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Jared Stern, center, and Carolyn Dorfman Dance in “The Hero Within.”
For her latest dance, choreographer Carolyn Dorfman has returned to narrative, and to a theme close to her heart. The Hero Within, which received its premiere on May 14 at The Victoria Theater at NJPAC in Newark, tells the story of a Jewish refugee named Max Heller, who fled Nazi-occupied Vienna in 1938 to begin a new life in Greenville, South Carolina. Heller was 19 years old, and would make notable contributions to his adoptive community. The Hero Within capped a magical evening titled “The Power of One,” which also featured gutsy performances of Dorfman’s Echad, and of guest choreographer Juel D. Lane’s Now.
The Hero Within is timely, arriving as our country once again debates the value of immigration. Not every immigrant has the impact of Heller, who rose from humble beginnings to become a business owner, the mayor of Greenville, and an influential booster. Yet who knows how far a person will go, if given a chance?
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Members of Carolyn Dorfman Dance in “The Hero Within.”
Perhaps the most poignant image in The Hero Within is the gesture with which Kayleigh Bowen, as Heller’s American savior Mary Mills, plucks an invisible letter out of the air. Recalling her prewar visit to Austria, this link would be the lifeline that rescued Heller from the Holocaust. Bowen’s gesture shows us how slender a chance it was — initially just an address on a scrap of paper. Some might see a miracle here, or the first sign of Heller’s ability to inspire others.
The dance begins in Austria before the Anschluss, with couples waltzing in a ballroom. With languid smiles, they drag one foot and dip their partners, abandoning themselves to romance. Two lines of dancers form an enchanted pathway, like a tree-lined promenade in the Wienerwald. Individuals wander half-asleep — until reality intrudes. Disquiet spreads, then panic. We hear the sound of marching boots and barking voices. People struggle, thrashing on the floor. Society disintegrates, and Max is left alone.
Yet Max Heller is not one to despair. Dorfman gives her central character, played by Jared Stern, an expansive physical vocabulary. He writes a plea for help in cursive gestures. Propping himself against the floor and rolling out of danger, he refuses to be beaten down. When Miller replies that she has found an American sponsor for him, he seems to levitate on a cloud of joy.
Thereafter, happiness never abandons him. Working in a shirt factory, he displays permanent-press optimism. His sweetheart Trude joins him, and he promises her that Greenville will be another Vienna. At this moment, gorgeous watercolors spread across the backdrop in Kate Ducey’s projections. Mid-century America had its own problems, however — notably the racial segregation that, in Dorfman’s work, splits the stage down the middle, eliciting fresh grief.
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Members of Carolyn Dorfman Dance in “The Hero Within.”
Heller was in a position to help. From pushing a broom at the factory, he advances to management, and thence to the mayoralty, his enthusiasm never waning. When integration becomes possible, Dorfman has a chance to show off her compositional skill. Two lines of dancers face off, one foot poised to take the fateful step, and then the dancers peel away and form sculptural pairings. Later, after a costume change signals the passage of time, the community appeals to Heller and a new explosion of ensemble patterns reflects his creativity and the choreographer’s kaleidoscopic imagination. He leads his followers in a slow-motion race to the future.
When last we see him, Heller stands casually with one hand in his pocket and the other extended conversationally, as if this enterprising man of ideas were about to make a fresh suggestion for improvements.
The complicated mise-en-scène features an electronic soundscape with music by Svjetlana Bukvich, and Drew Heller, and the voice of Richard Tauber singing “Du bist die Welt für mich.” We hear voice-overs reading excerpts from the real-life letters exchanged by Heller and Mills. Antique photographs projected on the backdrop and costumes by Anna-Alisa Belous place the action in historical context.
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Charles Scheland in “Echad.”
Echad, the opening piece on the program, is visually stunning. When performed in its entirety, however, this dance offers another lesson in “the power of one” — that is, the ability of an individual to make a difference.
On May 14, Charles Scheland was the maverick who rescued Maiko Adela, a woman trapped inside a giant wheel. Wrestling with the wheel is no easy task, and Dorfman gives this character a challenging solo. More than an athletic showcase, however, the solo symbolizes an individual’s valiant effort to come to grips with and defy the structure that his community literally clings to. The wheel may represent ancient traditions, or any newfangled ideology that demands we conform.
Does Echad portray a Stone Age community? Or do we see ourselves at the mercy of political correctness? Perhaps this dance from 2002 is the timeliest of all.
For more on Carolyn Dorfman Dance, visit carolyndorfman.dance.
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