Covet Dance Clothing

The Best Dance T-shirts!

Right at the intersection of DIY culture, hipster fashion, comfort and a love of dance lies Camarillo-based 'Covet Dance Clothing'. Whether you are looking for some new dancewear for yourself, a gift for the dancer in your life or some new products for your studio, this company is for you! The line features fantastic T-shirts for kids, women and men; hoodies in kids and womens sizes; and wall art for both home and studio. Every individually-made item features a hand-printed slogan, most of which are based on the British “Keep Calm and...” series. Using this super popular concept, Covet Dance Clothing has envisioned and created shirts for tappers (“Keep Calm and Shuffle On”), for yogis (“Keep Calm and Yoga On”) and numerous options for budding ballerinas (“Keep Calm and Stay En Pointe”; “Keep Calm and Point Your Toes”). In addition to the choice of caption, the T-shirts come in a variety of colors and necklines. I tried one of the V-necks in a vintage purple and can attest that it is one of the most comfortable T-shirts I have even worn – super soft, perfect fit, great color and optimal length.

With Father's Day just around the corner, you should definitely check out Covet Dance Clothing's inventive options for Dad (“I Don't Dance, I Finance” and “Keep Calm and Watch Her Dance”).

www.covetdance.com

"Cinderella"

Sascha Radetsky & Alexsandra Meijer in Ballet San Jose's production of Ben Stevenson's "Cinderella".
Photo: Robert Shomler

Ballet San Jose
San Jose Center for the Performing Arts
May 5th, 2012

Ballet San Jose has been all over the dance media in the past five months.  A sudden shift in artistic leadership led to articles, speculation, an abundance of gossip and in this writer's opinion, an email campaign that was ill-conceived, and frankly, a little crazy.  Only a few insiders truly know what happened or how it happened and what's done is done.  Change is hard, but the time has come to leave the past behind, move forward and re-focus the attention on the company's future.  The goal of this season has been to do just that and the final program of 2012 (the company premiere of Ben Stevenson's "Cinderella") confirmed a brilliant future for this South Bay institution.  

Act I introduces the colorful and vibrant cast of characters, including Beth Ann Namey as the Stepmother, Maximo Califano and Ramon Moreno as the Stepsisters and of course Alexsandra Meijer as Cinderella.  The acting parts are so rich in Stevenson's version of "Cinderella" and the company rose to the occasion with full physical and gestural immersion into each and every role.  Cinderella's first solo captured her dualism with inventive boureé sequences that mimicked her chores (using her broom down toward the ground) coupled with multiple attitude piqué posés as the broom soared above her head into her dreamworld.  Stevenson's choreography delved into the two sides within her persona, though the attitude step was perhaps a bit overused. 

At the end of the first Act, Cinderella encounters her fairy godmother and begins her transformation from peasant girl to grand courtier, at which point we also meet four additional fairies, one for each season - spring, summer, autumn and winter.  The autumn fairy's variation was the most interesting choreographically and the best danced of the bunch.  Amy Marie Briones' dramatic and flawless turn combinations altered Cinderella's reality with a rich palette of excitement.

Act II mixed the grand and beautiful of a celebratory ball alongside the odd and comical of the jester and the cross-dressing stepsisters.  The corps couples all moved with a floating quality: turning lifts; and trios off-set by low movements on one side and high relevés on the other.  Act II also ushered in the first appearance of guest artist Sascha Radetsky as Prince Charming.  Radetsky doesn't just play this part, he really is Prince Charming, easily displaying the required regal demeanor and technical virtuosity.  The first pas de deux between Radetsky and Meijer expressed elated joy and utter bliss and it was wonderful to see that the choreographic highlight of Radetsky's solo variation was not a grand jump, but rather his perfectly sharp batterie.

The final short Act follows Prince Charming's search for his true love and after finding Cinderella, their marriage.  Prior to that last vignette, Radetsky and Meijer danced a second pas de deux that spoke to both the course and journey that they had traveled thus far as well as the promise of their future (very a propos for Ballet San Jose).  Even though not much time elapses in their story, here they looked older, assured and much more secure in each other.  A purposely different feel than their initial meeting, Stevenson has the two characters creating shapes in space as equal partners; a true team.  Aside from this nuanced narrative, this final pas de deux was incredibly demanding from a technical perspective, much like true love.  It is difficult, complete, complicated and transcendent.   

Soul Project

Photo: Anja Hitzenberger

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts presents
David Zambrano - "Soul Project"
Yerba Buena Forum
April 27th, 2012

Post-modern conventions meet twenty-first century movement; chance methods meet 1970s decor; mobile performance meets a single gallery space; all while challenging accepted notions of dance/music yet still celebrating those entities.  Sounds like an impossible artistic prescription for a single evening's event.  Yet, David Zambrano and the six performers in "Soul Project" accomplished each of these goals, and they managed to do it all while making their performance fun, astonishing and completely accessible. 

"Soul Project" came to San Francisco as part of Yerba Buena's 'DARE: Innovations in Art, Action and Audience', and with its examination of artistic presumption, it was a perfect choice to conclude the program's 2011-2012 season.  A collection of solos set to soul music hits, Zambrano's piece unfolds in a large empty room, demarcated only by large pools of psychedelic light.  Each dance emerges organically in the space, without announcement.  And over eighty minutes, the audience moves about the room trying to catch the best view of whichever dance has come next - no directions leading to each sequence nor any warning that the next solo may start right next to you.  The audience is encouraged to stand, sit, dance - however they feel moved - as the seven performers go full out for each of their technically difficult variations.

Boundaries and lines were conquered and erased in "Soul Project"; making it a true experiment in egalitarianism.  With the set-up, the audience and the dancers became more of a singular group.  Instead of the separation that occurs in traditional stage/seating arrangements, the audience were active participants in the event, moving from area to area and mixing with the soloists.  This tested the accepted notions of what a performance entails, where and how it can occur, and succeeded in blurring the line between viewer and artist.  Because chance methods are used to determine the order of the solos at every performance, each viewing experience is unique, which makes another egalitarian statement: every solo is of equal importance.  

Choreographically, each vignette expressed a different movement style and genre, though a common denominator of torment was present throughout, bonding the solos together in cohesiveness.  The powerhouse "And I am Telling You, I'm Not Going" from "Dreamgirls" brought contemporary, modern choreography to light with an extended use of the torso alongside the notion of stillness; "It's A Man's Man's Man's World" journeyed to the seventies with pas de boureés and jazz splits a plenty; "Night Life" incorporated yoga/acrobatics with an extensive opening head stand; and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" added a hip-hop essence - staccato isolations juxtaposed with a legato melody.  The most powerful sequence, for me at least, accompanied "At Last".  Working against typical expectations, here was a percussive expression of the sumptuous ballad.  Foot and body rhythms revealed a layering within the song, and provided a multi-dimension sense of abandon and desire.