A TIME TO DANCE

Description
**** [FOUR STARS] It wouldn’t seem as if two world wars, a poverty-stricken family, a case of tuberculosis and an unhappy marriage would be great causes for dancing—but writer/performer Libby Skala unearths multiple reasons for celebration in her solo piece, A Time to Dance. Skala skillfully weaves the life story of her great-aunt Elizabeth “Lisl” Polk with different forms of dance and various songs and instruments, exuding an almost childlike enthusiasm when recounting the difficulties that Lisl had to endure. Just as her great-aunt took on the seemingly impossible task of teaching rhythm and music to the deaf, and succeeded with elegant triumph, Skala manages to hold the audience’s attention—and keep it smiling—with a pointed tale of hardship. Skala’s expressive face and movements help her make light of serious situations without voiding them of their significance. She ultimately leaves the audience with a quaisreligious message of belief in a great and invisible love, and of faith in the strength of one’s “core” that nothing can touch.—Katy Reddin, marketing intern