DANCEworks will present two evenings of dance at the Lobero Theatre, 8 p.m. Sept. 7-8.

Nine new works of modern dance have been created on the Lobero stage and gone on to tour nationally and abroad, significantly impacting the careers of the choreographers at the helm.

DANCEworks’ focus is on pushing the art form and contributing to the larger world of contemporary dance, and critics have agreed the sustained time and space awarded these choreographers has been life-altering.

This year to celebrate DANCEworks 10th Anniversary Season, its cast of choreographers has been invited back to the Lobero to perform after the world premiere from Doug Elkins Choreography, etc.

The program will feature names in the contemporary dance world who have left their marks on Santa Barbara including Aszure Barton, Larry Keigwin, Doug Elkins, Brian Brooks, Mark Dendy, Adam Barruch, Shannon Gillen, Kate Weare and Doug Varone.

Each will perform his/her own work, or set a solo on one of their company dancers in the theater that impacted their careers.

Performing the first half of the program is the inventive Elkins Choreography, etc., who have been in residence at the Lobero Theatre since Aug. 13 creating a new work.

During his last DANCEworks residency, Elkins cleverly combined Shakespeare’s Othello with the music of Motown.

Tickets for the DANCEworks Decade of Dance are on sale at Lobero.org. A limited number of VIP tickets are available for $105, which includes entry to post-performance reception and commemorative book. (One book per VIP ticket order).

Section A $40, section B $25, students $15.

Elkins is a two-time New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Award-winning choreographer and 2012 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Creative Arts Fellow.

He began his dance career as a B-Boy, touring the world with break dance groups New York Dance Express and Magnificent Force.

Doug Elkins Choreography, etc. was established in 2009 as a way to brand independent dance, theater, and teaching projects for Elkins. The umbrella has allowed for the creation of award-winning works including Fräulein Maria, a deconstruction of The Sound of Music; and Mo(or)town/Redux, a movement conversation with Shakespeare’s Othello and Jose Limon’s The Moor’s Pavane set to a Motown-inspired score commissioned by DANCEworks Santa Barbara.

DANCEworks is a collaboration between SUMMERDANCE Santa Barbara and the Lobero Theatre Foundation designed to offer notable choreographers in the U.S. a month-long residency in which to create, rehearse and premiere the new work on the Lobero stage.

More is at SBDANCEworks.com.

— Angie Bertucci for Lobero Theatre.