Conn College prof Lisa Race premieres a dance solo inspired by her late mother

A woman sits in an armchair. Music plays and she begins to sway — just a little, as she remains seated. Eventually, she stands and moves, stiffly at first, almost as if she’s holding onto invisible furniture to steady herself.

Later, after a video playing behind her of an aged lady dancing slowly has faded, the performer’s body seems to be free up from the restrictions of age. She dances as if liberated in a dream. The soundtrack: “You Make Me Feel So Young.”

The performer is Lisa Race, an accomplished dancer and choreographer who is a long-time dance professor at Connecticut College. She created this solo piece in honor of her mother, Beverly Race, who died at age 101 in 2022.

Titled “Wonder/s,” the work is Race’s celebration of Beverly Race’s life, but it is also a recognition of her own aging and the beauty of family. Race will perform “Wonder/s” this weekend at Conn College.

After her mother died, Race recalled, “I was very sad and took a while. I had in mind wanting to do (a project) that was centered around her and, more generally, I, over time, became more interested in what is family to me and exploring that through my work. Then I started to think about why do I dance? I think in (my mother’s) craziest, wildest dreams, if she could have, she would have loved to have been a Broadway dancer or something. It wasn’t possible growing up in Toledo, Ohio, during the Depression.”

Race emphasizes that this project is not about mourning. It’s about celebrating.

“Her last 10 years were spent in our house (in New London). …I feel that I got to know her better in those 10 years than I really did growing up,” Race said.

Living with Race’s family — Race’s husband David Dorfman, who is a renowned dancer, choreographer and Conn College professor of dance, and their son Sam — during the last part of her life, Beverly Race got to see Sam growing up.

“David became her favorite entertainer. “I made her eat kale and things like that,” Lisa said with a laugh. “But I think it brought a real lifeliness to her last years. I have a sister in Rhode Island that would often come down and take her to happy hour and stuff like that. She loved getting out, which she hadn’t been able to do for quite a while.”

Long before that, Race’s parents had lived in the same house in New Jersey for more than 50 years. But then her mother had heart failure and her father, Merlin Race, was facing what turned out to be the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. The couple moved into an assisted living facility in Middletown, RI Merlin Race died in 2011.

Sam and David Dorfman have cameo appearances in “Wonder/s.” Race said that while Sam, 23, spent a lot of time in a dance studio in his younger years and loves to move, he hasn’t followed his parents into the dance world. Instead, he is a software developer.

Claiming her age

In “Wonder/s,” Race sometimes embodies her mother, and at other times, she is dancing as herself; it is about Race growing older as well as being about her mom.

The performances on Friday and Saturday will boast other pieces, too, and Race sees the shows as an opportunity to look back on her dance-making career.

“This has been a chance to reflect more broadly on my own dance history and my own sense of: I’m aging. I don’t move the way that I did. I’ve decided that I’m really going to claim 65. I feel like I need to let go of, ‘Oh, you’re not supposed to talk about how old you as a dancer or as a woman’ — those things we grow up with,” Race said.

“I’m so lucky at 65 to still be moving in the way that I’m moving. I’ve had some joint replacements, so it’s not magic, but I’m really happy to be moving and moving fully in a very different way and looking back.”

When Race said she’s had “some” joint replacements, she’s not exaggerating. She has had both knees and both hips replaced.

Capturing her mom on film

When Race noticed her mother slowing down, she asked fellow Conn professor Rachel Boggia to film her, with the idea of ​​making that into a little dance film. It turned out to be not long before Beverly Race passed away, so Race was very glad that they filmed when they did.

With Conn alum Sydney Bryan serving as the assistant camera person, Boggia shot sessions where Race essentially interviewed her mother. In another sequence, they filmed Beverly Race dancing on the Garde Arts Center stage with Race and with Dorfman.

The set for “Wonder/s” was conceived by Sean Hove, who is an associate professor of dance at Conn. Race said they decided to make it feel very much like Beverly Race’s room in the Dorfman house. So the set includes the actual chair that Bev used to sit in every day to watch TV and do her crossword puzzles.

Hove has also been assembling the sound score, using some of Beverly Race’s recorded words and remembrances.

Web of dancers

The performances this weekend will also boast a solo Race made in 1999, which will be performed by Bella Donatelli, a Conn College senior.

It will feature, too, a duo Race created with Jennifer Nugent in 2001. Race calls Nugent a dear friend and superstar New York City mover. In this iteration, the duo will be danced by Kendra Portier and Christina Robson.

Race knew both Portier and Robson back when they were college students, and she has happily watched their trajectories over time.

Portier, who is on the faculty at the University of Maryland, will bring a quartet of her own that will perform as part of the program at Conn. Portier has performed with David Dorfman Dance, as has Robson, who also danced with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and teaches at George Mason University.

“I feel like through teaching at the American Dance Festival, teaching at Bates, teaching in far places in Siberia and Argentina, through my earlier career, I’ve gotten to meet so many people. It’s amazing how large and small this particular web of dancers (is),” Race said.

Ending a chapter

Race’s dances have become less abstract and more narrative over the years, some of that change influenced by Dorfman’s work that often explores storytelling.

In this case, Race’s curiosity about her parents and their younger selves sparked her creation.

“With both of my parents gone, this does feel like a conclusion, at least to that chapter of dance-making. I’ll continue to choreograph on students, and to create dance with David,” Race said in an email follow-up to an in-person interview. “I’m not counting out making my own work moving forward, but I am also trying not to feel (self-induced) pressure, and to be kind to my body. I still love dancing. However, that does not come without more and more time devoted to taking care of worn joints ‘n all, so taking some time to find balance at this point in life.”

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