CMU School of Drama


Thursday, November 07, 2019

Historic Pittsburgh Church Hosts Dance Work Inspired By Religious Pilgrimage

90.5 WESA: Choreographer KT Nelson said that before she could create a dance work about a legendary religious pilgrimage, she literally had to walk the walk.

Nelson hiked the more than 500 miles of one of the many trails that constitute the Camino de Santiago, an ancient Catholic pilgrimage in Spain. Though not a Christian, she’d been inspired by hearing, in 2015, “Path of Miracles,” British composer Joby Talbot’s 2005 a cappella choral work honoring his late father. Nelson wanted to create a dance piece, but didn’t feel she could understand the music without taking the trip herself, she said.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This sounds very interesting. I am not the biggest fan of dance. That is a personal choice. It, artistically speaking, has never really resonated with me. I do love music, especially choral music and being able to be in a space like a cathedral and hear wonderful choral music peaks my interest. I do like when an artist can combine mediums and spaces and tie them directly to other artistic works as well as to things in their life, or someone else’s, that can then be translated into a combined artistic work for audiences to enjoy. I do like unique venues, but I’m always hesitant about an artistic work that is not based on the sacred from being performed in a church. A church is a place to come and meet with G-d, not a stage upon which you act out a play written by Shakespear, so while I understand that this piece is connected to the Camino, a road that I have been wanting to walk for a long time, I do not see it as a sacred text to be performed in a sacred space.