TOUCHED BY FIRE (1998)

The first section premiered in 1998 at Boston Conservatory at Berklee.
The second section premiered in 2017 at Ballet Hispanico Studios in NYC.
Music: Composed by, Johann Sebastian Bach & played by Julius Berger; Cello Suite No.1 in G Major & Cello Suite No.4 in E Flat Major.
Choreography: Alison Cook-Beatty
Performance Info: Solo dance; 8 minutes and 32 seconds
*Both sections can be performed as excerpts alone.
In this instance section one would be performed to Yo-Yo Ma’s recording of Bach’s Unaccompanied Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major.
Section two would be performed to Julius Berger’s recording of Cello Suite No. 4 in E Flat Major.

TOUCHED BY FIRE
Premiered at Ballet Hispanico Studios in NYC 2017.
Music: Julia Wolfe, Into the Clouds
Choreography: Alison Cook-Beatty
Performance Info: solo dance, six minutes and 9 seconds ‘

TOUCHED BY FIRE was first choreographed when Ms. Cook-Beatty was a student at Boston Conservatory at Berklee. She chose the music, Bach’s Prelude in G major, as it struck a chord inside of her at the time, years later she found she was still in love with the music. Alison decided to reconstruct the work from its original choreography in 2016 off of videos from the school’s archives. She went forward in 2017 by adding on a second section, choosing Bach’s Prelude in E flat major for this. Within the solo, you will see the first section which Ms. Cook-Beatty choreographed while she was a student, reconstructed, and then, the new section that she did in 2017. She did not do this for a purpose in comparing her work, more or less, simply to just continue on the journey.

While rehearsing the piece she began to experiment with different music to both sections for dynamic and qualitative use within her movement quality. As Alison “played” she found a short score by contemporary composer Julia Wolfe, whose work might also be known with Bang On a Can. What Ms. Cook-Beatty found was not only did Ms. Wolfe’s music Into the Clouds bring different dynamics to her movement choices, but the entire dance itself began to feel like different piece altogether.

Alison wanted to keep both versions of TOUCHED BY FIRE in the repertoire to show how music can directly influence movement. In both pieces, Bach and Wolfe, the choreography is the same, with subtle variations.

In 2018 Alison was commissioned by Ms. Kitty Lunn, artistic director of Infinity Dance Theater to reconstruct and adapt TOUCHED BY FIRE from a solo to a duet. Ms. Lunn happened to be at the performance in 2017 from Concept to Performance and saw the process and development of Ms. Cook-Beatty’s work. Infinity Dance Theatre is a non-traditional dance company featuring dancers with and without disabilities. The Company performs all over the world, bringing the joy and drama of movement to a new level of inclusion by expanding the boundaries of dance and changing the world’s perception of what a dancer is. TOUCHED BY FIRE (duet) premiered at Premiered at Salvatore Capezio Theater at Peridance April 8th 2018.

Photo Credit: Russell Haydn