ODC/DANCE TURNS 40
                    Romping to New Highs 
                                              By Paul Hertelendy 
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance 
                                                                 Weeks of March 14-27, 2011
                                                                  Vol. 13, No. 78
          The evolution of ODC/Dance in San Francisco as a major regional force has come to fruition with its 40th anniversary program studded with premieres. ODC has its own bldg. in the Mission District, it has come out with glossy brochures and posters, and it assembles a complete, ambitious dance-theater package.
            It’s all the masterwork of founder Brenda Way, creating most of the choreography and running a 10-member high-energy company that is highly varied and highly appealing. The run at the Yerba Buena Center (seen March 12) confirmed that the troupe has conclusively come of age.  
            Way herself continues to grow as an artist, if you compare works from the past 11 years. In “Investigating Grace” (1999), she uses conventional modern dance techniques, plumbing various combinations, adding the spice of humor, plus a touch or two of the unusual (women carrying men!). It shows her musical sense, welding movement  immutably to formal music you never thought could be danced to: Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations on the piano. 
            (Since the dancers all provide some of the input for the moves, according to Way’s verbal addenda, presumably they also merit some credit here.)
            In her world-premiere opus with the unwieldy title, “Speaking Volumes: Architecture of Light II,” the individualized movements show some Merce Cunningham and yoga influences now, but much more and much different. It is a crescendo piece, starting with minimal togs and lights (mostly flashlights), and building up over 35 minutes to amplification of everything, including the eclectic Jay Cloidt commissioned score. In addition taut cords intersecting on the stage suggest prisms, embodying the theme of light.  And there is an occasional  voiceover on the philosophy of art. 
            More generous voiceovers marked Kimi Okada’s premiere, “I Look Vacantly at the Pacific…Though Regret,” which has fun quoting scrambled Japanese English (my favorite, in a Japanese hotel: “Please leave your values at the front desk”). It’s a high-energy dance-theater romp, with a certain amount of East-West posturing, and a ballet-mechanique robotic segment. 
            Outstanding performers in the group were Anne Zivolich, Vanessa Thiessen, Elizabeth Heenan, Daniel Santos, Jeremy Smith and Corey Brady.
            O-BERLIN GERMINATION---Both Way and Okada were in Ohio with the 1971 formation of the Oberlin Dance Collective, which went through change of venue (to S.F.) and several name changes en route to its 40th anniversary season. 
            ODC Dance, Brenda Way, Artistic Director, Program 1 through March 27, in rotating repertory. Novellus Theater, YBCA,  San Francisco. For info: (415) 978-2787, or go online.

        ©Paul Hertelendy 2011
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           Paul Hertelendy has been covering the dance and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with relish -- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
    These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never weakly) will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local artists as well.
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