Dance to the music of a Piledriver - article by Vadim Yarmolinetc

Marianne Beckerman dreams- she says her dance group is ranged between the Eifman Ballet and Madonna’s dancers. It is a very unexpected mix but all contemporary culture was born on the edge of different subjects. This is the main interest.

Marianne was born in Odessa in 1975. She graduated from the School of Music and Performing Art- La Guardia- in New York. In 1998 she also graduated from Tisch with a Bachelor degree in Fine Art.
Dance became her specialty. She started the Dance Productions in college. After college she worked in Mexico for 2 years with her dance productions in fashionable resorts. In 2 years she returned to New York, suntanned and experienced. Her first appearance in New York as a choreographer in “Kashanly Aly Ballada” on the stage of the Center for Performing Arts.

Now Marianne is working as a dance teacher in Queens. All her free time she works with her own group- a dozen enthusiasts like herself. Her new Project will take place on October 5th “ Fernando of Luire” in Queens district of White Stroke on the intersection of 147th street and 3rd Avenue.
The impulse of this performance is the sound of a piledriver, as a main component of music and dance. It’s rather strange- dances and a piledriver. This is an example of how modern art is born on the edge of different subjects.
The performance takes place in the open air. The music Marianne has chosen is not for theaters. Driving by a construction site she noticed this mechanism- paildriver. She was astonished by its sound as a very rhythmic base. “For me its an experiment: dance, piledriver, and music” says Marianne. The dance is built on the compression of building’s construction and the delivery of a child. “These processes are very alike. Difficult delivery and a perfect result. Look at the Chrysler building and they will understand what I mean,” says Marianne.

Her main goal is to make dances for everyone. That is why her performance will take place on ground zero.
A dozen of young dancers are ready to embody her dream. Nobody’s have don’t have followers. It is obvious that they see her as a person capable of creating a productive company where they will make their living by performing.
Today all of them are working as waitresses and teachers to pay their bills. Two times a week in the evening they meet at La Guardia School for rehearsals. All is based on enthusiasm. But Marianne says, “I have a terrible headache before every big performance. It’s necessary to find money to pay the participants.” The budget of she show in the park is funny in comparison to that of Broadway show’s. For her to find $10,000 is a job of its own. She asks for money and for help from large banks but unfortunately not many of them are ready to help. She makes a list of people she needs to pay: Piledriver, DJ, and dancers. She is missing half the funds. According to Marianne there are a lot of workaholics who are ready to invest their efforts in the experiment. They are the salt of American soil. Eifman and Madonna are the creators. They are absolutely different, but both superstars. They are far above Marianne but she dreams of reaching their level, to take her place among them. “If not for this goal” says Marianne, “I wouldn’t know why I exist.”

Translation by Alex