A Year Ago October
Director/Choreographer: Kristin Marrs
Dancers/Choreographers: Emily Gumal, Nicole Humpal, Sarah McCluskey, Juliet Remmers, Sarah Skilling
Music: Jacob Bancks, "Taxi Dancer" and "October" from Five Pieces for Violin and Piano
Costume Designer: Margaret Wenk-Kuchlbauer
Lighting Designer: Jim Albert
Cinematography and Editing: Office of Strategic Communication
Rehearsal video of A Year Ago October in Hubbard Park
Five senses; an incurably abstract intellect; a haphazardly selective memory; a set of preconceptions and assumptions so numerous that I can never examine more than a minority of them—never become conscious of them all. How much of total reality can such an apparatus let through?
…I keep on swallowing.
-C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed
Kristin offers deep gratitude to the dancers for creating this work.
This piece is dedicated to the memory of:
Y.E.H.
B.R.
A.A.M.
M. and J. and the never named.
A Year Ago October Photos
Iowa native Kristin Marrs is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher of dance and somatics.
Recent choreographic works include When Trees Say Nothing, created in collaboration with fiber and paper artist Mary Merkel-Hess, The 3 G’s performed with fellow choreographer Alvon Reed, and Organo Pleno, set to Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor. She is currently making a film with oboist Courtney Miller and dance artist/filmmaker Alex Bush.
Kristin has performed as a company member of Columbus Dance Theatre, Ballet Quad Cities, Northern Ballet Theatre, Arova Contemporary Ballet, Paradise Ballet Theatre, Opera Columbus, and Images of Dance. Some of her favorite roles include the Milkmaid in Frederick Ashton’s Facade, the Snowy Egret Queen in Alun Jones’ Nutcracker Key West, and as a soloist in Kennet Oberly’s Goldberg Variations.
Kristin is an AmSAT-certified Alexander Technique teacher, and teaches private and group lessons. She has presented her research on the integration of classical ballet pedagogy with somatic principles at CORPS de Ballet International and the Society of Dance History Scholars (now the Dance Studies Association).
Learn more about Kristin at:
www.kristinmarrs.com
www.alexandertechniqueiowa.com
Praised as, “colorfully orchestrated, invitingly lyrical,” (The New York Times) and, “highly caffeinated,” (The Boston Globe), the music of Illinois composer Jacob Bancks (b. 1982) engages and inspires musicians and audiences around the world. His works have been performed by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Nashville Symphony, eighth blackbird, and Pacifica Quartet, the United States Marine Band, and the Quad City Symphony, and many others. A 2019 recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship, he has been honored or commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, BMI, the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, and the U.S. Department of Education. Born in Minnesota, since 2011 he and his family have made their home in the Quad Cities, he serves as associate professor on the faculty of Augustana College. In 2021, the Quad City Symphony will stage his first opera Karkinos; other current projects include a concerto for clarinetist Ricardo Morales, co-commissioned by the Quad City Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra. More information at www.jbancks.com.