This weekend offers an exceptionally rich smorgasboard of offerings for dance fans, with offerings ranging from a milestone program from one of the region’s most adventuresome companies to a world famous troupe from Taiwan to some spooky Halloween hip-hop.
Here’s a partial rundown.
Nancy Karp + Dancers: The Bay Area company known for staging the imaginative and provocative works of its namesake director is marking its 40th anniversary Oct. 28-30 with a new three-work program centerpieced by the world premiere of Karp’s “fly through the night, and land near dawn.” You could say the new work, set to a commissioned piece by David A. Jaffe and performed by the Friction Quartet, is for the birds.
“In a world that is so fragmented and full of despair,” she says, “I want to create work that affirms our interconnectedness to one another and to all living beings. This interdependence is widely seen throughout nature, and in particular the collective movement of birds. I have been drawn to the phenomena of murmuration and the flight patterns of migrating birds. This is our initial jumping off point in the studio.”
Details: 8 p.m. Oct. 28-29, 3 p.m. Oct. 30; Dresher Performance Space, 2201 Poplar St., Oakland; $25-$55; nancykarp.org.
ODC Dance Theater: The company’s fall season kicks off this weekend and runs for three weeks, offering a wildly diverse array of performances. ODC curated the season in collaboration with guest choreographers Charles Slender-White and amara tabor-smith.
Kicking off the run is this weekend is acclaimed transgender and nonbinary choreographer and performer Sage Ni’Ja Whitson of The NWA Project, presenting the Bay Area premiere of “A Meditation on Tongues,” a work inspired by the famed Marlon T. Riggs’ documentary “Tongues Untied.”
Following weeks feature husband-and-wife team Marjani Forté-Saunders and Everett Asis Saunders presenting the Black Lives Matter-themed work “Memoirs of a … Unicorn” (Nov. 4-6) and a double bill of LA DANSA DANSA (aka Rosanna Tavarez) presenting the immigration themed “Piece X Piece,” and Blind Tiger Society, the company led by Bianca Cabrera, presenting “Fever Dreams” (Nov. 11-13).
ODC Theater creative director Chloë L. Zimberg says the three weeks of works “draw variously on African Diasporic art, ritual and spirituality, as well as wild and mythic fantasy to deconstruct notions of love, warriorship and fear.”
Details: Performances 7:30 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 5 p.m. Sundays; ODC Dance Theatre, San Francisco; $20-$100 individual shows, $75-$250 full pass; odc.dance.
Liz Lerman: The famed choreographer, performer and writer comes to San Francisco this weekend to present her new feminist work “Wicked Bodies,” which premiered in April in Sonoma. The interactive dance-theater work focuses on the range of emotions and reactions — fear, fascination, disgust, rage, obsession and punishment — that women’s bodies have provoked over the years. The ever-more-timely piece is part of a far-ranging new exhibit titled “Brett Cook & Liz Lerman: Reflection & Action,” on display at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts through April 4.
Details: 8 p.m. Oct. 28-29, 2 p.m. Oct. 30; Blue Shield Theatre at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; $25-$40; ybca.org.
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan: The troupe renowned around the world for its deeply evocative portrayals of Taiwanese dance and culture, returns to UC Berkeley, where it mesmerized audiences in 2016 with its staging of “Rice.” This weekend the company performs “In 13 Tongues,” an autobiographical work by new company artistic director Cheng Tsung-lung inspired by his memories of growing up in Taipei. The work is set to swirling score utilizing Taoist chants, folk songs and electronica.
Details: Presented by Cal Performances; 8 p.m. Oct. 29, 3 p.m. Oct. 30; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley; $29-$92; calperformances.org.
Peninsula Ballet Theatre: If you’re pining for some spooky dance moves for Halloween weekend, head to Fox Theatre in Redwood City, where this company is reviving its 2019 hit, “Hip-Hop Monsters Halloween Ball.” The work was conceived, directed and choreographed by Stuck Sanders in collaboration with Alee Martinez, Vincent Hwang, Ninja Sutton and Francis Tyrell, and features guest performers from the Bay Area troupes Tribe and Poise’n.
The 90-minute show centers on a group of trick-or-treating youths who wind up at a graveyard and a haunted house, where they tangle with such monsters as Frankenstein, Dracula, the WolfMan and more.
Details: 7 p.m. Oct. 29, 1 p.m. Oct. 30; Fox Theatre, Redwood City; $35-$65; www.peninsulaballet.org.
Source: www.mercurynews.com