Check it out

What: Applegate Dance Company’s ‘Premiere Showcase’

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday

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

Tickets: $12 in advance at The Avid Reader, 617 Second St.; $14 at the door

The Applegate Dance Company will celebrate its 20th anniversary by presenting a “Premiere Showcase” this weekend at the Veterans’ Memorial Theater, 203 E. 14th St. in Davis.

Performance times are at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Please note that solar panels are being installed in the parking lot, so access is limited.

The show features 75 local dancers ages 6-40 from Davis, Woodland and Dixon.

Sunday’s matinee will be a special 20th anniversary performance. All Applegate Dance Company alumni will be honored and asked to take a bow.

Advance tickets are $12, available at The Avid Reader, 617 Second St. in downtown Davis. Tickets also will be available at the door 45 minutes prior to each performance, for $14.

In the past 19 years, Applegate Dance Company mesmerized its audiences with collages of short pieces celebrating dance from exotic countries and from many artistic styles, and with grand performances of the “Cinderella,” “Sleeping Beauty” and “Firebird” ballets at the Brunelle Performance Hall at Davis High School.

This year, in celebration of the company’s 20th anniversary, director Lisa Applegate-Zimanyi is taking the company back to its roots, returning to the Veterans’ Memorial Theater to create a fast-paced, captivating collage of an evening of new works.

“It will be an explosion of choreographic creativity,” Applegate-Zimanyi said in a news release.

Driven by the company’s philosophy that dancers themselves contribute to the process of creation, “the focus on creating new works with our young dancers is refreshing and exhilarating,” she added.

The story of one of the new pieces, the “Penumbra Fire Dance,” started in the 2010, when Applegate-Zimanyi and costume designer Rebecca Wendlandt designed a fantasy costume of a magical bird, the “Flirty Phoenix,” that came to life in the dark under mystical black lights.

Applegate and Wendlandt entered the costume into the WOW festival. The World of Wearable Arts is the world’s largest such festival and takes place in Wellington, New Zealand. Dancers at the festival wore the phoenix costume on the elaborate main stage in front of 5,000 guests each night of the monthlong festival. The costume was retained in the WOW festival’s museum in New Zealand was returned to Davis only recently.

The mystical world of the phoenix exploring a jungle of a cavalcade of colors and full of secrets is the backbone of the company’s next grand project, the full-evening show “Penumbra.”

The “Penumbra Fire Dance” is the first glimpse into the enchanted world of the phoenix. This dance benefited from the choreography of company alumna Marian Chaney and longtime company dancer-choreographer Sonja Brodt.

Another treat of this June’s performance is a Harry Potter dance choreographed by student choreographers Ana Christina Kyle and Chloe Clouse. Other novelty dances include a playful recreation of a 1940s era newspaper office, a folk dance from a Russian village and a re-enactment of the stylish and liberated 1960s inspired by the peerless choreographer Bob Fosse.

“We transcend the usual dance school recitals. Instead, we aim to stage highly entertaining community events that both our dancers and the public enjoy very much,” Applegate-Zimanyi said.

The ultimate piece of the show, “Ocean Floor,” takes the audience on a 15-minute under-the-sea journey, where they will be watching the escapades, follies and joyful play of sprightly fish, undulating sea anemones, rippling seaweed and drifting jelly fish.

A creation by Applegate and Chaney, the “Ocean Floor” features a pas de trois by guest artists Rex Wheeler and Oliver Adams of the Sacramento Ballet. The artfully elegant Mother of Pearl in the pas de trois is personified by the company’s own dancers: Davis High School graduate Jenny Silva and Dixon High School graduate Alyssa Smith.

“In addition to our wonderful cast, “I am particularly excited about all the new costumes designed by Stephanie Baltz and Rebecca Wendlandt, and by the new lighting designs of Mike Johnson, production manager of the Chico State drama department,” Applegate-Zimanyi said.

applegateW

Applegate Dance Company dancers Alyssa Smith, left, and Amy Jiang join Rex Wheeler of the Sacramento Ballet in performing a collage of new works Thursday through Sunday at the Veterans’ Memorial Theater. The company is celebrating its 20th year. Courtesy photo

Comments

comments