The most unusual – and gratifying – aspect of the newly choreographed “Dances of Time” was the sight of 79 instrumentalists and a 33-member female choir sharing the stage of El Cajon's East County Performing Arts Center with 22 dancers.
Rather than being hidden in an orchestra pit, as orchestras usually are during dance performances, this ensemble was in full view of the audience for Sunday's premiere, the highlight of the first collaborative program between Jean Isaacs San Diego Dance Theater and the Grossmont Symphony Orchestra and Grossmont Master Chorale.
It was a mighty effort that showed the benefits of local arts organizations joining forces in an imaginative and mutually beneficial way.
“Music and dance on an equal footing – that is what we hope you'll experience,” conductor Randall Tweed, Grossmont College's director of choral/orchestral activities, told the audience before the second of Sunday's two performances.
“A small company like ours rarely dances to live music,” added Isaacs, a veteran choreographer who's keenly aware of the expense of hiring professional musicians. “I hope you understand how terrific this is for us.”
As guests on Grossmont's concert series, her company had the luxury of live music for the program titled “Invitation to the Dance,” which included Isaacs' Prokofiev-based “Romeos and Juliets” (1997).
Prokofiev's ballet suite posed formidable challenges for the Grossmont Symphony, whose brass sometimes faltered and whose violin section was prone to playing out of tune, particularly in swooning high passages. Under Tweed's smoothly instructive guidance, however, the college/community orchestra remained cohesive. It supplied earnest support for the passionate duet by Erica Nordin and guest artist Jeffrey Gerodias, the spunky solo by Sadie Weinberg and the clever pairing of Veronica M. Lamm and Bradley Lundberg, who turned love into a balancing act by using a ladder as a prop.
Isaacs, who's recovering from knee surgery, also incorporated choreographic contributions from her dancers for the program's major offering, based on Welsh crossover composer Karl Jenkins' hour-long “Dances of Time.” As performed by the chorus and orchestra, which was bolstered by the Grossmont College Afro-Cuban Ensemble, the 13-part score was a diverting if derivative amalgam influenced by everything from classical and world music to pop styles and jazzy scat singing.
What made Sunday's program so appealing was the synergy between the music and dance, an interaction that showcased the strengths of both.
During the opening “Corrente,” for instance, a trio of performers hopped, turned and swiveled as if powered by the spirited rhythms of the chorus and orchestra. In the comic “La La La Koora,” Grossmont's student dancers swayed and linked arms like goofy devotees of German folk dance.
By contrast, “Kaya Kakooya” was a lively rumba with the orchestra's principal oboist, Michael Gaby, displaying his versatility on the recorder. “Ein Wiener Walzer” brimmed with waltz rhythms, fueling the athletic solo by Jeffrey Gerodias, a former member of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
And the finale, “Dos a Dos,” was a postmodern square dance that was anything but square. As dancers kicked, posed and flexed their feet, the music emphasized singing and fiddling, ending these “Dances” on an exuberant note.
Valerie Scher: (619) 293-1038; valerie.scher@uniontrib.com
