Tell Me Mo’: Looking to Fill Your Weekend Dance Card?
Santa Barbara Dance Theatre spins its 'Cycles.' Then it's on to Speaking of Stories and T.C. Boyle.
The Santa Barbara Dance Theatre’s annual concert, titled “Cycles,” is this weekend’s highlight. I’ll be heading out to UCSB’s Hatlen Theatre on Thursday night to catch the company in action and I hope you can make it this weekend.
I served as media representative for SBDT for 15 years, and so I had the pleasure of watching this company grow. In 2006, it performed in Ireland and Wales, and in four cities in China to enthralled, SRO crowds. The company was asked back to China for a 2007 tour and was joined by the UCSB Dance Company. Dances by artistic director Jerry Pearson and Tonia Shimin comprise of this year’s concert. Dancers in the company include Gilbertson, Blake Hennessy-York, Erika Kloumann, Thomas McDonnell, Ian McGinnis, Sarah Pon, Chelsea Retzloff, Nick Van Beurden and Emily Wheeler.
4-1-1:
Dates: Thursday-Sunday
Location: Hatlen Theatre, UCSB
Cost: $17 adults, $13 students with ID
Contact: Arts & Lectures Box Office, 805.893.3535
On Monday evening, I’m heading over to Speaking of Stories‘ opening show for the 2008 season, "Speaking of Humor," starring T.C. Boyle and three of my favorite actors here in town — Christina Allison, Tony Miratti and Devin Scott. Billed as “an evening to tickle your funny bone and send you out of the theater on a wave of laughter” certainly caught my attention. Who couldn’t use a laugh?
As an added treat, artistic director Maggie Mixsell and founder Steven Gilbar will be available for an informal Q&A session before the show. So, arrive a little early and join them at the front of the auditorium to the left of the stage for a discussion of the stories, actors and writers. Boyle, a Montecito resident and celebrated author of numerous short story collections and novels, performs Sorry Fugu, his self-described “love letters to the food critics of the world.”
Allison — a triple-threat actress, singer and author — will show off two of these talents performing her story, If Only, which won first place in the humor category at the 2006 Santa Barbara Writers’ Conference. Scott will bring an educational element to the evening, performing the hilarious and instructional How To Become A Writer — or Have You Earned This Cliché? by Lorrie Moore. You’ve seen Scott on stage at SBCC, The Ensemble Theatre and at Center Stage with his latest venture, The Mentor Theatre Co. Miratti will bring to life a final surprise offering. He’s another “regular” on the SoS series and you’ve seen his work on nearly every stage in town and on TV; he and Nancy Nufer do the comedic ads for SB Channels (Nufer) and network offerings (Miratti). Take off on the Mac/PC ads, just seeing them together is a sight gag. Tony also teaches acting and I recommend him as a teacher for anyone perspiring, er, I mean aspiring to become an actor.
The season continues March 3 with "Longing & Infidelities," love stories that fall outside and beyond “happily ever after.”
4-1-1:
Speaking of Stories’ "Speaking of Humor"
Date: 7:30 p.m. Monday
Location: Lobero Theatre, 33 E. Canon Perdido
Cost: $30-$13
Contact: Lobero box office, 805.963.0761
Looking ahead, dance fans ... Let’s talk about the aforementioned Bennett and Bisio, who are doing their premiere of Blue Meadow, a free dance video installation for the 2008 Santa Barbara International Film Festival from 5-8 p.m. Feb. 2 at the Patty Look Lewis Gallery, 25 E. De la Guerra St. This is absolutely the antithesis of the big celebrity event being held the same night up the street at the Arlington Theatre.
“Every artist involved in the installation is local save for one,” Bisio told me. “The installation becomes an environment so much different than the film festival. It evokes nature in a timeless way, like the sanctity and repose of a high mountain meadow; it’s not commercial at all.”
If you’re like me and want to support the local talent we have here, this is one of the events you should check out and hang around for awhile. Always interesting people to talk to at these installations — and both artists will be there to meet and greet.
In addition to Gilbertson, Blue Meadow features dancer Dorrie Tames Powell. Three films will be projected at once, Bisio added.
“We’re projecting one film through a bird’s nest and we haven’t decided what other materials to project through yet," she said.
The film is actually two films cut together, and with a recycled costume to boot. Costume designer Marlene Mason did the original costume and then cut it up to create the new one. Powell’s footage was shot seven years ago at Figueroa Mountain and the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. Gilbertson’s footage was done at Elings Park and Leadbetter Beach. Bisio had been haunted by the footage of Powell and wanted to use it. Blue Meadow became the vehicle.
Bisio’s work has almost always included nature, so I asked her what was the draw for her.
“It’s my neighborhood, and there’s nothing nature can’t do, solve or point the way with, to art — it’s indelible to me," she expained. "I always love being outside. Nature speaks to me. I would like to try the desert sometime but I choose to stay inside Santa Barbara County. All the open beaches and land you can get to with a camera is so interesting to me, and I don’t lose interest in the same sites.
"I love Rattlesnake Canyon and look at it differently each time I’m there; you can see the changes by constant visits, it feels like it’s really part of you.”
Some of you may remember Bisio from the Coastal Dance Project, which she did for 10 years and took place at Leadbetter Beach. That was a mix of dance and art installations, so, as I see it, this film work is a natural evolution for her.
“When I shoot I don’t want to be a voyeur but I want to be in nature," she emphasized. "It’s a different way of filming, one emanating from nature rather than using nature as a backdrop. This is from the landscape itself and what the land wants to say.”
I came up with a name for Bisio and Bennett’s work — Indigenous Filmmaking. Come on out and celebrate where we live, and the artists who populate this town to make it such a special place to live. Next on the agenda for the filmmakers is to project images on melting glaciers. I think they’ll have to go outside of the county to get that footage.
Mo McFadden’s Tell Me Mo’ column is published every other week on Noozhawk.
» wrote on 01/17/08 @ 04:22 AM
Here’s the ad Nufur and Mirrati did for Channel 21:
» wrote on 01/16/08 @ 06:03 PM
Hey babe—I love your never ending efforts to give people like me a little bit of culture! Schloop