Sinopoli Dance Company to explore Sufi poetry

The Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company will present Branches of Words, a performance featuring live music, spoken word, and contemporary dance beginning at 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 26, in the Skidmore Dance Theater. Inspired by selected sonnets composed by the 14th-century Sufi poet Khajeh Hafez Shirazi, the Albany-based Sinopoli Dance Company created the piece with the help of a multinational collaboration of artists that included Iranian actor/director Mahmood Karimi-Hakak, Ghanaian musician Zorkie Nelson, and Jewish-American vocalist/musician/composer Zoe B. Zak.

Known for centuries for his celebration of themes of love, union, freedom and tolerance, the poet Hafez championed the underdog and the outlaw, and damned hypocrisy, deception, and duplicity. His poetry won the admiration of Goethe as well as that of the dancers, actors, and musicians who collaborated on Branches of Words. According to the performers' statement, "This performance says that it is possible to work together. It is possible to create together. It is possible to truly listen. It is possible to learn from each other, to pull ideas from many sources and mold them into an arresting, viable, and unique statement of truth." Artists and audience members will have the opportunity to discuss these ideas in a post-performance "TalkBack" session.

Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for seniors, and $10 for students and members of the Skidmore community. Seating is limited and reservations are not accepted; tickets go on sale 45 minutes before curtain time. For more information, call the Dance Theater at (518) 580-5392.

Among the performance's creator-collaborators are poet, theater director, and award-winning filmmaker Mahmood Karimi-Hakak, who has written, produced, directed, designed and/or acted more than 50 stage and screen productions in the U.S., Europe and his native Iran. Zorkie Nelson is a master percussionist, traditional flute player, and vocalist who co-founded and conducted the Pan African Orchestra in the 1990s and performed with Wynton Marsalis's 2006 "Congo Square Tour." Musician, cantor, and producer Zoe B. Zak composes original music that melds ancient and modern sound that reflect Jewish heritage and Sufi poetry.

Founded in 1991, the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company is in its 17th year as resident dance company of the Egg Center for the Performing Arts in Albany's Empire State Plaza. The company presents original contemporary modern dance works created by founder and choreographer Sinopoli, an award-winning dance educator and a member of the teaching faculty of the Sage Colleges. The Sinopoli company frequently collaborates with artists of such distinct genres and backgrounds as architectural design, sculpture, music, and poetry.

The Skidmore performance of Branches of Words is part of the Sinopoli company's six-venue tour of upstate New York, sponsored by the Charles R. Wood Foundation and the Capital Region Living Magazine. The performance's Arts-in-Education components are supported by Partners in Dance with funds from the New York State DanceForce which receives funding from the New York State Council on the Arts Dance Program and Altria Group, Inc.