DANCE RADAR: March into Spring with a Guide
March into Spring, or spring into March, either way you’ll need this dance guide:
Image courtesy of John Neumeier Kyoto Prize lecture-performance.
Blythe Barton Dance set the barre high in horizontal mode, and there are dynamic offerings for every taste this month. Local dance companies are presenting full evenings and collaborating with orchestras. Notice the international accents. The American-born choreographer of Germany’s Hamburg Ballet presents work and accepts the Kyoto prize in San Diego. There’s a Cuban dance and music festival and Flamenco ballet from Spain. Bailamos toda la noche!
4-6 Balanchine Masterworks, City Ballet of San Diego, Spreckels Theatre. Get all the details in my preview (Mar. 3, Night and Day, UT San Diego). https://www.cityballet.org/
12 SD Young Choreographers Showcase & Prize, White Box.
http://www.sandiegodancetheater.org/ChoreographersPrizeChoreographers.html
It’s grown into two shows: 5 and 7 pm. Have a drink and a pizza at Solare in between. Winners are announced after the last show. Judges and audience members get to vote. Don’t discount this little contest. No joke, this is where emerging dance makers and performers launch careers. I’ve written about this in award-winning features: http://www.sandiegostory.com/when-dance-makers-test-work-compete-for-prizes-everyone-wins/ http://www.sandiegostory.com/next-generation-revealed-in-choreographers-showcase-prize/ Try to snag a ticket and vote: http://www.sandiegodancetheater.org/ChoreographersPrizeChoreographers.html
12 Noche Cubana is hailed as San Diego’s biggest and funniest Cuban music and dance celebration. Learn to Salsa. WorldBeat Center. http://events.worldbeatcenter.org/?event=noche-cubana-4
12-13 Romeo & Juliet, California Ballet, at Balboa Theatre. The program includes a new work by Guest Choreographer Jared Nelson titled Ruled by Secrecy. He’s the handsome guy who starred in Cal Bal’s Great Gatsby. http://californiaballet.org/romeo-juliet/
12-13 Lux Boreal Dance Company, a favorite from Tijuana, dances Stravinsky’s “Persephone,” in a brilliant collaboration with Steven Schick who directs the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus. I talk to Lux’s artistic director Henry Torres and Schick about their enduring friendship and collaborations. (Watch for my preview Mar. 10, UT’s Night and Day). http://www.lajollasymphony.com/about/March_Concert.php
14-20 Trey McIntyre is the featured guest at the Front & Main Dance Festival, in Temecula. City Ballet of San Diego and the PGK Project will also be there. http://frontmainfest.com/
15 Akram Khan and Israel Galvan in the California premiere of Torobaka, Irvine Barclay Theatre. It’s an easy road trip. www.thebarclary.org.
16 Ballet Flamenco de Andalucia is on a 20th Anniversary Tour and presents Images: 20 Years, a program to revisit five of the most celebrated choreographies of its repertoire. It’s directed by Ragaela Carrasco, one of the most important reps of flamenco art in Spain. Spreckels Theatre, presented by La Jolla Music Society. www.ljms.org.
17 “Shakespeare Dance,” is part of the John Neumeier Kyoto Prize lecture-performance, Univ. of San Diego. He’s the American-born master choreographer of Germany’s Hamburg Ballet. I’ll interview Mr. Neumeier in the coming days to find out more about this exclusive event. It’s free but you have to reserve seats. Pina Bausch was awarded the last dance Kyoto Prize, and anyone who was there can’t forget her dancers in long gowns. http://www.sandiego.edu/kyoto/
18-20 Malashock Dance performs The Firebird, part of the music in motion series with with the San Diego Symphony, Copley Symphony Hall. http://malashockdance.org/performances/
20 First Day of Spring, 2016.
Kris Eitland covers dance and theater for Sandiegostory.com and freelances for other publications, including the Union Tribune and Dance Teacher Magazine. She grew up performing many dance styles and continued intensive modern dance and choreography at the Univ. of Minnesota, Duluth, and San Diego State Univ. She also holds a journalism degree from SDSU. Her career includes stints in commercial and public radio news production.
Eitland has won numerous Excellence in Journalism awards for criticism and reporting from the San Diego Press Club. She has served on the Press Club board since 2011 and is a past president. She is a co-founder of Sandiegostory.com. She has a passion for the arts, throwing parties with dancing and singing, and cruising the Pacific in her family’s vintage trawler. She trains dogs, skis, and loves seasonal trips to her home state of Minnesota.