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San Diego Dance Theater’s Trolley Dances celebrated in film

Before “site specific” became trendy in the performing arts world, there was Trolley Dances. In partnership with the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System, San Diego Dance Theater for more than two decades has been turning trolley stops into performance spaces. Athletic company dancers and extraordinarily gifted choreographers have turned the two-weekend autumn Trolley Dances into a bona fide San Diego tradition.

Of course this year is different. The 23rd Trolley Dances will have to wait for next year, but SDDT is celebrating the legacy of this longstanding event in “Trolley Dances Reflections on Film: The First 10 Years.”

Footage for the hourlong film dates back as far as 22 years ago.

“I found everything in the first 10 years that I could find and just gave it to these kids, wholesale,” said SDDT Artistic Director Jean Isaacs. “I said, ‘I’m not going to tell you what to do with this.’ ”

The “kids” are a pair of young videographers from Tijuana, Leo A. Huerta and Annya Katerina.

The film will be screened at The Lot in Liberty Station on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at 8 (tickets are $20).

Later, you can livestream “Reflections” between Oct. 2 and 4 for $10.

I had a chance to screen an early cut of the film, and what I saw I liked a good deal. For one, it reminded me of many of the Trolley Dances performances I witnessed myself, most of them somewhere along downtown’s Blue Line.

Why has Trolley Dances endured and been so anticipated each year?

“I think people want to not just go sit in the theater,” Isaacs said. “They want to have an experience.” sandiegodancetheater.org