Special
Features / April 2007
Voice from the Earth
 Ilene Evans
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By Pat Lawrence
City transplants to the country aren’t always successful, but when Ilene Evans moved from Chicago, Illinois to Thomas, West Virginia, she took root.
Her life in Chicago was full of music and movement. A professional dancer, she performed the full range of dance- ballet, jazz, modern dance, even modern flamenco. She had her own dance company, choreographed performances and worked with a variety of independent artists.
“I’ve been involved with theater since I was four,” she says. “My father was in community theater and my first performance was with him. But mostly, it has been dance. I danced professional until I was 38. When my daughter was born, I expanded into vocal work and corporeal mime. My classical background took a more theatrical focus.”
There were other changes as well. “I realized that what was compelling me in all of these experiences, the movement the expression, the vocal work, was the story. From the smallest, most subtle gesture to the grand sweep, it is about the story.”
Invited to participate in a West Virginia workshop, in 1994, Ilene found she didn’t want to leave. “The land called me!” She says, “It was the opportunity to connect to some of the vital forces in nature, the big currents of nature.” She built her home at the headwaters of the Potomac River, and then, “mostly, listened.”
“I found an active oral culture of a depth and richness that was compelling. This was very different from the Midwest. The prairie rhythm is very different from the mountain rhythm. The mountains don’t compromise. Listening was how I showed respect-and became a part of it.”
Quite naturally, from the neighborhood gatherings to the WV Storytelling Festival, to the presidency of the WV Story Telling Guild, Ilene became one of the voices resonating with the mountains.
In 1989, during a workshop in Chicago, Ilene need background about Harriet Tubman for a scene. “As I was researching her, I realized I wanted to know more, but the only books I could find were in the children’s section and not at all scholarly.” Ilene began researching Harriet Tubman in earnest. “It was such an important story.”
Harriet Tubman, one of the most famous leaders of the Underground Railway helped hundreds of slaves escape to Canada and free states. She was never caught and never lost a slave guiding them to freedom. During the Civil War, Harriet Tubman was a cook, a nurse and a spy. By 1860, she had made the perilous trip to slave country 19 times. She is one of the characters that Ilene portrays in live presentations, as part of the WV Alive! Program and across the country.
Ilene was introduced to her second character after moving to West Virginia. Ilene says, “Memphis Tennessee Garrison was a mover and shaker in education, and civil rights. She lived from 1890-1988. She pioneered the school lunch program and a number of social and child advocacy programs in education. She was a vital force in the state, when women stayed home. She was the first woman president of the WV State Teachers Association, chairperson of the Colored Woman’s Division of the Republican Party, and a champion for human and civil rights. She organized the first NAACP branches in Southern West Virginia and was vice-president of the NAACP in 1963, the first woman elected at the national level.”
Ilene says, “People are surprised at how moved they are from the performances. And, even though I’m familiar with the characters and have done them many times, they are live performances, and each one is different. I like an audience and each audience has its own energy. My specialty isn’t history, it’s theater. I like to make an impact and see the reaction.”
Ilene still choreographs and still dances, though it is more often in the classroom now, as part of Voices from the Earth, a theater arts performing and touring academy in Thomas. “Voices from the Earth brings performing arts into settings that might not be expected. It’s important that the arts belong to everyone. Exploring characters, recombining components, is how we understand how choices are made. We are the stuff of which our stories are made. Voices from the Earth shares the universal themes of those stories.”
Ilene still listens for the stories in the mountains and along the river. Walking in the woods has become her greatest pleasure. A yellow lab and a Great Pyrenees are her frequent companions. She says, “It’s a difficult thing to live in this world. Stories can keep the darkness at bay. It’s how we forgive ourselves.”
For more information, visit vfte.org, email: ilene@vfte.org or call Ilene Evans, 304-334-6273
Copyright © 2007 A Woman's View. All rights reserved.
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