A Game of Chess | Harvard-Radcliffe Modern Dance Company

"And we shall play a game of chess, Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door." "A Game of Chess" opens on a solitary woman. She is surrounded by opulence and material luxuries, and people drift in and out of her space, but nevertheless she remains listless and alone. The piece then transitions to an East End pub, where a conversation between two women about abortion, war, and loveless marriages is periodically and frantically interrupted by the bartender. Together, the piece depicts an urban waste land--at once desolate, chaotic, crowded, and quiet.
Choreography: Joy An ‘27 and Leena Iwamoto ‘27
Music: “Meditation (Thaïs)” by Jules Massenet, “That Shakespeherian Rag” by Gene Buck and Herman Ruby, “Revolution 9” by The Beatles
Dancers: Joy An ‘27, Daisha Clayton ’27, Arielle Frommer ‘25, Leena Iwamoto ’27, Katy Nairn ‘26, Anya Zhang ‘27
I think we are in rats’ alley
Where the dead men lost their bones.
What is that noise?’
The wind under the door.
‘What is that noise now? What is the wind doing?’
Nothing again nothing.
‘Do
‘You know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you remember
‘Nothing?’
I remember
Those are pearls that were his eyes.
‘Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing in your head?’
But
O O O O that Shakespeherian Rag-
It’s so elegant
So intelligent
‘What shall I do now? What shall I do?’
‘I shall rush out as I am, and walk the street
‘With my hair down, so. What shall we do tomorrow?
‘What shall we ever do?’
excerpt from “The Waste Land” by T. S. Eliot