-motion, the dancers re-arranging themselves in structures which then dissolve and re-form. As lovely as this is to watch, after a while it can’t sustain us visually and our focus begins to falter. Some compression here would make for a more powerful experience as the work moves to its pensive conclusion.

    But despite this concern, INTO SUNLIGHT is beautifully performed: it’s a dancework that is thought-provoking and meaningful, even as civilization continues to blunder thru war after war. I congratulate Robin Becker, Chris Lastovicka, and everyone involved in bringing this work to the stage.