Company excited to return to the stage
Everything was looking up for San Jose’s New Ballet when it cut the ribbon on its new downtown home and rehearsal studio in late February. Then COVID-19 brought nearly everything to a standstill, pushing lessons online and putting a season in jeopardy. But the company will make its comeback this weekend with “New Ballet: San Jose Dances,” a live performance that will be streamed Saturday from the Hammer Theatre Center.
“For our dancers, musicians, costume designers, theater professionals and myself as choreographer and director, it feels like we are coming back to life to be able to create,” New Ballet Director Dalia Rawson said. “Seeing the dancers do what they do best is inspiring. Dancers need to dance.”
The show will include the premiere of “In the Time,” choreographed by Rawson and set to music by Peter Colclasure, who downtown dwellers may know best as the pianist from Mighty Mike McGee‘s “Go Go Gone Show” at Cafe Stritch. He’ll be on piano for this one, too, joined by a string quartet that I’m told will include the always stunning Cellista.
“I’m really happy with how my ballet turned out,” Rawson said. “There is something inspiring about creating with limitations. Rest assured that any dancers within six feet of each other or partnering together are living together as a family unit.”
And to further follow health and safety guidelines, masks have been incorporated into the costume design.
The other work on the program is “Paganini,” a celebration of classical virtuosity — more tutus and ballet tricks — set to live cello accompaniment by our Principal Conductor Thomas Shoebotham.
This will be the first livestream show from the Hammer Theatre Center, which raised $30,000 this summer to help transform the downtown venue into a multicamera studio that can stream high- quality video. Tickets to the 7 p.m. performance are available for $10 at hammertheatre.com. Rawson said a limited number of free tickets are available to organizations or individuals who can’t afford the price. (Contact Maria Bones at the Hammer at 408-924-8510 for more information).
SAN JOSE SHORT FILM FESTIVAL GOES BIG >> The coronavirus pandemic has forced lots of organizations to downsize their events this year, but Bill Hargreaves, co-founder of the San Jose International Short Film Festival says they’re actually going the other way. The 12th annual festival is doing an “Home Edition” this year instead of its usual showcase of movies at Santana Row’s CineArts Theatre, but it sees the change as a way to broaden its audience across the country.
The festival opens at 7 p.m. Thursday — you’ll likely be ready to switch away from the presidential debate by then, anyway — and continues through the weekend with 20 blocks of curated short films from around the world that you can view from wherever you happen to be.
Tickets for individual screening blocks can be purchased for $8 each, or you can get an all-access pass for $25 that includes, live and recorded
Q& A sessions, invitationonly Zoom events, and a bonus day on Oct. 26 when all the movies are available on demand. The full schedule and tickets are available at www.sjsff. com.
HEALTHY COLLABORATION >> With funding from tech company KLA, the American Heart Association has set up a $1.5 million social equity fund that will put money in the hands of nonprofits that are focused on health disparities, primarily among people of color. The fund’s two focus areas are Silicon Valley and Detroit, since those are the two communities where KLA is headquartered.
Applicants should be working on solutions to food and housing insecurity, access to healthcare (especially related to COVID-19) and income inequality. More information is available at heart. org/fund.