San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
A LIFE IN MOTION
Legendary choreographer Jean Isaacs has retired as the artistic director of San Diego Dance Theater, but she’s by no means done
Does a dancer ever really retire? ■ When an average person stops working, they can close a door on that life and never look back. They turn in a key, exit a building and settle in to a new life. ■ But how does a dancer stop their body from moving and gliding and feeling? How do they stop doing things that are as natural as taking a breath of air? ■ This past January, longtime San Diego dancer, choreographer, educator and arts administrator Jean Isaacs officially retired as the artistic director of San Diego Dance Theater (SDDT. ■ But as she likes to tell her friends and family, “There are more dances in me.” ■ In her 24 years as SDDT’S artistic director — and many more as a dancer/choreographer — Isaacs, 77, created hundreds of works, mentored a community of artists and created performance opportunities for dancers of all ages and abilities.
Among her best-known accomplishments, of course, is Trolley Dances — the festival that takes modern dance out in everyday spaces along the San Diego Trolley and public transportation routes.
“Trolley Dances are exactly the kind of innovative, barrier-breaking performance-art project that San Diego needs more of,” Mayor Todd Gloria said. “With this project, Jean Isaacs made dance accessible to transit riders and made public transit accessible to dance lovers, while continuing the arts’ rich tradition of interpreting and commenting on the most serious social issues of our time. Jean has inspired a generation of San Diego artists with her creativity and talent.”
But, less than a month into her post-retirement life, Isaacs was already thinking about ideas for future projects — a new dance? Maybe something for the theater? A book of poetry?
“It feels hard for me to imagine that she really will retire,” said Monica Bill Barnes, a former student of Isaacs’ who now has a highprofile New York-based company of her own, Monica Bill Barnes & Company. “Retirement for any artist is a slippery phrase. There’s a side of you that never stops thinking in terms of creation and inspiration.”
Building a foundation
“Jean Isaacs is synonymous with dance in San Diego the way Kleenex is to tissue,” said Matt Carney, a former SDDT dancer who went on to serve as the company’s executive director until 2018.
Isaacs, who grew up in New England, moved to San Diego in the early 1970s — not because the city was a hotbed of dance, but because her then-husband, Timothy Isaacs, was completing a medical residency in psychology.
She quickly connected with San Diego Dance Theater founders George Willis, Lolita Diñoso Carter and Johanna Weikel.
“They were the only ones putting something together that you could relate to,” Isaacs remembered. “They had careers. … That to me, that was an important thing — that you could have a career here.”
Thus began Isaacs’ journey as a San Diego dance pioneer.
“She was the first to really lay a foundation,” said Terry Wilson, SDDT’S new artistic director who took over when Isaacs retired. “There were modern dancers here, but they weren’t organizing anything. Jean’s always been good at programming things and making things happen.”
Isaacs put together dance pieces — first solos that she danced herself for SDDT, and eventually innovative works for her own companies, San Diego Dance Alliance, Three’s Company and Dancers and Isaacs/mccaleb and Dancers.
In 1997, Isaacs took over as SDDT’S artistic director, where she expanded crossborder projects, developed summer dance workshops, and created a program for dancers ages 65 and over called Aging Creatively.
“Jean is a force,” added Carney, who is now executive director of San Diego Ballet. “She is knowledgeable on language, she’s a literary genius, and that informs her unique perspective of dance composition.”
Isaacs, who studied literature and Spanish at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, said she always liked writing narratives into her dances. In one of her best-known works, “Geography of Risk,” Isaacs created a story out of texts from tourist guidebooks that was also a commentary on emotional vulnerability.
Building a community of dancers
But along with the choreography and performance, Isaacs is also responsible for teaching generations of dancers her brand of contemporary choreography, which she described as a combination of classical technique, some Martha Graham sensibility and ... just feeling something in your gut.
“I knew I was never going to be a ballerina. Even though I took ballet class and understood what it had to offer me, I never liked it,” she said. “Ballet is pretty peripheral, and my body moves from the core.”
Carney recalled that in one of his first classes with Isaacs, she “dug her fist into my body to teach me to carve out an upper body curve.”
Isaacs taught at the University of California San Diego’s Department of Theatre and Dance for 25 years. She also taught a legendary Saturday morning class open to company members past, present and future. It’s where dancers met, trained and collaborated.
“Jean’s class was really a thinking dancer’s class,” Barnes said. “It wasn’t just about what you could accomplish physically, but it was also about: How are you imbuing the movement with meaning and intention, and why does it matter?”
Tijuana-based dancer Lilian Ibarra joined Isaacs’ community 10 years ago, when she won a scholarship to train at San Diego Dance Theater. She’s worked with Isaacs on and off ever since.
“Jean has always cared about dancers. She always encouraged us to come to class so that she could really get to know us,” Ibarra said. “And it’s always been important for her to see her dancers thrive professionally and get paid. I remember the first time I danced in Trolley Dances, I was about to turn 18. I got paid $100 and I felt that was so much. It made me feel professional.”
Barnes also says her first professional job was thanks to Isaacs — she was asked to choreograph a piece for Trolley Dances even though she had already moved to New York. Barnes has since gone on to dance on tour with Ira Glass and choreograph for Greta Gerwig’s 2019 adaptation of “Little Women.”
“Jean supported me as a choreographer in many concrete ways,” Barnes said. “She also supported my journey as an artist. She’s invited me into her home, and she really gave me an understanding at a young age about what it means to run a nonprofit business in America — it’s equal parts choreography, building community, teaching and supporting other artists.”
Building a community of dance audiences
Of course, many San Diegans, especially those outside the dance community, associate Isaacs with Trolley Dances.
People who otherwise never would’ve bought a ticket for a theatrical dance show were suddenly exposed to modern dance in everyday settings like parks, grocery stores and even on playground equipment. Trolley Dances is so popular and beloved, it has expanded to other cities, including San Francisco and Riverside.
In San Diego, Trolley Dances 2021 is scheduled to happen in person on June 5 and 6. The program will be back in person with tours beginning at the 70th Street Trolley Station in La Mesa and traveling along the MTS Green Line to San Diego State University and the Grantville Trolley Station.
The “retired” Isaacs will, of course, be involved.
One of her popular dances, “Bolero,” will be staged again, though it will feature Ibarra stepping in to teach the choreography, assist with rehearsals and even perform in the piece.
“I danced ‘Bolero’ 10 years ago,” said the dancer, who has also helped Isaacs with office work and with coordinating trips to Mexico. “I’ve learned so much about dance, and also about how to run a dance company, because of Jean.”
‘Time to step aside’
This innate feeling to create, to forge new paths and to create community has always been Isaacs’ way.
At age 15, growing up in Mansfield, Mass., Jean Baldini, as she was called then, was already figuring out and taking charge of her own finances. Her father worked in a factory dyeing fabrics. He wasn’t provided gloves, and Isaacs remembers the stains on his fingers that ultimately led to an infection and to money being tight.
“My parents were quite poor, but I never really noticed. I never wanted for anything,” she said. “Somehow my mom always got me to the Delutis School of Dance.”
Isaacs earned a partial scholarship to nearby Wheaton College, back when it was an all-female institution, which she credits with helping her in dance, business and other areas of life.
“It was such a powerful and wonderful thing,” she said. “I didn’t have to fight with any men or justify what I was doing. I just went with my intuition and made choices that were good for me.”
Those college years are when Isaacs became more serious about dance, traveling throughout New England to take master classes and working with professional mentors from New York.
“I’ve always been a physical person,” she said. “I just don’t think I was made to be a person to sit behind a desk.”
But a lifetime of dance and running a nonprofit started to take its toll on Isaacs.
She has two titanium knees. And in the last year, as San Diego Dance Theater dealt with the Assembly Bill 5 independent contractor classification for artists, a pandemic, and examining the company’s practices during the Black Lives Matter marches, Isaacs got NON-COVID pneumonia four times.
“It was a really good time for me to step aside,” she said. “And you know, so far, I haven’t missed it. After 77 years, I don’t really miss it. I’m so surprised.”
Instead of waking up early to work or teach, Isaacs languishes over the newspaper the way her father once did. She does Pilates with her daughter, Liv Isaacs-nollet. And she spends time at the house in Borrego Springs she shares with her husband, Steve Baker.
“Jean left big shoes to fill,” Carney said. “But that’s what dance does, it deals with transition. She has created something even bigger than what she is. Now there’s a gap to fill and a lot of opportunity.”
Wilson, who danced with Isaacs most of her life, also acknowledged that “right now, I’m just holding the container” to help transition SDDT into the future.
But even though Isaacs said she doesn’t miss the day-to-day parts of dance, her conversations with friends and family are often peppered with plans and ideas to keep bringing people together.
“Part of me,” she said, “really likes being a pioneer.”
“Jean’s class was really a thinking dancer’s class. It wasn’t just about what you could accomplish physically, but it was also about: How are you imbuing the movement with meaning and intention, and why does it matter?”
Monica Bill Barnes, artistic director, Monica Bill Barnes & Company