For the past 28 years Shea New has been an indefatigable force for Dance and Choreography in Palm Desert. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of The Palm Desert Choreography Festival. Since 2002 the Festival was fully incorporated as an educational event at the McCallum Theatre under Kajsa Thuresson-Frary, Vice President of Education. The Festival receives funding from the City of Palm Desert. Over the past 28 years the Festival has presented the works of 807 choreographers, awarded $909,675 to some of those choreographers, served 20,476 workshop/residency participants, honored 26 Lifetime Achievement Award recipients, and served 47,594 audience members. A mark of its growing popularity is that they received 160 submissions for this years’ festival, somehow whittling that down to the following ten.
It takes a great deal of people to accomplish these statistics, from the presenting sponsors, contributors, supporters and donors, to the staff at the McCallum Theatre, to the Submissions Screening Panel, the Dance Visionary Series, and also the Judges. For this years’ panel the Judges were: Jennifer Backhaus, Joseph Carman, Daniel Ezralow, Julenda Satow Freeman, Molly Lynch, Kitty McNamee and Margaret Selby.
“Rate We Change” choreography by Kellie St. Pierre – Photo by Jingzi Photography.
“The Rate We Change” by Kellie St. Pierre of the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company was first on the program and an excellent opener for the evening. All of the action takes place on a revolving turntable center stage lit by a center downspot. The lighting was dramatic, perfectly matching the stakes at play on the dangerously rotating platform. What began as an exercise in physics quickly morphed into a metaphor for the inherent struggle of Humanity for survival. This simple device encapsulated the trajectory of the human condition from the precarious balancing act of mere existence to the wearing down of the life force to eventual and inevitable death. The performers walked on it and posed on it, danced on it and partnered on it all while turning at an even pace. It never slackened its pace nor accelerated and that made it constant and inevitable, as if a small microcosm of the Universe were made clear and understandable by illuminating our frantic movements among the more majestic turning of the Galaxy. One can immediately see the effect of adding a child or older dancer to the cast and thereby commenting on Humanity’s time frame within the cosmos. I also wondered what if the turntable stopped entirely? What if it began going backwards? This was a strong piece well-acted and danced by the cast: Cody Brunelle-Potter, Megan McCarthy, Fausto Rivera, Sasha Rydlizky, Miche’ Smith, and Luke Dakota Zender.
Iori Araya and Cayce Cavett in “A Fading Memory” choreography by Cecily Khuner – Photo by Jingzi Photography.
“A Fading Memory” by Cecily Khuner was a duet which began with a solo male crouched down stage left. His partner enters and they dance. There are lifts and partnered turns. All was solid and lovely and had the requisite passion to hold our attention. Music was “Lieberstraum” by Franz Liszt. Dancers were: Iori Araya and Cayce Cavett courtesy of Ballet Memphis.
“Like Those Playground Kids At Midnight” by Omar Román De Jesus representing the company Boca Tuya was a duet between two men, danced by Omar Román De Jesus and Ian Spring. The relationship segued between lovers, intimates, good friends and rivals. Here the costumes were unfortunate in that they hid a great deal of the movement and obscured the limbs when partnering. They were oversized pants with large baggy shirts hanging from the body. The dynamic of the movement did not waver from smooth partnering with breaks in the manipulation of each other signifying disagreement or uncertainty. After some minutes this became a one-note feature of the choreography. I was reminded of Terry Creach and Stephen Koester, a dance and choreography duo known for their company Creach/Koester, which explored partnering and the physicality of men dancing together.
Dance Kaleidoscope in “Edge Of The Sky” choreography by Joshua Blake Carter – Photo by Jingzi Photography.
“Edge Of The Sky” by Joshua Blake Carter was a group piece and featured pure movement facing front and in unison. The dancers capable and well-rehearsed, and the piece was clean. Dancers were: Jonathan Cubides, Ryan Galloway, Ryan Jaffe, Courtney Jefferies, Marie Kuhns, Natalie Nagy, Morgan Ranney, Nathan Rommel, Julie Russel, Sarah Taylor, Manuel Valdes, Zay all representing the company Dance Kaleidoscope.
Meredith Harrill and Jonah Delgado in “Animal” choreography by Noelle Kayser – Photo by Jingzi Photography.
“Animal” by Noelle Kayser was a duet exploring different aspects of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system as described by the choreographer in the preamble to the piece. The problem with this is that the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems are two branches of the autonomic nervous system which controls involuntary bodily functions (bold my own). All dance movement is rehearsed, controlled and not involuntary by the body’s definition. This is a difficult task. We understand the allusions, but it is hard to render the calming meditative or fight-or-flight responses the body employs as a matter of course. The costumes in red added to the sensuality of the piece, hers was a sheer red dress while his was red pants and shirtless. The choreography did not define male and female but utilized both interchangeably. The physical relationship between them was based on their individual experiences, sensual, but not necessarily shared in the choreography. I would like to see more. Dancers were: Jonah Delgado and Meredith Harrill.
Ariel Clarke and Bree Kostelnik in “Upstairs Neighbor” choreography by Franco Nieto – Photo by Jingzi Photography.
“Upstairs Neighbor” by Franco Nieto and danced by Ariel Clarke and Bree Kostelnik from Open Space Dance Company was a fun take on an upstairs neighbor making noise and then the resulting interactions due to that interference. There was irritation and then surprisingly a relationship develops and runs its course. Having a romantic relationship with a neighbor in the building is not to be recommended. Too close to home, as it were. This showed a great array of movement with lovely floor work tied into the emotional drama of it all. Well danced and acted.
Megan Doheny and Ilya Nikurov in their work “Palace” – Photo by Jingzi Photography.
“Palace” by Megan Doheny & Ilya Nikurov from the company “Outrun the Bear” was at first a sophisticated vignette of a man and woman in elegant evening wear displaying their relationship to us. There was a voice over where she was upset, an argument, unsatisfied. He was somewhat accommodating and then distant and unavailable. Was this a cocktail hour disagreement? Or more along scenes from a marriage? This piece was highly kinetic with a great deal of movement delivering the emotional stance of each person. The partnering was great and packed a punch. Unfortunately, there was no differentiation in tone so that it became one note. At the end she hits herself three times and backs offstage – perhaps she has had enough? He remains and crawls off perhaps to enact the scenes all over again.
Water Street Dance Milwaukee Company in “Goodbye” choreography by Morgan A. Williams – Photo by Jingzi Photography.
“Goodbye” by Morgan A. Williams and dancers from the Water Street Dance Milwaukee Company had a lot of floor work done very well and beautiful moments of unison movement to soft piano music. Music was Waves by Anna Phoebe & Aisling Brouwer. This was a contemplative piece that had great athleticism and worked well. Dancers were: Freddy Aguirre, Kate Alava, Abby Hermans, Hannah Hopkins, Sloan Logsdon, Teresa Noonan, Cassidy Quinn, and Sheamar Williams-Robinson.
Aiden Carberry & Jordan Johnson in their work “Castling The Unknown” – Photo by Jingzi Photography.
“Castling The Unknown” by Aiden Carberry & Jordan Johnson of JA Collective was an excellent exercise into the physical mechanics of conversation and argument. This was handled mostly through gesture but developed throughout to include full-bodied movement. The pretext was immediately recognizable and somewhat familiar. Two men sit on opposite sides of a table. On the table is a timing device much like the ones used during chess matches. And, in like fashion, it is utilized to make a point in the conversation handing the response over to the other man. This devolves into crazy gesticulations and multiple rings on the timing device until they agree to take a break. This also works as a very timely comment on the stalemate just ended in our own government. The ridiculous arguments made physical and rendering a pithy visual of the current political arena. Sad and compelling at the same time, this was a very smart piece deserving of great care and attention. Brilliantly acted and danced by both Aiden Carberry & Jordan Johnson.
Dance Kaleidoscope in their work “hifi” choreography by Sean Aaron Carmon – Photo by Jingzi Photography.
“hiFi” by Sean Aaron Carmon and set to various songs by Perry Como and a unique one-off “So Long, Stay Well” by Rock Hudson was a light-hearted romp displaying the zany antics of various people in their love relationships. Someone is in love with someone not in love with them – some argue, others flirt. There were many incarnations all told physically through the movement of coming together or being rejected. It was humorous and good natured. Dancers were: Jonathan Cubides, Ryan Galloway, Ryan Jaffe, Courtney Jefferies, Marie Kuhns, Natalie Nagy, Morgan Ranney, Nathan Rommel, Julie Russel, Sarah Taylor, Manuel Valdes, and Zay, all representing the company Dance Kaleidoscope.
David Parsons – Photo courtesy of the David Parsons Dance Company
The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to David Parsons of Parsons Dance Company by Margaret Selby of Selby Artists Management. The Second Place Award went to JA Collective for “Castling The Unknown”. And the Grand Prize Winner was Kellie St. Pierre and the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company for “The Rate We Change”. Awards presented by Kajsa Thuresson-Frary, Vice President of Education with Shea New, Festival Founder/Artistic Director, and Joe Pradetto, Council Member of the City of Palm Desert.
The Palm Desert Choreography Festival is one of a very few Festivals with cash prizes that focuses on Choreography and awards the Dancemakers of today. There are not many Festivals which provide this service to the art form of Dance in particular, while also serving the community in which they live. They do this through an outreach program, the East Valley Dance Project which originally included Desert Mirage High and Toro Canyon Middle Schools but now includes students from Coachella Valley High as well. The students are under the direction of Jennifer Backhaus. They then perform at the Festival on stage at the McCallum Theatre. Congratulations to all involved in this worthy endeavor.
To learn more about the Palm Desert Choreography Festival, please visit their website.
For more information about the McCallum Theatre, please visit their website.
Written by Brian Fretté for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: Omar Román De Jesus and Ian Spring in “Like Those Playground Kids At Midnight” choreography by Omar Román De Jesus – Photo by Jingzi Photography.
