“For They Are Women’s Children” in Calumet’s Heritage Parade

The cast and crew from “For They Are Women’s Children,” a stage show created for the 1913 strike centennial celebration, are pictured marching past St. Anne’s church in Calumet during past Saturday’s heritage parade. The show will debut on October 25 at the Calumet Theatre. (Photo courtesy of Joanne Thomas).

Calumet’s Heritage Celebration was full of different activities, but the parade is always a special highlight. Pictured above you can see some of the cast and artists from the show “For They Are Women’s Children,” a contemporary dance-drama performance based off events from the 1913 copper strike. The group marched in the parade to promote their show which will include original music and choreography from Donna Armistead and Robin Oye. For more details about “For They Are Women’s Children” please see the press release below and feel free to contact the show’s Director, Donna Armistead.

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For Immediate Release

Original 1913 Strike Dance-Drama to Premiere at Calumet Theatre

In 1996 two local artists, choreographer Donna Armistead and composer Robin Oye, began discussing a collaboration to produce an original work of dance depicting the Michigan Copper Strike of 1913. This theme has since been explored in drama and two operas, but never before have the events of 1913 been presented in a dance idiom.

For They Are Women’s Children, a contemporary dance-drama featuring an original musical score and original choreography, will receive its world premiere at the Calumet Theater October 25, 2013. Featuring musicians and dancers from the local community, it depicts episodes in the daily lives of miners and their families during the strike, culminating in the Italian Hall tragedy on Christmas Eve when seventy-three people – including fifty-nine children – lost their lives.

The ballet’s aim is to personalize the struggles of working people in prewar Calumet and its environs through the medium of original music and dance. Theatregoers will have the opportunity to see and hear the premiere of a unique theatrical work evoking the will and determination characteristic of Copper Country residents who persevered despite ethnic strife, enmity and bitterness in the face of hardship and tragedy.

Director Donna Armistead is an independent choreographer and stage director who makes her home in Jacobsville, MI. Formerly a soloist/principal dancer with several regional ballet companies, she was for eleven years artistic director of the Superior School of Dance, Houghton/Hancock, where she is still a member of the faculty. Her choreographic work has been featured locally in productions of the Michigan Tech Theatre, Pine Mountain Music Festival and Calumet Players as well as her former company, Lake Superior Dance Theatre.

The cast will feature some of Armistead’s students in principal roles, supported by local youth and adult community members. Performance times are Friday, October 25 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, October 27 at 2:00 pm. For ticket information call the Calumet Theatre box office at (906) 337-2610.

For further information contact Donna Armistead
lgp477@up.net or (906) 523-4258 (evenings)