Dancing with the inner light
Young Chang
Choreographer Melanie Rios created “The Music Came Last” for 107
dancers. The dance is about an individual in a large group, about how one
can become many and about how there is joy in the idea of growth.
Rios understands this sentiment because when she works with the
dancers in the Saint Joseph Ballet, she witnesses how her instructions
ripple through the massive class of 9- to 18-year-olds and result in
something unexpected.
“You are one person and they are many,” she said of working with the
inner city ballet company. “You put out some part of yourself and you get
a return a hundred times plus. It multiplies. By the end of it, you feel
overwhelmingly fulfilled.”
Rios’ dance will be featured along with Mark Haim’s “Los Angelitos”
and Beth Burns’ “listen look” for Saint Joseph Ballet’s concert at the
Irvine Barclay Theatre today and Sunday.
The Santa Ana-based company’s mission is to help low-income children
gain self esteem, discipline and ambition through dance and other
programs.
Burns, formerly a nun at St. Joseph of Orange, started the group in
1983.
“I think dance can make a big difference in people’s lives,” she said.
“I do believe that young people, if they’re given the opportunity to
develop their talent and to use all their energy in constructive ways,
that we can avoid a lot of stereotypical problems in crowded, urban
areas.”
The concert, titled “Light, within,” will showcase 137 dance students.
Burns said the show’s name refers to the resource everyone can always
draw upon.
“We have lots of strength within us and hope . . . and sometimes we
just need to be reminded of what’s within us,” she said.
Her abstract dance, “listen look,” emphasizes the challenge of
improvised work and features jazz pianist Geoffrey Keezer. The work
encourages audiences to look at different shapes and forms, as the
dancers are sometimes in the light and sometimes not.
“That idea of really looking is what I’m asking [of] the audience as
well,” Burns said.
Haim’s describes his dance “Los Angelitos” as a collection of poetic
images that reflect on situations that call for angels.
“And then also what I imagine an angelic life is like,” said the
choreographer, whose credits include a work inspired by Bach’s “Goldberg
Variations,” which was part of the American Dance Festival in the late
‘90s. “I was inspired by the purity and the innocence of the children I
was working with.”
Citing a passage in the Bible that mentions “on Earth as it is in
Heaven,” Haim said there are moments of the dance that combine the two
worlds using dancers as “connectors.”
“I approach them in the same manner that I approach a professional
company,” said Haim, who has choreographed for ballets including Ballet
Frankfurt and the Joffrey II Dancers. “They rose to the occasion.”
Rios, a Guatemalan choreographer who has created works for the
Contemporary Dance Company of the Ballet de Cali and the National Modern
Dance Company, said her joy comes from watching her students be graceful
as a group.
“It’s just kind of astounding to see so many people on stage move
together to create something beautiful together,” she said.
FYI
WHAT: “Light, within”
WHEN: 2:30 and 8 p.m. today, 2:30 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine
COST: $15 or $35
CALL: (949) 854-4646
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