Sun-Gazette, PA
Nov 28 2004
What’s in a Stamp?
LKW dancer’s perform for United Nations
Stephanie Farr Sun-Gazette Staff
Their bodies flowed fluidly before the canvases, recreating the
pain and pleasure forever locked within the strokes of the paintings.
Just as the artist used a paintbrush to capture the thoughts and
visions only his mind knows, so too did their bodies use movement to
bring his illustrations to life.
When the LKW Senior Dance Team of Montoursville was invited to
perform at the United Nations Postal Administration’s Human Rights
stamp unveiling, members knew they had a lot to live up to, and only
two weeks to do it in.
The artist who created the stamps, Yuri Gevorgian, specifically
requested the dance team to perform at the unveiling ceremony at the
Jacob Javits Center in New York City on Oct. 14.
His hopes were that the dancers and their coaches would portray
the progression of human rights as illustrated in each of the six
stamps he designed for the United Nation Postal Administration.
Alison Dean, a teacher at the LKW studio, was asked to
choreograph the piece. All she had to work with under such strict
time restrictions were photographs of the paintings that Gevorgian
would release.
“It was amazing,” Dean said. “The work I’ve seen of his is
beautiful. He’s an incredible artist, but these were just
breathtaking.”
As soon as she received copies of the paintings, Dean set to
selecting the appropriate music and movements to portray the artist’s
work. She settled upon a modern lyrical dance choreographed to such
songs as “Turning to Peace,” “Fear Not My Child” and “Gloria” by Paul
Schwartz.
Dean said it was the inspiration of the paintings and events in
her personal life which led her to pick the music and the movements.
Gevorgian also gains inspiration from experiences in his personal
life.
Born in Soviet Armenia in 1956, he was one of the youngest
artists ever to gain entrance into the famous Akop Kodjoyan School of
Art in the Armenian capital of Yerevan. He then went to the Yerevan
University of Art and Architecture, but upon graduation, realized his
creative expression would be limited under the Armenian government.
Gevorgian married a woman who gained entrance into the United
States, but was not allowed to join her for seven years. During that
time, he came to understand the true hopes and fears of refugees, and
he continues to implement those themes in his paintings today.
When Gevorgian was reunited with his wife in the United States,
they realized that the separation had caused conflicts and that his
commitment to his art form made it impossible to stay together.
Moving out on his own, Gevorgian soon found himself homeless and
living on the streets of Los Angeles. Out of discarded supplies he
gathered from the sidewalks, Gevorgian created his “Hollywood
Boulevard” series, an attempt to capture the unique spirits found
within his homeless brothers and sisters.
The series eventually lead to his artistic success, but he would
also use it as an inspiration for both of his United Nations stamps
series. Besides the Human Rights stamps which were unveiled in
October, Gevorgian also designed the 2000 Respect for Refugees stamp
series for the United Nations.
The six Human Rights stamps depict the progression of human
rights from the repression of creative and ethnic freedoms to the
realization of individuality and the ability to take the first steps
towards one’s dream.
Gevorgian’s trade mark is the blue rose; a symbol of love,
tenderness and compassion. This rose appears in a majority of his
paintings, including each of the six Human Rights stamps. For the day
of the unveiling, each member of the dance team had a blue rose
painted on their arms as an homage to Gevorgian.
After the ceremony, while signing autographs for the dance team
members, he told them that they did more than dance the themes of the
paintings, they brought them to life. The team then got a private
tour of the United Nations building before returning home.
“For us as performers it was nice to have a story to tell,” Dean
said. “And a story that is so powerful, not like I went to the mall
and bought a dress.”
Kaitie Burger, a 14 year-old member of the LKW dance team,
agreed.
“It was a really great opportunity to get to go, and his
paintings inspired us to dance,” she said. “It was special because we
had a really good reason why we were dancing and knew what we were
trying to interpret.”
As a result of the performance for the United Nations Postal
Administration, the LKW dance team has been invited to perform at
many future functions in such cities as Los Angeles, Chicago and
Philadelphia. The team has even garnered an invitation to the United
Nations headquarters in Austria, a trip for which they are currently
seeking sponsors to cover traveling expenses.
What those in attendance at the unveiling experienced that day
was more than a marriage between dance and art, it was a union of
creative expression; a union born out mankind’s love for freedom and
his right to share that beauty with others.
Gevorgian once said, “Most people think of human rights in epic
terms. Every single thing we have and do in life is a human right. I
can paint what I want, I can dress how I want and I can read what I
want. Freedom is the ability to explore our minds, our bodies — our
dreams.”
–Boundary_(ID_Zrj5VDzT6Ok63HVnRf5aDA)–