One of the don’t-miss shows of the north Bay Fall Season has got to be Ballet Recitals by the students of Dominican University’s BFA in Dance. The school works with Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet and the San Francisco Dance Center. I’m no dance critic, but I know what I like. I really like this show, and wouldn’t miss it for the world.
There are generally eight or so recitals, some complex ensemble pieces by the combined students of the various classes, a few Senior Project, some modern pieces in urban settings, some classical performed to operatic music. The show opener, four movements set largely to non-melodic rhythmic music through a rain-forest setting was also one of the more accessible to philistines like me. I soon learned to put down my notes and just watch. Each piece had its own story, and not necessarily the one I would have gotten from the liner notes, or from my own attempt at understanding. In time I lose place altogether with the program, becoming lost in the swirl of vision, rhythm, motion, visceral stories told without words, visceral emotional contact that cannot be recast in mere words. Each of the pieces exists for a brief moment in its own world, and we in the audience are blessed to be invited into it.
The evening performance of November 9 was followed by and informal Q+A and round-table discussion between some of the dancers and choreographers, and those few audience members who chose to stay after the show and take part. This was a nice touch, a great way for some of us to learn more about the art of dance. Not every piece needs to be taken literally, interpreted through the written introductions in the program. Dance is one of the liveliest of arts, a wide range of possibilities drawing not only from music and movement, but from each dancer’s separate and ensemble interpretation interacting with each audience member’s intellect and emotion.
This show only happens twice a year in the Fall and Spring semesters so look for it and mark your calendars for 2013. Last performance this year is 3:00 November 10, 2012
Performances at Angelico Hall, Dominican University of California, 50 Acacia Ave., San Rafael, CA 94901
415-482-3579 www.domincan.edu
LINES Ballet School/BFA http://bfa.linesballet.org/events/