Manuel Alum was born in Puerto Rico, but his dance training and his career as a modern dancer, teacher, choreographer, and director took place mainly in the United States, where he died in 1993 at the age of 50. He was a leading dancer and later assistant director of the Paul Sanasardo Dance Company beginning in 1962, and then founder and director of the Manuel Alum Dance Company. He also performed solo works and concerts, and choreographed for other companies including Ballet Rambert and Dance Theatre of Harlem. The solo seen here was performed on a platform constructed throughout the audience seats of the Ted Shawn Theatre, designed to replicate a traditional Japanese theatrical convention known as a hanamichi. After spending ten months in Japan studying various dance forms, Alum created this work as “a kinetic diary, made up of observations, reactions, imagery and impressions that Japan revealed to me.”
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