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I love watching dance-I’ve made a career of it. But I’ll also readily admit that sometimes, dance can look stilted. Really, I understand why the very idea of a dance performance-especially an amateur or pre-professional one-makes some people squirm.
The art of classical ballet, with its five positions, its formal technicalities, and its emphasis on flowing movement and weightlessness, forms the foundation for contemporary dance. Even the most innovative, radical modern dance choreographers work in relation to this fundamental technique, whether or not their work appears balletic. This season, Santa Barbara gets a taste of the art form in all its guises.
It’s a simple enough statement: “I want to dance better at parties.” It’s also a simple premise: take five men’s description of the role of dance in their lives and tell those stories on a stage using professional dancers.
When Chunky Move’s artistic director Gideon Obarzanek came up with the concept for I Want to Dance Better at Parties, he was thinking more of the TV screen than the stage. A documentary fan with an interest in producing work for television, he wanted to make a film that examined men’s attitudes toward dancing.
It seems the landscape of dance is always shiftingmovement is in the nature of the art form. Here in Santa Barbara, where the recent announcement that the city’s annual Summerdance festival will not continue has sent a tremor through the performing arts community, all eyes are now on UCSB’s Arts & Lectures calendar for world-class dance programming, and A&L has come through with the goods.
