Por Jeff Britton
Reportero SDUN

Marc Chagall was more than one of the most famous artists of the 20th century. He was a true Renaissance man, who was skilled in a wide range of media, including music, ceramics, stage sets, costumes, book illustrations, fine art prints and tapestries.

All of this in addition to his most famous work—colorful paintings, huge murals and stained glass windows. Chagall was also considered the preeminent Jewish artist of his time, something that would drive him away from the blatant anti-Semitism of his native Russia to the more hospitable climate of France, where he would live most of his life.

Thus, Chagall is a most fitting subject for this year’s 17th annual Lipinsky Family Jewish Arts Festival, in particular the world premiere of an ongoing dance work by John Malashock, artistic director and choreographer of Malashock Dance, continuing June 12 and 13 at the Lyceum Space downtown in Horton Plaza.

The work, which is actually the first three dances of a piece that will eventually contain 19 dances, documents the extraordinary life Chagall enjoyed over nearly a century. Malashock’s long-time collaborator Yale Strom has composed an original score for what the duo describes as a dance/musical. Both Malashock and Strom are Mission Hills residents.

Although he died in 1985, this is not Chagall’s first involvement with dance. He created the original sets and costumes for Stravinsky’s famous ballet “The Firebird,” as well as “Aleko,” a ballet by Leonid Massine at New York Ballet Theatre during the few years he lived in America. Inspired by colorful Mexican folk art, Chagall received thunderous applause for his sets, fairly overshadowing the dance itself. Fellow muralists Diego Rivera and Jose Orosco were in the audience to cheer him on.

Malashock and Strom focus on the more human and personal elements of Chagall’s life in their 16-minute piece. “Chagall” covers the influences of his life, such as the place he was born in Vitebsk, which is now in Belarus, as well as his two wives and the lover who bore him a son who is still living today.

“We were trying to use a lot of fantasy so that it is less strictly a biography,” Malashock said. “The six dancers create a whole mix of images for him. The first dance is about his village life, the second is about his love relationships in which his first girlfriend introduces him to her best friend and he gets involved with both. Finally he meets Bella, who became his wife and muse.”

For his part, Strom points out that Chagall as a young boy played the violin, which was his first art form, a customary pursuit for a Jewish boy in Eastern Europe.

“We see that motif in much of his life’s work, such as the klezmer music he heard from musicians on the street and at weddings, cantorial music from the synagogue and the Roma music of the gypsies,” Strom explained. “The whole work has a carnival feel.”

To set the mood, Strom and his Hot P’Stromi of klezmer musicians will perform a 20-minute set, featuring his wife, Elizabeth Schwartz, on vocals. Strom stresses the rhythms of the score, with the drummer and the percussion taking the foreground.

Rounding out the evening will be a reprise of Malashock’s very popular 1996 dance “Tribes,” with which the company also toured. It centers on the coming together of fantasy tribes – different people who are invented, not any race in the classical sense of the word.

But it is “Chagall” that makes this program special, as it parlays the forerunner of surrealism and a cubist in the expressionistic style so unique that Picasso paid his own special tribute: “When Matisse dies, Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what color really is.”

June 12, 8:45 p.m.
June 13, 7:30 p.m.
Lyceum Space in Horton Plaza
Centro
544-1000
sdrep.org