My Hands/Tus Brazos

Jorge Luis Morejon and Linda Bair.  Veteran's Theater. Davis, California. June 3, 2010

I did enjoy "My Hands, Tus Brazos" very much.  (Jim Carnes)

My hands, tus Brazos

This is a collaborative piece between Linda Bair and Jorge Luis Morejón. The theme revolves around the desire to remain in a relationship despite the differences between the two partners. The piece elucidates the struggle inherent in any relationship. The dancers’ bodies oscillate between opposite poles: near and far, tenderness and abruptness, successful and incomplete resolutions. The dance itself is an invitation to think about the dynamics of a couple, a mirror extended to the audience for reflection on how to live and stay together in the face of conflict. The movement itself deliberately refrains from overly codified dance gestures. Instead, through her hands and his arms the dancers convey the complexities of sustaining a life in common.

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The Sacramento Bee.             sacbee.com                     Theater and Art

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Linda Bair's new dance project invites dialogue with audience

By Jim Carnes
jcarnes@sacbee.com

Published: Friday, May. 28, 2010 - 12:00 am
Page 5TICKET

Like director Robert Altman who said, when accepting an honorary Oscar for his body of work, "To me, I've just made one long film," Davis choreographer Linda Bair said, "I feel like I'm making this one long dance."

Also like Altman, Bair works cinematically. Her new program, which opens Thursday and continues through June 5, is called "Shorts/Feature" and includes five short dances and one feature-length narrative, "Some Strange Hotel Room.”

The only piece on the program that is not a premiere is Bair's signature piece, "One Mad Brunette," set to text and music by and about Jack Kerouac.

In a telephone interview Monday, Bair explained the format for the program and why she wanted to try it. "The first half is short pieces; they're like expressing myself in the form of a poem or a short story. The ideas come to me this way, in short pieces," she said. The longer piece "came in sections and then I sewed them together," she said. It's about finding one's direction in an uncertain environment.

"I think (the format) is interesting in terms of what it asks of the audience. To watch the show, it takes some concentration for the shorter pieces, then more attention in the second half. You have to wait for development."

Bair's other dances on the program include "Gone Too Soon," a dance inspired by the sudden death in May of the dancer's cousin, and set to music by Jeff Buckley; "Dust and Sky," a lyrical piece that will be part of a full-length dance to be premiered in the fall; and "My Hands, Tus Brazos (My hands, your arms)," a duet about finding common ground in a relationship, which was choreographed and will be danced by Bair and Jorge Luis Morejón.

Morejón, who is Cuban, is a doctorate candidate in performance studies at UC Davis; Morejón's research is in displaced cultures and how such communities resolve the anxieties of exile through art. It was his first choreographic effort and her first time working with a collaborator, she said. "We broke down (our) barriers and came together by creating this piece about a couple being together," she said.

Bair, who is married to UC Davis post-doctoral researcher Matthias Falk, said, "I've always been frustrated that I couldn't explore in my work this theme of romantic love that is so important in my life." (Her company rarely has a male dancer.) Working with Morejón, she said, "was probably my richest experience in making work."

The final short piece on the program will be performed by A Mused Collective, a new modern dance company established last year in the East Bay by Abby McNally, a former member of Bair's dance company. "When I started (my dance company), Ruth Rosenberg gave me a platform (in her 1999 "Other Visions" program), and I'm so happy to be able to do the same for a new company," Bair said.

Each performance will be followed by a discussion period. "It just seems natural in one sense to do that," Bair said. "Thousands of hours go into the performance, and then you do it and it's just over. It feels empty to me. I think there's a whole wealth of information to be shared.

"Opening up that dialogue benefits both the audience and the dancers. There's a lot to be gained from the perceptions of others."

SHORTS/FEATURE

WHAT: Linda Bair Dance Company performs a program of six dances, five "shorts" and one "feature"-length premiere

WHEN: 8 p.m. Thursday and June 4, and 2 and 7 p.m. June 5

WHERE: Veterans Memorial Center Theater, 203 E. 14th St., Davis

COST: $10-$14

INFORMATION: (530) 753-4514

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/05/28/2779408/linda-bairs-new-dance-project.html#ixzz0pMbFiRVI

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The Davis Enterprise              davisenterprise.com               Arts

June 1st, 2010

Straight from the heart

Linda Bair Dance Company takes the stage in Davis

By Ann Murray Paige
Special to The Enterprise

If I ask you over for french toast in some strange hotel room, don't think poorly of me — I'm talking dance.

The Linda Bair Dance Company's yearly summer offering at the Veterans' Memorial Center will be presented this weekend. Among the fare for the aptly titled “Shorts/ Feature” performance are one feature-length piece and five short dances, including Bair's signature “Some Strange Hotel Room” and the premiere of company artist Abigail McNally's “French Toast.”

A question-and-answer period will follow each of the four performances.

“Shorts/Feature” includes a collaboration with dancer Jorge Luis Morejon, a Ph.D. candidate in performance studies at UC Davis, and performances by the Oakland-based company of dancers and musicians called A Mused Collective.

“I like the format of this show,” Bair says. “I like presenting a group of shorter pieces in the first half as if they're short stories, each exploring an idea or feeling. And then offering up one piece like a novella, which demands a different, more rigorous form of attention.”

Included in this production is one of Bair's most popular pieces titled, “One Mad Brunette,” set to text and music by and about legendary American novelist and poet Jack Kerouac. The rest of “Shorts/Feature” unveils freshly choreographed new modern dances inspired and created by Bair and her company, including guest artist Morejon.

Having received her bachelor of fine arts in dance at UC Santa Barbara, Bair spent 20 years honing her craft with a creative drive that seeks to turn everyday thoughts, words and moments into fluid modern dance movements. Bair's new show highlights her new work, “Gone Too Soon,” which leads the audience through a series of motions depicting the grief and sadness Bair recently experienced at the death of her dear friend and cousin. It is set to music by Jeff Buckley.

“The movement came out quickly and straight from my heart,” Bair explains. “It was my way of grieving. At her memorial service, they played a song she loved and it happened to be a song I loved. I didn't know we shared this. So I made the dance to this music.”

“French Toast,” on the other hand, is a lively, graceful and athletic expression that provokes emotion and expands the dimensions of relationships and community.

In her career, Bair has danced with the legendary Jose Limon Dance Company, Repertory West II, Bonnie Simoa Dance Company, Christopher Watson Dance Company and marTa Tanz Company, the latter while she was living and teaching in Germany.

Bair's dance company has appeared in Berkeley's Works in the Works, Sacramento State's Festival of the Arts and the Bay Area's National Dance Week.

Ten years ago, she created the Linda Bair Dance Company with one goal — to channel her artistic talent to capture the common struggles, joys and hopes present in everyday life. Last year, she was honored with the title artist-in-residence at the Davis Art Center.

Bair says she'll be honored again when she opens “Shorts/Feature” this weekend.

“Dance is precious because it is so fleeting,” she says. “The audience will be moved, inspired, delighted, provoked and stretched emotionally by this show. Davis is a wonderful community and this is the kind of show that enriches the artistic fabric so prevalent in our city.”

The company, now in its 11th season, includes dancers Cassie Gardner, Jean Larock, Shelly Gilbride, Andrea Masten and Jen Phipps.

“Shorts/Feature” will be presented at 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday.

Details

What: Linda Bair Dance Company presents “Shorts/Feature”

When: 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday

Where: Veterans' Memorial Theater, 203 E. 14th St., Davis

Tickets: $14/$10 at the door, or by calling (530) 753-4514

Info: https://sites.google.com/site/lindabairdancecompany

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No review, but an email:

"Unfortunately because of deadlines and timing, we couldn't get a review in while anyone could still come to see a performance, so my editors decided to forego a review.

I did enjoy "My Hands, Tus Brazos" very much. The "feature" dance had some fine moments (and a kind of "Twilight Zone" strangeness to it, I thought). Amy Seiwert has a duet to the same version of "Hallelujah" as you used for "Gone too Soon," and it was interesting to see a very different dance done to the same music.

Thank you again for inviting us.

jimc