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