An outdoor dance show with some rarely seen pieces is coming to Manhasset next month.
Dance Visions NY founder Beth Jucovy started the company in Great Neck 1990, and it became a nonprofit in 2011. The company has been touring this summer with a number of outdoor shows at North Shore landmarks that complement nature.
The company brings the program to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock from 1:30 to 3 p.m. on Oct. 1.
Jucovy has studied dance since she was a child and grew up learning the works of Isadora Duncan from her teachers Julia Levine and Anna Duncan, Isadora’s daughter.
“We bring her artistic legacy into the present through the presentation of the authentic works as passed on to me by my mentors,” Jucovy said. “I find that more and more dancers at this point are really interested in this work. So many modern dance choreographers came from her like Martha Graham and José Limón.”
Jucovy said the highlight of the program includes works originated by Duncan, including the “Russian Workers Songs.”
“It’s the idea of going from downtrodden, being persecuted, burdened with hardship to waking up to unknown potential and ultimately using it,” Jucovy said of the piece. “It’s confronting your obstacles and feeling like time after time after time you’re put down and then, ultimately, the spirit is reborn and is victorious. The hope and triumph in Isadora’s work are always victorious.”
The program also features the heroic Allegro Molto Vivace section of the Tchaikovsky Symphony “Pathetique,” revived by the company for the first time in 30 years, and Chopin’s “Berceuse.”
“[Berceuse] was taught to myself and my sister in the late ‘80s by Julia Levine, and it hasn’t really been done other than by us, so I’m redoing that after a long time as well,” Jucovy said. “It’s a beautiful lullaby.”
Jucovy said many of her original works are not “outside friendly,” but she will be reviving her piece “Rejuvenation” for the performance, which celebrates freedom and power.
The performance is free and open to the public.
