Performance To Make War Memorial 'Forgotten No More'

Marine Rifle Platoon from E-2-5, 1st Marine Division, 8/50

It is not often that a work of artistic creation metamorphoses and becomes a totally different medium, but that’s what happened after Kista Tucker, assistant professor of dance, visited the Korean War Veterans Memorial sculpture in Washington, D.C.

The memorial, as well as the associated emotional impact Tucker felt upon seeing the figures that represent the American soldiers who died, inspired her to choreograph the “Korean War Veterans Memorial Project: Forgotten No More.”

A production of the SHSU department of theatre and dance, the performance will be held Friday and Saturday (Jan. 21-22), at 8 p.m. both days, on the Mainstage at the University Theatre Center.

The full-length work will include “Stateside,” a section that includes a swing dance and dances with music by George Gershwin and Aaron Copeland, and “Forgotten No More,” which tells the overseas story through dances such as “Walking,” “Battle,” Dead and Wounded” and “Prisoners of War.”

The event will also include speeches by provost and vice president for Academic Affairs David Payne on Friday night and university president James F. Gaertner on Saturday night; local Korean War veterans reading a poem written by another veteran and presenting the colors; and the SHSU military science department serving as escorts, as well as a “talk back” section at the end of the show with a panel including Tucker and Korean War veterans to “bring the essence of war into present times,” she said.

Tucker developed the dance using Laban Movement Analytical techniques after receiving a $26,500 grant from the university’s Research and Sponsored Programs office. In addition, she interviewed the memorial’s sculptor, Frank C. Gaylord, and discussed with him his connection to the war, his inspiration in creating the platoon of soldiers and the symbolism of postures, gear and facial expressions.

“Creating dance from steel forms has involved merging two completely different artistic media of expression,” Tucker said. “Hardness and permanence have evolved into sight, sound and movement.”

Tucker also used her own interpretations to recreate impressions of what the soldiers “must have experienced in Korea” and uses light and music to enhance the soldiers’ war experiences and longing for home.

“In one segment called ‘Letter from Home,’ a soldier receives news that his loved one is leaving him for a civilian. The audience knows the outcome and is left to make the mental connection between life, death, war and peace,” she said. “Korean War veterans and others in the audience watching the dance performance have been moved to tears because as the forgotten war, the Korean War forced American soldiers to endure hardships that were never redeemed.”

The dance has been performed 10 times in Texas and California and has received accolades from peer groups and audiences alike.

Tickets for the concert are $10 for general admission and $8 with a SHSU or senior citizen ID. For more information, call 936.294.3988 or e-mail kista@shsu.edu.

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SHSU Media Contact: Jennifer Gauntt
Jan. 12, 2005
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