The Rights and Wrongs of Passage

El Cerrito–based composer and saxophonist Plonsey, whose music and performing ensemble, named Daniel Popsicle, received its initial inspiration from Sun Ra and Charles Ives, describes his music as “characterized by a dogged determination to be as unabstract as possible. Each work is populated by characters rather than by ideas; the ideas are obliged to loiter about in nearby alleys. Most of [my] music is extremely simple but by no means minimal; rather, it results from the presentation of those melodies and structural ideas that I find most obvious and inescapable.”

Admittedly, the program he calls “Dan Plonsey’s Bar Mitzvah” contains some of the composer’s most conventional music. “I wanted to evoke both traditional Jewish and klezmer, yet not to be too recognizable,” he explained by phone in a voice that suggested that he was ready for anything. “In the same way that Gershwin tried to evoke jazz without exactly being jazz, our music will seem almost familiar, but not quite.”

So may the situation. The story details the experiences of Plonsey and his collaborators Eric Kupers and Mantra Plonsey, of Dandelion Dancetheater. Certainly for Kupers, bar mitzvahs are often awkward affairs, especially for family members who feel out of place and partake in a lot of strange interactions. They might feel uneasy witnessing Dan’s belated rite, in which Dan struggles over whether to wear a dress, and one of the guests gets so drunk that he strips to his underwear. That may sound pretty bizarre, but I've seen plenty of things at my own family functions. 

“The other big theme,” says Plonsey amid trading stories of familial abuse, “is that becoming an adult is not particularly comfortable for many of us. No matter what we do, we can never fulfill all our obligations to our family and the community. A bar mitzvah is when the community calls upon you and you answer. If you answer, then you’re a bar mitzvah. If you run away screaming, maybe not. The question during the performance is, will I answer or will I run away screaming?”

Certainly you may be screaming ... with laughter. Not even Plonsey knows how to describe what’s “sort of like a bar mitzvah that’s trying to get started and can’t.” What is certain, however, is that notions of families as dysfunctional, ridiculous, competitive, or totally crazy will hardly be challenged by the experience.

Plonsey unveiled his “Bar Mitzvah” last May, as a work in progress at Cal State East Bay, where Kupers is an assistant professor of dance. Since then, at least half the material has been changed. That may be three quarters by the time of the two official premieres, on July 11 at 1 and 4 p.m., sponsored by the Jewish Music Festival.

Equally enticing is the preview performance on July 8 at 7 p.m., at which Anna Halprin, the dance great and esteemed elder, will introduce the work and facilitate a postperformance discussion. Be sure to wish the elder Cancer child (and cancer survivor) a happy 90th birthday.