Premiere dance
concert planned
The
program includes dances choreographed by Robin Bisio,
Heather Carney Shea, Nancy Colahan, Nicole Helton,
Valerie Huston, Misa Kelly, E. Bonnie Lewis, Delila Moseley, Susan Shaberman,
Kara Stewart and Jacqueline Wiley.
Curtain
time for “New Works: Santa Barbara Choreographers,” scheduled Jan. 11-13 at
Center State Theater, 751 Paseo Nuevo, Santa Barbara,
will be at 8 p.m.
“Un…Done,”
“She Passes Through…” and “As We Are,” are just three
of the newly created dance pieces premiering at the event. At a reception
following the opening performance on Jan 11, Dance Alliance also will present
its 11th Lifetime Achievement Award to Luis Goena for
his contributions to the Santa Barbara Balkan dance community.
Dance
themes range from the promise of new beginnings to feelings of anxiety and
helplessness. The program will showcase accomplished dancers in solos and
ensemble pieces with movement styles from contemporary ballet to post modern.
Beautiful to sleek costumes; classic to original music scores; and inventive
lighting design, as well as the intimate setting of Center Stage Theater,
promise to make it an experience to remember.
A
panel of judges, all longtime professional dancers and choreographers, reviewed
live auditions and DVDs in November to select the program of 11 pieces.
“Un…Done,”
by E. Bonnie Lewis, explores what lies beneath the mask people wear as they
routinely float through their daily lives and the moments when they feel ‘side
swiped’ by a sudden realization or ‘wakeup call’ that brings them to their
knees. Rina Van de Kamp dances this solo work.
Nancy
Colahan’s work for 11 dancers, “She Passes Through…,”
was inspired by the breath audible in its musical score. It evolves around the
concept of a person transitioning, supported by a sense of destiny and
witnessed by loved ones visible and invisible.
With
daring falls, lifts and surprises fueled by a dynamic original music and vocal
arrangement, Nicole Helton’s “As We Are,” dives into the angst of navigating
expectations versus desires. She said she was inspired by the quirky and
humorous experiences of her dancers’ “quarter-life crises.”
“Light
Was Salvation,” a provocative and haunting dance film by Robin Bisio, explores light as creation, destruction and
resurrection and features ethereal dancer Dorrie
Tames Powell.
Misa Kelly’s “Le Jardin
Rouge” is an athletic and emotionally charged abstract duet. Quirky, playful,
poignant and tragic, the work was inspired in part by an unexpected display of
flowers in bloom in Kelly’s garden.
A
flowing contemporary ballet for seven dancers, “The Color of Water,” by Delila Moseley is set to the timeless music of Tchaikovsky.
“How
Could We?” is an intense solo work choreographed and
danced by Susan Shaberman. It probes the question of
how a society could go along with a leader who causes horror and destruction.
The work is an expression of anxiety and helplessness.
Kara
Stewart’s “Rain,” illuminates the diverse moods evoked by rain.
“Short
Trip Home,” a duet by husband and wife Jack and Jacqueline Wiley, reflects
survival, companionship and wisdom gained through a decade of experiences.
Between
“Silences,” by Heather Carney Shea, began as an exploration into Muslim
Fundamentalist belief of 72 virgins waiting in heaven and became a piece about
birth, anticipation and arrival.
Inspired
by Walkowitz’s drawings of famed dancer, Isadora
Duncan, “Ethereal Bodies,” by Valerie Huston takes the viewer to a region
between life and death.
Selling
out every year, this popular show focuses on bringing fresh, sophisticated and
varied new dance works to life.
As
an added bonus, Robin Bisio, with Catherine Bennett,
will present Blue Meadow, an experimental film. Her work has been shown in
festivals throughout the United States and Europe. As director of the Cormorant
Dance Foundation, she produced the Coastal Project for 10 years. She received the Choreographer Award from the
Arts Fund of the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission.
Heather
Carney Shea grew up dancing in Salt Lake City, Utah, with the Ballet West
Academy under the direction of William Christiansen. She received her degree in
dance from the University of California at Santa Barbara, later touring with
the UCSB Dance Company throughout the U.S. and Mexico. She has taught dance
throughout Santa Barbara since 2001.
Nancy
Colahan, a dancer and performer for 35 years,
recently retired from the stage with the culmination of the film, “Of Time and
the Spirit,” directed by her colleague Tonia Shimin.
Currently she devotes her time to her classes in modern dance technique, UCSB,
and choreographic ventures.
Nicole
Helton received her degree in dance from UCSB and danced with the UCSB Dance
Company where she was a featured soloist in the US and Mexico tour. Nicole has
danced and choreographed professionally for Indiana Dance Theatre, and Daughter
of Zion Dance Company, and recently danced for Ballet Santa Barbara. She is the
Administrative Director for Santa Barbara Dance Alliance.
Valerie
Huston, a member of the UCSB dance faculty since 1983, has received three
National Endowment Fellowships in choreography, and directs the Valerie Huston
Dance Theatre, a 10-member professional contemporary ballet touring company
based in Santa Barbara. She served as an adjudicator for the Southeast Regional
Ballet Festival and was awarded an Independent Artist Award for Choreography by
the Arts Fund in Santa Barbara and the Lifetime Achievement Award in Dance from
Santa Barbara Dance Alliance.
Misa Kelly is the Artistic Director of Sonne Blauma Danscz
Theatre and is the primary founder of The Future Traditions Foundation. She has
studied and performed with 150 internationally known dancers, including
Christine Loizeaux, Christina McCarthy, Christopher Pilafian, and Tonia Shimin.
E.
Bonnie Lewis has been an active participant of the dance and theatre community
of Santa Barbara for over 15 years. Her background includes studying with the
original company members of the Jose Limon, Bela Lewitzsky, and Martha Graham Dance Companies, performing
Renaissance dancers as a Dancer on the Green in Ashland, Ore., and designing
choreography for Santa Barbara Youth Theatre.
Delila Moseley holds degrees in dance and
dramatic Art from UCSB where she is currently on faculty in the Division of
Dance. She has performed professionally in Los Angeles, New York, and
throughout the U.S. on tour, working with Donald McKayle’s
Inner City Repertory Dance Company, the American Heritage Dance Theatre, the
Joyce Trisler Danscompany,
and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. She has directed the UCSB Dance
Company for 15 years and is a founding member of Santa Barbara Dance Alliance
for which she has produced over 50 concerts locally.
Susan
Shaberman received a master’s degree in dance from Tisch School of the Arts in NYC, and has continued to
develop as an artist by studying at the major schools of modern dance in New York
and elsewhere, and has choreographed and performed locally and abroad.
Kara
Stewart has a degree in dance and worked in the entertainment industry as a
professional dancer for Disney and Buena Vista Pictures.
She
moved to Santa Barbara and started Fusion Dance Company, a semi-professional
dance company, which has performed locally for years.
Jacqueline
Wiley began studying dance with Arlene Satterlee,
well known dance instructor in the Santa Barbara area. She continued her
studies with Bob and Carol Hanlin and has a degree in
dance from UCSB. She has danced with various groups in Santa Barbara, San
Francisco and Tucson, including Beth Burleson, Susan Shaberman,
State Street Ballet, Newname Performance, and Thom
Lewis.
For tickets, call (805) 963-0408 or visit
www.centerstagetheater.org.