DANCE RADAR: Spring Forward, Choreographers in the News
Young Choreographers Showcase final bow. Image George Willis
The next generation likes competitive styles, edgy dance theater, and most of all, hip hop. Nine choreographers had the honor of presenting work at the San Diego Young Choreographers Showcase and Prize. They had reason to celebrate after two shows at the White Box Mar. 12 and no doubt kept dancing into the morning hours, just in time to Spring Forward for daylight saving time. Audience members and judges cheered for the huge effort of dance makers and performers. They voted and awarded prize money:
Audience favorite: Julio Velasquez’s “Second Nature.” He also performed in the hip-hop styled work, along with Danny Flores, Mat Millen, and JayCee Tandeo. $500
Best Dancer: Hannah Pritchett in “Contra.” $500
Most Original Choreography: Daniel Diaz’s “Mutual Core.” Diaz performed, along with Henry Chavez, Charisma Gallegos, Yoko Hasebe, Beatriz Merced, Lucy Pasquale, Anthony Rodriguez, Brenda Vargas, and Daniella Yidi. As top prize winner, Diaz was awarded $1,000 and a fully produced concert in Live Arts Fest.
City Ballet of San Diego performed an extraordinary all Balanchine show, while their top man was in New York. CBSD Resident Choreographer Geoff Gonzalez was selected by Peter Martins of the New York City Ballet to participate in the New York Choreographic Institute’s program. Gonzalez worked with a Julliard composer and choreographed a new ballet that was performed twice on March 11. 
Photo by Rosalie O’Connor. — at The School of American Ballet.
Unless you forgot to Spring Forward, there is still time to experience Latin rhythms in Balboa Park, R&J at the Balboa Theatre, and travel to the Underworld with Lux Boreal at UC San Diego.
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. (Check 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.
Image courtesy of John Neumeier Kyoto Prize lecture-performance.
17 “Shakespeare Dance,” is part of the John Neumeier Kyoto Prize lecture-performance, Univ. of San Diego. [Read my exclusive interview with him here.] He’s the American-born master choreographer of Germany’s Hamburg Ballet. 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 as 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.