SOLD OUT. STANDING OVATION.
A WONDERFUL WAY TO END DANCERS OVER 40’S
20TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON!
A COLLABORATION WITH LABYRINTH DANCE THEATER
MEMBERS - See 13 Videos of this event now!
CLICK HERE TO VIEW PHOTOS OF THIS EVENT
The Cast
Come Back Once More So I Can Say Goodbye
Conceived and Choreographed by DO40 member Sasha Spielvogel,
Artistic Director, Labyrinth Dance Theater
Music and Videos by Don Slepian
It’s extremely important to our organization to promote the History, Legacy and Lives of the mature dance community and to pay it forward to the next generation. That has become part our mission statement and new logo. But it also reflects what DO40 did at our sold out song and dance performance - DO40 CARES: Come Back Once More So I Can Say Goodbye. There are generations who have never felt the loss, the grief or the joy of camaraderie from being a part of a generation who fought – and won -- so many battles in the fight against HIV. Our Dancers Over 40 mission statement also applies to the History, Legacy and Lives of the LGBT community – and that story needs to be told and retold, as it will continue to be dismissed in school textbooks, along with much of the civil rights, feminist and American Indian movement in this country.
Cast Curtain Call & Finale
This was much more than just a dance concert; much more than a one-night benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and the NYC Anti-violence Project – it’s a document to be preserved at the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts, and another way to fight for equality and for the younger generation of dancers to learn from their mature counterparts. We are extremely proud of DO40 member Sasha Spielvogel for all of her hard work, and proud of all the dancers, musicians and technicians for creating this wonderful evening.
“Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music.” --Old English Proverb
Souls
A note from DO40 President John Sefakis:
First and foremost I would like to thank DO40 member Sasha Spielvogel (and Artistic Director of Labyrinth Dance Theater) for her commitment to this project and for agreeing to this joint concert offering. And to our DO40 board, greenlighted this project, knowing that we had never attempted an event like this before. Sasha’s pieces have been seen in DO40 concerts from 1999 on – including at our first DO40 CARES concert in 2010 at the Baryshnikov Theater and here at Ailey in 2012. Due to the financial constraints of putting up shows like this, small non-profits have few opportunities to showcase new – and mature – talent and explore important current topics of interest to the communities involved.
This was not your typical “come-the-afternoon-before-to-rehearse” kind of show. Sasha and I have a regular table at the Applejack Diner where all of this was discussed over the past year. Sasha had worked on some of these pieces previously and then new pieces were added and brought into the concept. Dancers gave up a lot of their free time to help, and many hours of rehearsal to produce this piece. And they did not just learn dances. They learned history. The younger dancers heard personal stories “from the trenches,” from the people who were there – and still dancing, right next to them. They learned bullying is not a new subject, and that discrimination…does not discriminate. This was truly a joint effort to preserve the History, Legacy and Lives of all of us who were affected over the past decades by injustice and intolerance. To all the DO40 volunteers, dancers, the tech crew, musicians and friends of DO40, I thank you so much for your all your hard work.
Choreographer and DO40 member Sasha Spielvogel during the Curtain Call,
with gifts from the cast and DO40
The NIGHT!
Seen in the audience: DO40 Advisory Board member Larry Fuller, DO40-ers Ken Urmston, Gene Gavin, Norma Doggett-Bezwick, Carolyn Kirsch, Karin Baker, Patti Mariano, Lawrence Merritt, Ruth Aronowitz, Paul Berne, Sharla Herbert and more. But this audience was special. More diverse, more age range. And so vocal of their love for the show! It was a seamless evening, a storytelling, merging and conjoining the generations in song and dance. The Photo Gallery and Video Clips will go up the end of June (remember, only DO40 members can watch the concert in the comfort of their own homes on our website!). A thrilling way to end DO40’s 20th Anniversary Season!