This year, the company’s Seventh Season is in honor of L. Tarin Chaplin.

Tarin was a mentor in the deepest and truest sense of the word.  She was truly a driving force in the work that we do, and ignited something we share at our core.  SYREN would not exist as it does without the experience we had, the years spent learning, from Tarin.

Tarin passed away in May of this year (2009) from an aggressive form of cancer : Uterine Sarcoma, that took her on a swift journey to the place where she rests now.

Tarin was our choreography teacher at college, and we have vivid memories of winter trips to her renovated schoolhouse in Northern Vermont to work on dance-making outside.  Initially, this involved everyone (except for Tarin) being out of their comfort zones; but as we grew, and were pushed beyond our boundaries both in the dance studio and in the snow, we began to realize what an indelible mark she was making on the way we see, and respond to, the world.  She led us powerfully in each experience, and challenged us to respect process, and creation, in ways that remain indescribable. 

Tarin demanded many things from us.  She demanded work.  Persistence.  Intention.  Honesty.  Integrity in our work.  Integrity for the Earth.  Kindness to all things living.

We have made the choice to consciously fuse the teachings, thoughts, views, messages, ideas and greater spirit of Tarin into the entire shape of this Season.  How exactly this will transpire is still forming - from possibly infusing itself into the work, to an homage trip to Vermont to perform in the community she so directly impacted and ignited, to bringing cancer awareness to the public at our events, to simply keeping her spirit alive by being able to share these words here about this beautiful person that had such an immense impact on our path in so many ways.

We thank you for listening, and we do hope you can take a few minutes to read about Tarin, and have a true sense of the person we honor this Season.

With deep gratitude for Tarin –
We are humbled and inspired to think of all she taught and continues to teach us,

Kate Mehan & Lynn Peterson

In Memoriam: L. Tarin Chaplin (1941-2009)

It is with profound sadness that we announce the death of our beloved flame-haired beauty, our mama, L. Tarin Chaplin who died of cancer this past Monday, May 25, 2009. Born in 1941 in Brooklyn, NY where her father ran a gas station, Tarin began dancing at the age of three. Seven years later her family relocated to Miami, Florida, where they operated The Silva, a commercial fishing boat. Head majorette at Miami High, upon graduation, Tarin married Anton S. Chaplin and started a family of her own in State College, PA, from whence she graduated summa cum laude with a BA in English and a minor in dance. After completing a master’s in dance at UCLA, Tarin and her youngest son moved to Vermont in 1976, eventually settling in her little red schoolhouse in the town of East Montpelier.

A life-long “eco-choreographer,” activist, writer and dancer, Tarin sought to connect people to the earth, the elements, and the sentient and non-sentient beings that share this universe with us in all their magnificent manifestations. Embodying this perspective, her art, which was performed on both proscenium stages and in site-specific venues, was known for its piercing imagery and rich symbolism. This past winter, for example, she brought her community the twelfth annual Ice on Fire, an outdoor event that Tarin conceived and directed in which she draws on storytelling and myth to celebrate the ferocious beauty of deep winter. Likewise, many remember the haunting tableaus of Women’s Rites, a touring installation stage and gallery piece exploring the iconography of domesticity that had a memorable performance at Montpelier’s Kellogg-Hubbard Library almost thirty years ago. Locally, she enriched circles too numerous to name, notably choreographing Pat Pritchett’s version of Fiddler on the Roof at the Old Meeting House, participating in the rituals of the Remembrance Community and the explorations of the Authentic Movement group, as well as maintaining a longstanding collaboration with director Marianne Lust of Lincoln, VT, with whom she worked on Marianne’s magical Nightfires and Marrowb one.

The author of countless articles and books, including a seminal text in her field, The Intimate Act of Choreography (9 printings, 3 translations, co-authored with the late Lynne Anne Blom), Tarin recently wrote and edited for The Bridge and other publications, and functioned as dance-theatre critic for The Times Argus. While rooted in Vermont, Tarin taught and created internationally, holding university positions in London, Jerusalem, and Vancouver, and nationally, at Penn State, the University of Montana, Goddard, Middlebury College (where she founded the dance major), and at SUNY Purchase (where she taught choreography at the Conservatory of Dance), among others. The recipient of prestigious fellowships from such places as the National Endowment for the Arts, the Asian Cultural Council, American-Israeli Foundation and Vermont Arts Council, Tarin founded the International Performance Project (bringing performing and visual artists together from around the world), served for almost ten years as Artistic Associate and Director of Choreography for the Carlisle Project, directed the Irish National Youth Dance Company, and, most recently, was the keynote speaker at the New Zealand National Dance Festival. A poet, nature writer, and storyteller, her experiences living and working worldwide (in places as far-flung as the Alaskan tundra, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Eastern Europe and the Outer Hebrides) inspired her commitment to honoring earth’s breadth and spirit. Ongoing graduate studies in environmental ethics, deep ecology, and ritual augmented her avid Qigong, Butoh and wilderness practices.

Tarin’s emphasis on community-based celebrations of the natural and supernatural worlds have opened hearts and given wing to new perceptions of our interconnectedness. Her bright spirit burns on in the dear ones she leaves behind, including her youngest son, environmentalist, builder, mechanic and farmer Daniel Chaplin (father to granddaughter Flora-Sae Kim Chessman Chaplin, both of Worcester, VT); her daughter, Tamara Chaplin, a European historian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; her eldest son, builder and former professional skier and tennis coach, Scott Chaplin of Queensland, Australia (father to grandsons Anders Royale and Palmer Gayle Chaplin of Lake Tahoe, CA); her niece, Neesa Warlen, of Plantation, Florida; and a vast community of remarkable friends, students and colleagues. Wise, irreverent and passionate, Tarin Chaplin demanded much, and gave more. We are grateful for the powerful love she lavished so generously and for the myriad ways in which she shaped our lives. She will be deeply missed.

Tarin requested that donations in her name be sent to support two scholarships: the first, The l. Tarin Chaplin Choreographic Award, will be presented to a young choreographer enrolled for 2009-2010 at the Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College, SUNY (where Tarin culminated her academic career); the second will support the study of Yiddish (a language dear to Tarin’s heart). Checks for the choreography award should be sent to Tamara Chaplin, 1550 Centre Road, Montpelier, VT, 05602, by July 15. Contributions in honor of the Memorial Tarin Chaplin Yiddish Studies Fund can be sent to Beth Jacob Synagogue, POB 1033, Montpelier, VT 05602.

Photography: All Photos except for snapshot with Lynn & Kate: Richard Greene