Dancing the decades downtown, intimate flamenco in Echo Park and Orange, moving in the architecture in West Hollywood, family friendly festivities in Jefferson Park and Tarzana, and more SoCal dance this week.
5. Dance among the roses
Children from the Pony Box Dance Academy are one of the dance groups performing as part of International Children’s Dance Day. Not just dance, as the park hosts music groups, a ferris wheel, arts, crafts, and an egg hunt. Exposition Park, Rose Garden, 700 Exposition Park Dr, Jefferson Park; Sat., Apr. 20, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., free.
4. Last dancer standing
The interplay of the architecture contained in R.M. Schindler’s famous concrete “Slab-Tilt” Schindler House in West Hollywood and artist Alison Knowles’ 1960’s intermedia piece The Play House is grist for Shelter or Playground-The House of Dust at the Schindler House, a series of performative investigations. Last month the four month exhibit launched with a day of performances from an international roster of choreographers including locally-based Milka Djordjevich. Djordjevich’s work is the only dancemaker getting a repeat showing, twice a month until June. Details on the architecture and avant garde movement that inspired this event and the extended endeavor that incorporates Djordjevich’s performances at https://makcenter.org. Schindler House, 835 N. Kings Rd., West Hollywood; Sat., Apr. 20, May 4 & 18, June 1, 3 p.m., free. https://makcenter.org.
3. Taking to the tablao
Known best for music performances, this venue has a growing rep for its dance offerings curated by Licia Perea including Black and LatinX choreographers in the BlakTina Festival and hip hop in Shut Up and Dance! The venue expands into the world of flamenco co-produced with respected dancer Briseyda Zárate. Under the title Flamenco Tablao (loosely translated as a venue or the platform where flamenco is performed), this month’s installment finds Zárate joined by singers/dancers/musicians including Tiana Álvarez, Jose Tanaka, and José Cortés. https://www.bootlegtheater.org/e/noche-de-tablao-flamenco-night-with-briseyda-z-rate-co–60025489856. Bootleg Theater, 2220 Beverly Blvd. Echo Park; Sun., Apr. 21, 6:30 p.m., $25 & $40. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/noche-de-tablao-flamenco-night-with-briseyda-zarate-co-tickets-60025489856.
2. Defying the times
The 1980’s in New York’s East Village saw the growth of gender performance art, decimation by the AIDS epidemic, and the rise of label-defying John Kelly as a leader and survivor. Trained as a dancer, then as a visual artist, Kelly is unconstrained by labels in Time No Lineas he offers text from his four decades of journals along with songs from Joni Mitchell, Henry Purcell and Charles Aznavour, video and live drawing. The New York Times described Kelly as packing “a lot in about 75 minutes, yet he also knows when to let things breathe…Time, then, is not just nonlinear but magically suspended.” REDCAT at Disney Hall, 631 W. 2nd St., downtown; Thurs.-Sat., Apr. 25-27, 8:30 p.m., $18-20, $14-$16. https://www.redcat.org.
1. Studio to stage
One of SoCal’s most respected dance departments, Cal State University Long Beach attracts an impressive faculty roster covering a spectrum of styles from classic to cutting edge. Not only are the faculty admired teachers, they are also accomplished choreographers whose work is displayed on their students in the annual CSULB Dance in Concert. This year, concert director Keith Johnson presides over performances that include Summer Brown’s quicksilver movement in This, Colleen Dunagan’s In Common offering an alternative to the commodification of dance, and Julio Medina’s Respirando Agua considering the space between breaths. Johnson contributes a new work The Unbearable Weight of Falling Ashes and guest artist Teresa Jankovic sets a dozen women in motion in Eyes Closed and Traveling. Info at http://www.csulb.edu/dance. CSULB Martha B. Knoebel Dance Theater, 6200 Atherton St., Long Beach; Wed.-Fri., Apr. 24-26, 8 p.m. Sat., Apr. 27, 2 & 8 p.m., $20, $16 students, seniors & Dance Resource Center members. 562-985-7000. https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/dept/1174/1554091200000
Other dance of note:
This month’s edition of Naranjita Flamenco‘s Flamenco LIVE features Manuel Gutierrez, Helena Pietrusiewicz Núñez and Marcela Aguayo, plus singer José Cortés Fernández and guitarist Jose Tanaka. Naranjita Flamenco, 301 East Katella Ave, Orange; Sat., Apr. 20, 6 p.m., $30. https://www.naranjitaflamenco.com/store/p188/Flamenco-LIVE.html
Easter under the Gregorian calendar is this Sunday. Russian or Orthodox Easter follows the Julian calendar and doesn’t arrive until April 28. The Russian dance studio Katusha adopts the Gregorian calendar’s Easter for its 11th annual Russian Celebration. Russian dance, music, singing, clowns, balloons, face-painting and other kid-centric activities abound. Tarzana Community & Cultural Center Park, 19130 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana; Sun., Apr. 21, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., $7. 323-547-2559, https://www.facebook.com/events/394919054620919.
Promising to distill millennia of Chinese culture in a swirl of colorful costumes and in sync dancing, the touring production Shen Yun 2019 continues is visit to local venues. Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Dr., Costa Mesa; Tues.-Sun., Apr. 16-28, (dates & times at Shen Yun website), $80-$200. Also at The Soroya, Cal State University Northridge, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge; Tue.-Wed. Apr. 30-May 1, $80-$165. Also at Dolby Theatre, 6801 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood; Fri., May 3, 7:30 p.m., Sat., May 4, 2 & 7:30 p.m., Sun., May 5, 1 p.m., $80-$200. Also at McCallum Theatre, 73000 Fred Waring Dr., Palm Desert; Thu. & Sat., May 9 & 11, 7:30 p.m., Fri.-Sat., May 10-11, 2 p.m., $80-$165. https://www.shenyun.com/la.
Feature photo: CSULB Dance in Concert. Photo by Gregory RR Crosby.
Ann Haskins Blog appears at CulturalWeekly.com