Contact for Staging
  Doris Humphrey Dances
Educational Performance Collection
Fees
Performance Rights
Solos to Stage
Stagings Around the World
Staging from the Score
 
 

>SOLOS AVAILABLE FOR STAGING

Sokolow, Anna

 Ballade (1965). Excerpts.

Music: Alexander Scriabin
Notation: 1974-1978, score checked, inked and tested through a restaging
Costumes: Constructed dresses for women, shirt and trousers for men.
Consultancy: Required

Ballade came upon the dance world like a fresh spring shower. It showed Sokolow in a poetic and lyrical mood as she choreographed scenes of lovers playing the age old theme of youth and its discoveries. Dancers need strong dramatic ability and must be technically advanced.

 Woman's Solo, 1:20: A woman enters expecting to meet her lover. She is alone. What follows is a quiet dance during which she has moments of reflection on her beauty. Finally her lover returns. (The man enters for a brief moment only at the end of the solo).

 Man's solo, 1:50: The solo is based on images of Nijinsky, but obviously it is not danced balletically. Some images such as the faun on his rock, Les Orientales and Narcissus are very clear. Most of all, the solo is danced with the animal quality associated with Nijinsky.

 Dreams (1961). Excerpts

Music: Collage (For these two solos, music is by Teo Macero, permission and fees required.)
Notation: 1974, unchecked pencil copy used by notator for restagings. Simple notation.
Costumes: Street clothes
Prop: Drumming solo requires a three legged stool
Consultancy: Required
For all solos, strong dramatic ability and advanced technique are required.


Dreams is Ms. Sokolow's personal indictment of Nazi Germany. It is a despairing theatrical work that developed from personal dreams to be shaped over the next few years by her shocking outrage at the Holocaust. "They may have given you a number but we know your name." Sokolow (The titles are those of the notator).

 Man's solo: ?min.: A man escaping. He has been running for hours and has his second wind. His pursuers draw near. He hears them. He screams. He is weak, collapses, but continues to run. Silent screams. vomiting and breaking his bonds result in his frantic attempt to rub the numbers off his wrist. We witness his last moments in the gas chamber.

 Drummer solo: Man's solo, ?min.: A boy, snatched from his life as a drummer is alone in his small cell. Who knows how long he has been there? Who knows what he does to keep his sanity? He finds two pieces of wood which remind him of drum sticks. They slowly bring him into a frenetic dream world where he becomes the greatest. No matter where he looks the drum is everywhere . He reaches ecstacy. The lights black out as he tries to recall the words of a song he once knew. (Requires a dancer who can do a knee hinge until his head touches and come back up, all the while holding a stool on his shoulder with which he continually dances both on the way down and on the way up).

 

 Kaddish

Music: Maurice Ravel
Length: 4 minutes, 30 seconds
Costume: Long skirt
Notation: 1974, good quality, includes effort notation
Consultancy: Required

The dance for a woman incorporates elements of Jewish religious ceremony in this lament over the death of a loved one.

 Lyric Suite (1953). Excerpts.

Music: Alban Berg
Notation: 1972 (transcribed into LabanWriter in 2001), simple notation. Has been used for restagings.
Costumes: Duncan and Kafka solos have constructed dresses for women, shirts and trousers for men
Consultancy: Required
All solos require strong technique and dramatic ability.

Lyric Suite is the work that caused Louis Horst to remark that Sokolow was now a choreographer. It is a seminal work in which she found her unique movement vocabularly. When Sokolow first heard Berg's music she was captivated and interested, because she could hear nothing lyric in it. Then it began to evoke dance images.

 Man: Man's solo, 2:45: An expression of man, sometimes the hunter, sometimes the hunted-the animal. Performed with an animal sensuality in the movement.

 Isadora Duncan: Woman's solo, 5:40: An expression of Woman. A female figure stands between two Greek pillars. She is womanly,"heavy". A sensual dance in which incidents from her life motivate the dance images.

 Franz Kafka: Woman's solo, 3 min.: Shock the audience. There is nothing to help you. Skitter until you have to make a change. Unpredictable like a nightmare. Do not plan it. Sink back into the floor like an innocent child and don't ever give up.

 The Soldier: Man's solo, 4:15: This is the soldier who refuses to die. No matter how mutilated, he still obeys command, still carries the flag of his platoon.

 Quartertones

Music: Charles Ives
Length: 11 minutes
Costume: One piece knit jumpsuit with a sleeveless top and flaring pants
Notation: 1974, good quality, includes effort notation
This dance is a celebration of the dissonant music of Charles Ives. It requires a dancer who can display full use of the dynamic range.

 Rooms (1955). Excerpts.

Music: Kenyon Hopkins, a jazz score composed especially for Ms. Sokolow. A small fee is required by arrangement with the DNB.
Notation: 1967 and 1972-75, unchecked pencil copy, fair
condition. Uncomplicated notation reflecting the simplicity of the movement. Some excerpts have been used for classroom readings. Costumes: Street clothes
Set pieces: Wooden chairs
Consultancy: Required
All excerpts require advanced technique and dramatic ability.

"Rooms is an epic of man's loneness and his terrified effort to escape the naked stare of the four walls of his loneliness". Walter Sorell.

 The Dream: Man's solo, 5 min.: A man longs to be an explorer. He rolls out of his space to experience adventures in another world, adventures unobtainable in his own dreary environment, a landscape he has never seen before: the deepest jungle, the highest mountain.

 Escape: Woman's solo, 6 min.: A lonely woman fabricates a lover, social companionship and gaity. A glass of sherry helps her drift into a dream world. She senses her beauty, reads an imaginary letter, imagines he's coming, arranges her appearance, rearranges the chairs, imagines him there before her, makes love to him, but finds she cannot fill the emptiness. She destroys the scene and moves to the window looking out into the empty night.

 Going: Man's Solo, 2:30 min.: A young man rushes into his room and soon becomes "real gone" as he submits to the hypnotic, mesmerizing rhythms of jazz. He is the greatest boxer, baseball player, dancer, movie lover. He is going, going-where?

 Panic: Man's solo, 4 min.: A boy struck by panic searches out and begs for assurance only to be turned down by the cold dismissals of those to whom he appeals. The only place to hide is "under his bed". (Requires several dancers or actors to sit in chairs and exit during the solo).


 The End: Woman's solo, 4:45 min.: A girl, all alone, is driven to the point of suicide, over and over again. (Very long hair required).

 


 Back to list of solos