David Dorfman Dance
Prophets of Funk
November 5, 2011 7:30p and November 6, 2011 2:00pt
*contains mature content
Since its founding in 1985, David Dorfman Dance has performed extensively in New York City and throughout North and South America, Great Britain, and Europe, most recently in St. Petersburg and Krasnoyarsk in Russia and Bytom and Cracow in Poland. David Dorfman and the company’s dancers and artistic collaborators have been honored with eight New York Dance and Performance (“Bessie”) Awards.
Prophets of Funk , the company’s newest project, previews at Vanderbilt University in September 2010, and through the generous support of National Dance Project/NEFA will be performed across the country, including the Carpenter Performing Arts Center at California State University – Long Beach in April 2011.
Prophets of Funk is an evening that celebrates Sly and the Family Stone’s groundbreaking, visceral, powerful music, and the struggles and celebration of everyday people. Dorfman and Sly and the Family Stone find common purpose in the prophetic possibilities of music and dance that invite everyday people to find ardor in the muck and mess –– the funk –– of life. Prophets of Funk seeks to lift up the spirit of Sly: insisting that in the face of this funk, there are still hopes and aspirations that reside in all of us.
For this performance DDD has invited previous collaborators OBIE Award winning dramaturge Alex Timbers, creative consultant/scholar-in-residence David Kyuman Kim, and media designer Jacob Pinholster to join forces again with the company and deepen a dynamic engagement of movement driven by the popular ––and populist–– sounds of Sly and the Family Stone. Performer for this project include: Kyle Abraham, Meghan Bowden, David Dorfman, Luke Gutgsell, Renuka Hines, Raja Kelly, Kendra Portier, Jenna Riegel, Karl Rogers, and Whitney Lynn Tucker.
www.daviddorfmandance.org
Press
- Sly approach helps Dorfman’s troupe assure that no one leaves in a funk
Boston Globe April 9, 2011
By Jeffrey Gantz
“Prophets of Funk — Dance to the Music,’’ which the New York–based David Dorfman Dance brought to the Institute of Contemporary Art last night under the auspices of World Music/CRASHarts, promised to be a lighthearted return to the early 1970s. But it took a few serious turns on the way to the audience dance party that ended it.
- Dance company brings in the funk
Long Beach Press Telegram April 21, 2011
By Vicki Smith Paluch
Choreographer David Dorfman is a man on a mission – but he isn’t afraid of having fun on the journey. His latest work, “Prophets of Funk,” uses the music of Sly and the Family Stone to celebrate the struggles and dreams of everyday people. He and his eight dancers will present the West Coast premiere of “Prophets of Funk” Saturday at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach.
Set to the irresistible funk of Sly Campos and the Family Stone’s “Turn Me Loose,” “I Want to Take You Higher,” “Dance to the Music” and nine other songs, the full- evening work is performed with humor and heart.With the performance, Dorfman and his company set out to make the audience feel part of the vitality of the 1970s.
“This is the third (full-length work) in a trilogy. I’ve been looking backward to find links to relate to what is happening now and how to get people engaged,” Dorfman said from his office at Connecticut College, where he is a professor of dance and chairman of the dance department.
- David Dorfman Dance grooves to Sly and the Family Stone
They Day February 3, 2011
By Kristina Dorsey
Dancer David Dorfman says, simply, “I’ve always been the biggest, biggest fan of Sly and the Family Stone.” He has a vivid memory of working out with a pal in high school – Dorfman was on the baseball and football teams, his friend was a basketball player – and they put on an 8-track (yes, an 8-track) of Sly and the Family Stone.
“We played it over and over again. This became kind of like an anthem,” he says.Dorfman was addicted to “Soul Train” and says, “Everything about the culture of soul and funk appealed to me.”And then, during his first week as a freshman at Washington University at St. Louis, the school hosted a concert by Sly and the Family Stone.
Dorfman, now an acclaimed choreographer and head of the David Dorfman Dance troupe, is returning to Sly with his new work, “Prophets of Funk – Dance to the Music,” which the group will perform Friday at Connecticut College’s Palmer Auditorium.
- Great Performances switches gears with playful ‘Prophets of Funk’
The Tennessean September 10, 2010
By Fiona Soltes
David Dorfman Dance has been lauded more than once for keeping audience members on the edge of their seats. This time around, however, as the kickoff to the 2010-11 Great Performances at Vanderbilt series, the 25-year-old New York-based contemporary company fully expects viewers won’t be able to sit still. They relive the 1973 magic of Sly and the Family Stone in Prophets of Funk — Dance to the Music on Sept. 24.
It’s the first full public performance of the piece, more a chance to “find music we can all dance to together” than a bio dance of the group that was the first major American rock band to be integrated in both race and gender, Dorfman says. A longtime fan of the music — back to his own days as a “white Jewish kid from the suburbs who wanted so bad to have more soul” — Dorfman created the work with trippy period costumes, high-energy movement and video footage made to look like archival film.