Photos by RJ Muna
ODC/Dance's 2013 edition of spring season at Yerba Buena Center opens March 14, running through March 24. Two programs will be performed four times each, in addition to the opening night gala.
Amazingly, this is the 42nd home season of the acclaimed modern-dance company, still under the direction of Brenda Way, who founded the Oberlin Dance Collective in 1971.
There will be world premieres by Way and KT Nelson; a new artistic collaboration between Way, Nelson, and New York-based choreographer Kate Weare; commissioned music by Jay Cloidt, scores by Zoë Keating, Olafur Arnalds and Ben Frost; an original film by visual artist Barry Steele, and — yes — custom-made bicycles by Max Chen.
Way’s Lifesaving Maneuvers reflects on the human capacity to endure. Created for the full company and set to an original commissioned score by Cloidt, the piece is structured as a series of chapters investigating the things people do to survive, from the sly or invisible to the sensational.
The Way-Nelson-Weare work is Triangulating Euclid, a collaboration to explore new territory. Inspiration came from a rare original edition of Euclid’s Elements, an influential work in the history of mathematics. The piece moves from the formal elegance of geometry to its human implication: from triangles to threesomes, from lines to connections, from the page to the heart.
Nelson’s Transit: Next Stop is a new production of her 2012 Transit. Incorporating hand-drawn film clips by visual artist Barry Steele, three custom-built bicycles by Chen, and a restless score by Nico Muhly, the work "celebrates the chaotic pulse of urban centers — walking, biking, and high-speed transit.
Two additional works on the season are Way’s 2012 Breathing Underwater, which premiered to great acclaim last year, is a dance for four women set to live music by Keating; and Nelson’s Cut Out Guy, also from last year, set to five male dancers.
ODC/Dance’s company of dancers includes Anne Zivolich, Yayoi Kambara, Corey Brady, Jeremy Smith, Vanessa Thiessen, Dennis Adams, Justin Andrews, Natasha Adorlee Johnson, Maggie Stack, and Justin Liu.