IN THIS FILE PHOTO, Moving Spirit Dancers with the Merr ymeeting Singers per form “Guide My Feet” at the former Unitarian Universalist Church of Brunswick. The group will perform a benefit on Sunday at the People Plus Center in Brunswick.
The Merrymeeting Singers, an eight-member vocal ensemble, directed by Larry Lemmel, has been performing together for several years, at area churches and in special collaborations with the Moving Spirit Dancers.
Collaborations between the Merrymeeting Singers and the Moving Spirit Dancers include the annual Twelfth Night Revels and other song and dance events, often incorporating poetry.
The singers include Stephanie Bernier, Peggy Brightman, Elaine Hartman, Sally Horne, Louise Gephard, Judy Chamberlain, Brad Mitchell and David Roundy, assisted by pianist Grace Lewis McLaren.
Brightman also serves as choreographer and director of the Moving Spirit Dancers. They have performed widely throughout the Mid-coast area, including churches, theaters and community centers in Portland, Sanford, Biddeford, Brunswick, Topsham, Bowdoinham, Lewiston, Waterville and Bangor.
The dancers currently include Cheryl Mitchell, Dalziel Lewis and Rob MacKenzie, with senior dancer Terre Burke, apprentice Donna Bann and guest choreographer- performer Don Weatherbee.
“The two performing groups have designed their Spring Bouquet of Song and Dance as a varied program for family audiences, to celebrate spring and welcome the sun,” a release from Brightman states.
A group of early American and Shaker songs will feature the premiere of Brightman’s choreographic setting of the lively call-and-response Shaker song, “Pretty Love.”
“Pretty Love celebrates the joys and tensions of the unique Shaker way of life,” the release states.
Burke, who has been dancing for more than 60 years, plays the central role of Mother Ann, venerated founder of the Shakers.
Two other dances in this group are set to Billings’ joyful and rousing anthem, “Africa,” and Aaron Copland’s “Simple Gifts.”
The singers will perform works by Durufle, Dalgleish, Vaughan Williams, two madrigals celebrating spring and a group of spirituals.
Dancer-actor Don Weatherbee of Brunswick, former dancer with Moving Spirit, will join Mackenzie in a duet they choreographed to “Wade in the Water,” a musical setting by Larry Lemmel. Pianist Grace Lewis McLaren assists at the keyboard.
Admission is by donation at door. Suggested donation is $12 for adults or $8 for People Plus members.
June 16
At 7 p.m. June 16, the two groups again will collaborate in presenting “A Summer Evening of Song and Dance” at the Minnie Brown Center, 90 Washington St., in Bath.
One special offering will be Bach’s Cantata No. 68, performed by the Merrymeeting Singers, directed by Larry Lemmel, with Grace Lewis McLaren at the piano.
On the program also are Durufle’s Ubi Caritas, the Lutken Amen, and composer Matthew Dalgliesh’s setting of the Wendell Berry poem, “The Peace of Wild Things.”
The Moving Spirit Dancers will perform “Signs From Earth,” based on American Sign Language, “Journey and Farewell,” set to the music of Bach, “Thicket,” set to recorded bird song, and a dance setting of Henry Purcell’s eloquent “Thou Knowest, Lord,” sung by the Merrymeeting Singers.
On the program are groups of Shaker songs and spirituals, which incorporate dances in “Pretty Love,” “Simple Gifts,” “Wade in the Water” and “Guide My Feet,” choreographed by Peggy Brightman and danced by the Moving Spirit Dancers, joined by Don Weatherbee, Terre Burke and Donna Bann.
The second half of the program offers a group of American favorite love songs by Gershwin and Cole Porter: “Embraceable You,” “But Not For Me” and “In the Still of the Night.”
The program culminates in a playful and colorful song and dance version of “You’re the Top.”
The proceeds from this program will benefit the Unitarian Universalist Church of Brunswick, which burned down last summer and is in the process of being rebuilt.
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