Behind the scenes of National Dance Week and why more than 100 local dancers are ready for the biggest festival of movement to hit downtown Santa Cruz in years

A visit to nearly any country abroad will reveal that dance is an infinitely significant aspect of many foreign cultures; Buenos Aires lives and breathes tango, the national dance of Argentina, and Brazilians are equally crazy about their country’s dance, samba. But, in the United States children are lucky if they get any dance instruction at all, and oftentimes what little they do receive is limited to a ballet class or two when they’re 6 years old. As for adults, the only dancing they may indulge in may be in clubs.

DESERT DREAM delivers some dynamite energy.

“While the Downtown Association is charged with creating, promoting and sustaining downtown as a unique and economically viable business, entertainment, social and cultural center, the events that we present try to be responsive to the community,” says Chip, director of promotions and communications of the Downtown Association of Santa Cruz. “The participation on behalf of the dance community for National Dance Week Santa Cruz illustrates how much the expressive arts, and, in this case, dance, plays in the identity of our community.”

The celebration of NDW begins on May 1 and runs through May 8. Expect vibrant dance groups—more than 25—from across the county to demonstrate their various visual art forms. On Thursday evening, dancers will perform in three well-traversed areas along Pacific Avenue. On Friday and Saturday, more improbable dance venues—bookstores, coffee shops and restaurants—will host impromptu performances.

Downtown proprietors welcome the opportunity to open up their stores, says Abra Allan, a freelance project coordinator for NDW Santa Cruz and a dancer herself with the aerial group Gravity Girls. Allan says that the No. 1 response she heard from downtown businesses when she proposed the concepts associated with NDW was, “that is such a cool idea.”

PERFORMER SAKI offers a unique take on movement.

“Santa Cruz has a thriving dance community with more diverse dance forms inhabiting this small town than some large metropolitan areas,” Allan adds. “This is not only an opportunity for people to increase their awareness of dance and its contributions to our community but also allows dancers in Santa Cruz from all walks of life to come together in celebration and education of their life’s passion.”

Marsea Marquis, artistic director of Tropicalismo, a local Latin dance cabaret she founded in 2002, feels that NDW provides the opportunity for everyone and anyone to “join in and participate in a dance style that possibly they never knew existed, or that they have always wanted to try and haven’t yet had the chance.

“Dance creates ritual and builds community in the sharing of this happiness with others. The world is a lovelier place when we are dancing.”

Ready, Set, Dance

National Dance Week was created in 1981 by a conglomeration of dance-related organizations such as dance wear giant Capezio, as a way to saturate communities nationwide with dance. It was also hoped that the establishment of the visual celebration that was National Dance Week would help garner greater recognition of dance as an art form across the United States. From metropolises such as New York City where dance has a well-established presence, to picayune Midwestern towns that offer little more than ballet as the only dance education, NDW subsists on the common thread of boosting awareness of the important role that dance can play in the quality of our lives.

THE GROUP, Shah and Blah goes for emotion.

“I feel like there’s a sense of dance emerging out of the downtown environment that has really inspired dancers to integrate their movement,” Allan adds. “We tried to bring in representation from as many genres as possible … and chose dancers with a lot of history in the community in order to generate awareness.”

More recognizable genres such as hip hop, samba, ballet and Polynesian will merge this week with the novel, seemingly unknown varieties of dance. One such type, Contact Improvisation, is an ostensible newborn within the dance world, officially existing only for the past 36 years. In this unconventional genre, the dancers choose how they want to move their bodies as they go along with no set rules or steps.

Daniel Davis, whose local company, Shah and Blah Productions, notes that the troupe’s piece, “Breakfast with the Spencers” begins as a highly scripted and choreographed interaction between a man and a woman over a breakfast table.

“It moves into a Contact Improvisation section filled with the visceral attractions and repulsions that live just under the surface of a domestic relationship,” he says. “Keeping the section improvised created a rawness and edge in the audience’s experience and an honesty in the performers’ choices that is hard to come by in choreographed work.”

Davis’ company will be performing during Friday’s “Unlikely Places” dance extravaganza, as well as the “Dance Showcase” taking place at 8 p.m. at the 418 Project.

Contact Improvisation dancers go with what feels good, choreographing as they circuitously wend their way through each session, using their partner as a fluent portion of the dance. “It’s a way to consciously share space and weight with another person or people,” says local dancer Hillary Ana Flecha. “The ‘contact’ part of it means that you are open to contact with another person; touching them, lifting them, laying on them or allowing them to lift you or take your weight. Through Contact Improvisation you can become so merged with another person that it is as if you are moving as one even in the moments that you are not touching. The ‘improvisation’ part means that there is no choreography or steps.” Flecha will be demonstrating this innovative dancing style during the Thursday night lineup of Dancing in the Streets.

Though Santa Cruz has participated in NDW off and on during the past decade, it has never been done with the scale or involvement that this year promises to deliver.

As Allan worked to coordinate this elaborate event she was able to see firsthand the amazing dance community existing within Santa Cruz. “Although the dance community here is segmented, this event is inspiring because it’s bringing all of those communities together like a touchstone,” she says. “I envision it becoming an organization unto itself in the future. For it to become its own non-profit someday would really bring it together.”

“We want people to see that dance is a valuable offering, even a commodity,” says Kara Snider, a member of local fire dance troupe Nocturnal Sunshine. “National Dance Week is also an expression of public art, which this community is very good at. It’s bringing all of our hard work from classes and studios to the public to see in order to show them what is possible with the body.”

Observe any young children listening to music and you will see them move their bodies accordingly; a juvenile attempt to express their inner sentiments through the natural form of dance, though they are yet completely unaware of its innate meaning or the benefits dance reaps.

“The power and mystery of dance is evident in the fact that it is so often banned in certain places or among certain peoples due to a set of beliefs,” Flecha says. “Why else would it be banned if it did not harbor a great deal of power to influence people and affect how we behave? For me, dance can be a form of meditation. My highest state of mind is when I am constantly aware of my sensations.”

The performances at NDW will at times infuse passion, fear and awe into the hearts of bystanders, and the open classes cause people to realize the beauty and power that dance instills upon the soul.

“The recent popularity of shows like Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance attest to our culture’s subconscious desires to dance, to see dance and to believe that we all have the right to express ourselves through our movements,” Flecha adds. “There are so many wonderful things happening here with dance, and it is such an important part of the local magic. Bringing it out and celebrating dance is a great thing for a community to do. Knowing that the rest of the country is engaging in this along with us gives it even more power as a movement, no pun intended.”

Performers
National Dance Week, Santa Cruz

Cabrillo College Dance Department – Dance Education
Candela - Salsa
Dance Odyssey – Belly Dance
Flaming Puppet Sisters – Dance Theatre
Gravity Girls – Aerial Dance
Hillary Ana Flecha – Contact Improvisation
Madelon Curtis Dancers - Ballet
Mir & A Company – Modern, Aerial and Fire Dancing
Motion Pacific Dance Studio – Dance Education
Nocturnal Sunshine – Fire Dance
Seabright Morris and Sword – Morris Dancing
Shah and Blah Productions – Contact Improvisation
Tamara Nelson – Belly Dance
Te Hau Nui Dance Company – Polynesian Dance
Tropicalismo – Samba
Tru School Hip Hop – Hip Hop

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