(WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ) -- The Center for the Arts at Monmouth University will host a performance by Carolyn Dorfman Dance on February 25 as part of the Winter/Spring Performing Arts Series of events. Hosted in the auditorium of the Pollak Theatre, the 4:00pm performance is also being presented as part of the “Artful Explorations of Activism” series, under the Jewish Cultural Studies program at Monmouth.
The event is being paired with the opening of the art exhibit “Jacob Landau and His Circle,” for which a free reception will be offered prior to the show at the building’s in-house Pollak Gallery and a few of Dorfman’s dancers will perform leading into the concert.
For their return to the campus where the Union, NJ-based company made its first appearance more than 30 years ago, the current dancers of the Dorfman troupe will present the coastal New Jersey audience with a fresh look at “The Legacy Project: A Dance of Hope.” The 2008 work is a dance-theater trilogy framed from the perspective of a child of Holocaust survivors.
Acclaimed humanist choreographer and storyteller Carolyn Dorfman brings a personal piece of “dance theatre” that explores her families’ trials and tribulations surviving the Holocaust, escaping to America and embarking on a new journey of triumphs and new beginnings. Come experience an uplifting dance work that will make you think, cry, laugh and celebrate the capacity of the human spirit to rise above the worst circumstances - and even- thrive.
During his decades-long career as a painter, printmaker, illustrator, collagist, teacher and activist, Jacob Landau (1917-2001) displayed an empathy for the human condition — in manifestations ranging from the beautiful to the brutal — that found its most profound flashpoint of inspiration in the lessons of the Holocaust. Drawing often from Biblical sources and classical literature, the WWII veteran produced starkly compelling images of war, poverty, social struggle and the humanist spirit; a body of work said to have bridged 20th century modernism with the traditions of Goya and Blake.
A Monmouth County resident and an ardent supporter of the arts in New Jersey, Landau was a central figure in the Roosevelt, NJ artist community for much of his professional life — and with “Jacob Landau and His Circle,” Monmouth University celebrates that connection with an exhibition that features paintings by Landau (many of which are in Monmouth’s collection) alongside works by friends, contemporaries, and students who were influenced by his vision.
Joanne Leone, an artist who studied with Landau from 1985 to 2001, curates the installation that opens on February 25 with a public-invited reception running from 2 to 3:30 p.m. The art remains on display through March 23 during regular gallery hours; Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., plus Saturdays and Sundays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Tickets for the February 25, 2018 appearance by Carolyn Dorfman Dance are priced at $35 and $45, with attendees encouraged to arrive early for the free opening reception of the Jacob Landau exhibit in the Pollak Gallery. Reservations are available through the Monmouth University Performing Arts Box Office at 732-263-6889, or online at www.monmouth.edu/arts.
PHOTO by Daniel Hedden
