This is an exciting time at the company because we are in the process of putting the final touches on the upcoming season. Right now, we have the Big Picture in place and are filling in all of the details. And the details are what make the season rich and exciting. Not just the large offerings, but the smaller in house things. The ballets that we can add to our primary programing that will spark our patrons imaginations, stretch our dancers as artists… and delight and challenge me as the artistic director of the company.
At SDB, we strive to make our shows relatable to our Southern California audiences. Unfortunately, ballet has an undeserved reputation for being an elitist art form. The only thing “elite” about it is that the dancers have been training for years to get themselves into peak condition to be ready for anything… and at SDB, our dancers dance anything and everything. This season, we are bringing back favorites from years back, some recent successes, and premiering brand new works.
The Fall brings a re-staging of SDB favorite FIREBIRD in collaboration with Culture Shock San Diego. This ballet meets hip hop audience pleaser is always a pleasure to mount and I always try to sneak in a new twist for people who have seen the ballet before. That is followed by our annual Nutcracker tour to Wyoming and Montana, and our local Nutcracker performances.
At the start of the new year, we have some new/old initiatives that we are putting into place. First is RITMOS LATINOS. From our signature piece MAMBOMANIA to ballets set to mariachi music to our full length DON JUAN, SDB has a wide range of works that were created to engage our local patrons. So we are now committing to making these evenings an ongoing part of our annual seasons. RITMOS LATINOS will be an ongoing series that will showcase different latin musical styles. This years February program will feature the premiere of Aaron Copland’s THREE LATIN AMERICAN SKETCHES and the return of AUDAZ, premiered last year to a commissioned score by San Diego jazz artist, Gilbert Castellanos.
And speaking of Castellanos and new initiatives…
Some of SDB’s most successful pieces have been works that we perform to jazz music. So the company is making also making a commitment to turn its EVENING OF JAZZ AND DANCE into an annual series as well. We are excited to be bringing back jazz saxophone great Charles McPherson to perform his SWEET SYNERGY SUITE as well as a world premiere in May of 2017, on a program that will also feature last year’s popular TIME FURTHER OUT set to the music of Dave Brubeck.
Finally, we will be bringing back our popular DANCE GALLERY series which takes place in a studio setting and allows our dancers to stretch their choreographic wings. But this year, we are looking to expand this series into a previous program, PRELUDES AND POETRY. It is just a bit to soon to talk about what this all entails, but we look forward to being able to make some exciting announcements pretty soon.
All in all, the season is promising to be one that really allows us to fulfill our mission… to excite, enlighten, and entertain our diverse audience through an imaginative presentation of quality classical and contemporary dance. We hope you will join us… and if you do, come up and say Hi.