BY KATHY HALL
Correspondent
American Repertory Ballet The variety and quality of New Jersey’s dance companies may be one of our state’s best-kept secrets. If you are curious about what Terpsichore has inspired in the Garden State, plan to attend the Two River Theater Company’s “Best of New Jersey Dance” series beginning Oct. 28 and ending June 3.
Four of New Jersey’s professional dance companies will offer works inspired by everything from poetry to Patsy Cline, martial arts to life in a Louisiana bayou.
Each group will give a Saturday evening performance for the general public and a Sunday afternoon family matinee. At least three groups will present premieres at the Red Bank theater, located at 21 Bridge Ave.
The idea for the series came from TRTC’s executive director Guy Gsell with help from the company’s development director (and former dancer) Elizabeth Sobo.
“The main thing is we want to be responsive to the needs of the arts community,” Sobo explained. “It’s very difficult for New Jersey’s dance companies; they are all renters. I felt this was a real opportunity to do a service not only to us but to the New Jersey dance community.
Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company “We recognize our obligation not only to our audience, but to our sister New Jersey arts organizations to fulfill their need to find appropriate performance venues and share their work in their home state,” Gsell stated, in a written statement provided by the theater.
The series opens on Saturday, Oct 28, with the American Repertory Ballet, a contemporary ballet company based in Princeton.
“A lean machine that cuts ballet with a jagged new edge,” according to their press kit, ARB prides itself on innovative programming and proudly proclaims “Don’t expect frilly tutus.”
“A dance performance is like a meal; there’s a starter, a main course and dessert. Hopefully we’ll be cooking up something for the hungry dance horde,” Artistic Director Graham Lustig observed.
Saturday evening’s performance includes Twyla Tharp’s modern dance classic “Bakers Dozen,” set to music by Willie “the Lion” Smith as well as two works by Lustig: “Vista” inspired by jazz saxophonist John Lurie and the Lounge Lizards, and “Evening,” a quiet, romantic ballet set to Benjamin Britten’s “Serenade for Tenor, Horn and String Orchestra,” a song cycle of poems by English poets including Tennyson, Blake and Keats. This will be the American Repertory Ballet’s first performance of “Evening.”
Umoja On Sunday, Oct. 29, the company will present a narrated version of Lustig’s “Beauty and the Beast: A Gothic Love Story” set in the Pine Barrens.
In celebration of Black History Month, TRTC will present Umoja on Feb. 10 and 11. This Montclair-based company, under the direction of former Urban Bush Women dancer Karen Love, draws its inspiration from a wide variety of sources including African-Caribbean, Classical Indian dance, capoeira and yoga, all accompanied by virtuosic African drummers.
The Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company from Union performs March 31 and April 1. A much-praised teacher and choreographer whose work often explores the balance between the individual and the community, Dorfman founded the company in 1982. Among the pieces to be performed will be “Echad,” (the Hebrew word for “one”) in which eight dancers interact with an 8-foot freestanding aluminum wheel.
Randy James Dance Works “Both the message and execution of ‘Echad’ really embody my artistic philosophy,” Dorfman explained. “It’s a work that is fascinating and dangerous. There’s a technical virtuosity that is required, and an ensembleness that is required. The dancers need to be strong individual artists who exist in relation to each other.”
Other works on the program include “Love Suite Love” set to the music of Patsy Cline; “Pastorale Pause,” performed to a suite of Celtic music and songs by musician/composer John Whelan; and a New Jersey premiere to be announced.
The series concludes on June 2 and 3 with Randy James Dance Works from Highland Park dancing “White Heat,” accompanied by the music of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones; “Among the Starts That Have a Different Birth,” set to a variety of Latin music; and “With Alligators in the Bayou (you waterski real good),” a group work that examines rural life in a red-light Louisiana bayou town danced to music by Buckwheat Zydeco. The program also features a world premiere with commissioned score.
The first three Saturday evening performances begin at 8 p.m. Randy James Dance Works will dance Saturday evening at 7 p.m. All Sunday performances begin at 3 p.m.
Individual tickets are $30 for Saturday evening performances and $20 for the Sunday family matinees. Series tickets are $95 for Saturdays and $68 for Sunday afternoon.
Programs are subject to change. For tickets or additional information, contact the Two River Theater box office at (732) 345-1400.