‘ARISE!’ WITH DANCE
Repertory Dance Company to perform this week
Since it was founded in 1986, the Mendocino College Repertory Dance Company has found a myriad of inspiration to create relevant, moving dance shows over the years.
In light of the recent fires in Mendocino County and the consequent Phoenix Project that has captured many departments at Mendocino College, MCRDC’s fall dance performance “Arise!” has been themed around the premise of reaction to the fire. It is decidedly focused on the community and how to come out of trauma stronger.
“Arise!” will be presented to local audiences for one weekend only, Nov. 21-24, in the Center Theatre on the Mendocino College campus.
Under the direction of Eryn Schon-Brunner, an accomplished dance instructor at Mendocino
College and current director of MCRDC, “Arise!” has already produced an unparalleled impact within the hearts of the 15 dancers performing. It has been an extensive opportunity for personal growth and with the opening show on Thursday night, the dancers are excited to share their experiences with the audience by having the unspeakable conversation one can only have through movement.
As is typical of MCRDC’s fall dance show, professional choreographers have been invited to take part in creating original pieces to be performed by the dancers. Brunner’s goal with involving professionals on both local and national levels is to create a web of connection for the company’s dancers to later enable them with a plethora of resources once they graduate.
The first half of “Arise!” is a 30-minute experience that involves five movements and a song written by a local composer that reflects an offering to peace. The lyrics will be sung by the Mendocino College Concert Choir, directed by Janice Hawthorne Timm, as the dancers perform the physical piece that has been choreographed by Brunner.
Brunner’s inspiration for the piece, “A Call to Gather,” stemmed from the fire reaction prompt she presented to the four other choreographers working on acts in the show. She says,
“In the song, there’s offerings and callings to the arts to help inspire to move forward. I felt like that was very important that we turn to each other and to the best pieces of ourselves in order to move forward in a way that’s calming.”
Many of the dancers have not yet worked with live music, meaning that dancing with the choir onstage has presented a new challenge for even the veterans of the group. With over 25 choir members and more than a dozen dancers, the stage is full of life during the piece.
Traci Hunt, current dance student at the college, says, “It’s really a display of our community. It’s cross-generational and everyone’s coming together to do the same project.” Along with her fellow dance company members, she has enjoyed the special opportunity and is grateful for the invitation the company has extended to the choir to share the space with them.
Journeying into the second half of the show, MCRDC dancers will perform a contemporary piece choreographed by artists Alex Miller and Lucy Wilson, who founded the dance company BLiPSWiTCH together. Their combined experiences from hurricanes and Southern California fires were drawn from during their creative choreographing sessions.
Throughout the piece, the dancers will hum and sing as they simultaneously perform movements that convey response during the time of trauma.
For dancer Margarita Diaz, “Arise!” stands apart from past fall shows MCRDC has hosted largely because of the culturally focused dances choreographed by Tony Valenica, a Ballet Folklorico artist from San Diego. Diaz explains that she was able to get more in touch with her roots in Mexican culture with Valencia’s pieces, but also admits that the entire show has been a standout experience.
She says, “This show has honestly been the most intimate for me. The others helped me develop a platform to start dancing, but this was for me to learn what feelings and elements I need to bring out of myself to make the experience whole.”
With the fourth choreographer, local artist Julie Castillo, adding a Middle Eastern element that revolves around memories of one’s ancestors, the diverse layers of “Arise!” become obvious. Despite the polar differences of approaches and styles brought by each invited choreographer, every piece has found its own way to share the story of community recovery.
As “Arise!” is one of the final shows of the year to be involved in the Phoenix Project, connecting the dance performance to the county’s fire experience was vital. While the art exhibits and play featured in the Phoenix Project focused more on climate change and catalysts around the fires, MCRDC’s 2018 fall show “Reflections” previously presented a similar case of climate change through the use of water onstage. To avoid theme repetition as a company, Brunner decided to approach the topic from a different viewpoint—community.
“As a director, I coordinate the artists and the theme. All of the work seen in the dance show has been created here and now, so we were able to dialogue a lot about culture, healing, and how we support one another through traumatic events,” comments Brunner. Her holistic perspective is that the art of dance provides a way to heal from trauma and to do so in a group manner.
Although the group of dancers responsible for performing “Arise!” is notably smaller than what it has been in the past, a common thread that runs amongst them involves the thought that having a closeknit group has allowed for much of the process to be quite smooth and also personal. Approaching such vastly different styles of dance together has been a proclaimed “bonding experience.”
From Brunner’s point of view as director, the dancers’ growth and ownership of the material in the show has been gratifying to oversee. “They’re doing it together and they’re doing it for themselves—there’s this overwhelming arise from them and I respect how far they’ve come,” she smiles.
One such dancer who has used “Arise!” to find a way to express emotion through her movements is Carolina Torres. She says, “This is the hardest show I’ve had to perform because I’m not usually good at conveying emotion. I’ve learned how to give the dance what it needs to not just be a piece, but to really be a beautiful shown thing that we can give for the audience to receive.”
The audience is invited to witness “Arise!” at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday or at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 24. There will be an opening gala on Friday night, beginning at 6:30 p.m., in conjunction with the Mendocino College Art Gallery and Ren Riley’s “A Maker and Collector” gallery installation.
Tickets for “Arise!” are available in advance at the Mendocino Book Company, the Mendocino College Bookstore, and online at www.artsmendocino.org— General admission is $15, with tickets for students and seniors being $10.