IPSWICH — Dancers have drawn inspiration from four portraits inspired by people who follow their convictions.
Choreographer Janet Taisey Craft, along with dancers Jessie Boudreau, Jenny Carlson, Danielle DiVito, and Tabitha Rodger of the Ipswich Moving Company, have readied a performance set for July 7.
The recitals are based on four portraits from Robert Shetterly’s series called Americans Who Tell The Truth.
A selection of the collection will be on display in July, and a number of other events will run as part of the exhibition.
Craft’s dances will be performed to the music of Labor in Vain and will include original compositions by Chris Florio, who is also working on another AWTT show with Tom Palance on July 9.
The recital and concert is based upon the lives and work of five Americans: Frances Crowe, Frances Perkins, Woody Guthrie, and Nicole and Jonas Maines.
A resident of Western Massachusetts, Crowe (born in 1919) is a peace activist who became concerned about the depredations of war after the bombings of civilians in Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki in 1945.
“Her participation in numerous protests has led to arrests, trials, and imprisonment,” Wikipedia said.
She was last arrested in 2014 at the age of 94 at the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, the website said.
She was among a group — the youngest of whom was 62 — cited for unlawful trespass at the power station, the Brattleboro Reformer reported at the time.
Born in Boston, Perkins (1880-1865) served as U.S. Secretary of Labor from in the Great Depression and World War II era from 1933 to 1945, the longest-serving secretary in the department.
She established the first overtime and minimum-wage laws, pushed to reduce workplace accidents and child labor, and, with the Social Security Act, introduced pensions and unemployment assistance.
Guthrie (1912-1967) was one of the most influential folk musicians in America. Born in Okemah, Oklahoma, he was heavily influenced by the Depression and the Dust Bowl period.
The Maines twins (born 1997) are from Maine and have fought for trans-gender rights after Nicole, born as a boy, began her transition to being a girl.
The dances will perform in the Appleton Room of the Ipswich Museum on Sunday, July 7 at 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. More events can be found in the North Shore calendar.