covering the dance scene in the San Francisco Bay Area

July 28, 2003

Preview
Midsummer Night's Dreaming
An interview with Julia Adam

by Rita Felciano

With a whole slew of impressive works to her repertoire, among them her latest, the fresh and slightly idiosyncratic imaginal disc premiered by San Francisco Ballet last season, Julia Adam can no longer be considered a newcomer to the rarefied world of ballet choreography. Like many of her colleagues, she has been making pieces that fit into the repertory programs favored by ballet’s artistic directors these days: dances that use between a half-dozen to perhaps fifteen dancers and are about twenty to thirty minutes long.

But ballet companies also have a tradition of full-evening works and typically have much larger ensembles at their disposal than those deployed in short, contemporary pieces. So how will a ballet choreographer learn the skills to handle larger groups and a more expansive time frame, in short how to create a trajectory longer than half hour? Few freelance choreographers get the opportunity to learn the necessary skills early in their career. Many of them have to tackle the task for the first time when they are artistic directors and have to answer the clamor for full-evening works.

Photo: Julia Adam rehearsing dancers of the Marin Ballet in her new A Midsummer Night's Dream, which will premiere August 2. Photo by Marty Sohl.

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Review
Summerfest, Program 4
ODC Theatre, San Francisco

reviewed by Paul Parish

....The strongest piece on the show, both in certainty of purpose and in edge of execution, was Kimiko Guthrie's There. Ms. Guthrie's shows are always heavily attended by other dancers; she's probably on everybody's short list of whose work is most interesting.

Hard-edged, arresting, clear, There is nevertheless hard to describe. Ms Guthrie has caught that moment when you were first spooked by an image of yourself as suddenly old: like seeing your father's face in the mirror when you shave, seeing his bone-structure around your own eyes, so you realize that you're not as free as you thought—you WILL get old, and there are underlying patterns in life you can't escape from.

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JUL 29: WOMEN’S WORK: SAMANTHA BLANCHARD AND ALYSSA WILMOT
Dancer Samantha Blanchard offers an except from her one-woman show “Renee: The Autobiography of a Schizophrenic Woman” and Alyssa Wilmot presents two collaborative works, “Seven Years Bad Luck” and “The Location of You” on a program with theater works by Susan Evans and Margery Kreitman.
July 29, 8pm, Venue 9, 252 9th St., San Francisco, (415) 289-2000, www.venue9.com.

JUL 31-AUG 2: CAFÉ DE LA PAZ
This East Bay flamenco supper club celebrates its tenth anniversary with performances by Yaelisa and Caminos Flamencos. Enjoy Latin American cuisine along with acclaimed Spanish singers Antonio Malena and Manuel de la Malena. The second show each evening is dinner-optional.
Jul. 31-Aug. 2, dinner show seating begins 6pm with performance at 8pm, late show begins seating 9pm with performance at 10pm, Café de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, (510) 843-0662.

AUG 1-9: HUMAN ELEMENTAL LABORATORY OF PERFORMANCE
HELP “aims to create an economy of giving as an alternative to an economy of exhchange;” hence admission to this show is free, but donations to Huckleberry Youth Programs are encouraged. Christy Funsch, Jennifer Gwirtz, Jim Saliba, and John Baugmann present four world premieres
Aug. 1-2 and 8-9, 8pm, Theatre of Yugen at Noh Space, 2840 Mariposa St., San Francisco, (415) 456-3259, www.performancelab.org/helpproductions.

AUG 1-23: THE BEAT
STOMP alumna Kamal Sinclair Steele teams with Obie-Award winning playwright Robbie McCauley and “Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk” star Baakari Wilder to present a dance theater show mixing music, hip-hop, and poetry.
Fridays 8pm and Saturdays 3 and 8pm through Aug. 23, Baha’I Center Theater, 170 Valencia St., San Francisco, (415) 431-9870, www.universalarts.org

AUG 2: MARIN BALLET
Premiere of Julia Adam's A Midsummer Night's Dream. See our Preview.
Aug 2, 2pm and 7pm Marin Fine Arts Theater. (415)721-9622; www.marinballet.org

AUG 2: MARIN DANCE THEATRE SUMMERFEST
World premieres by SFB corps member Corinne Blum, Melinda Darlington-Bach, Cynthia Pepper, and Lynn Cox.
Aug. 2, 8pm, Bernard Osher Marin JCC, 200 North San Pedro Rd., San Rafael, (415) 499-8891, www.marindancetheatre.org.

AUG 2: CENTRAL COAST SUMMER FEST: MOVING ARTS DANCE
Back under the artistic directorship of Anandha Ray, and boosted tremendously by guest appearances from veteran Bay Area ballet dancers, Moving Arts professes to fuse classical and modern dance.
Aug. 2, 8pm, 3343 Paul Davis Dr., Marina, (831) 384-1050, www.spectordance.org

AUG 3: JUNE WATANABE IN COMPANY
A work-in-progress showing of Noh Project II.
Aug. 3, 4pm, Headlands Center for the Arts, east wing, 944 Fort Barry, Sausalito.

—Rachel Howard

Calendar Listings source courtesy of IN DANCE, a FREE monthly publication of Dancers' Group at http://www.dancersgroup.org

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