Patty Smith Returns To Town Hall Theater With SCHMALTZ 8/27

Many of us can remember, as a child, putting our favorite records on an old turntable and dancing around the room. In Patty Smith's new solo recital, Schmaltz, she returns to the powerful music of her childhood.

The music holds many emotions. "This is our family music," she says. It is music that was taught to her by her parents and grandparents. As she became a trained dancer, she felt she had to abandon it. It wasn't classical or sophisticated, not at all the kind of music that a contemporary dancer would choose. "For years I thought this music was too schmaltzy. But now I have embraced it."

Returning to this music has been a process of rediscovery but also transformation. "I wasn't trained then. I just wanted to dance," she says. "I'm trained now. I have all of this experience, not just dance experience but life experience - feeling and suffering and love."

Smith entranced audiences last year with Song of Experience, another solo evening that explored war and the ways it impacted her family. Her choreography is theatrical, often funny, and always heartfelt.

Schmaltz makes its debut at Middlebury's Town Hall Theater on Friday, August 27, at 8 pm. Tickets are $15, and may be purchased through the THT Box Office at www.townhalltheater.org, 382-9222, in person (Mon - Sat, noon-5) or at the door.

PHOTO CAPTION: Local dancer/choreographer Patty Smith (seen here at a very young age) dances to the music of her childhood in a solo recital at Town Hall Theater. Friday, August 27, 8 pm. Tickets are $15, and may be purchased at www.townhalltheater.org, 382-9222, at the box office or at the door.

 

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