New Ballet embraces the ‘new’ at Fast Forward in San Jose

For more than 30 years, from 1985 to 2016, San Jose was home to a top-notch nationally acclaimed ballet company. First known as the San Jose Cleveland Ballet, the new troupe was born when the 10-year-old Cleveland Ballet forged a new configuration with San Jose, giving its dancers more opportunities to perform.

In 2000, the Cleveland Ballet closed and founding artistic director/choreographer Dennis Nahat moved to the West Coast with more than half the dancers to carry on as Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley. (“Silicon Valley” was dropped in 2006.)

After Nahat was ousted in 2012, rocky times followed and the company met its demise in March 2016 after returning from a tour to Spain.

Fortunately, a Phoenix rose from the ashes in the form of a very determined Dalia Rawson. She kept the San Jose Ballet School open, renamed it the New Ballet School, and started a chamber company of 14 dancers, New Ballet, where she is the director and resident choreographer. In December 2016 she presented her own version of “The Nutcracker” to critical acclaim.

One look at Rawson’s dance resume makes it clear why she is so dedicated to making the New Ballet’s company and school an enduring success. A Bay Area native, Rawson grew up on the Peninsula and began serious training at the San Francisco Ballet School at age 9. After graduating from high school in 1991 she joined the San Jose Cleveland Ballet, where she took on many leading roles until her retirement as a performer in 2006. She had already beenteaching in the San Jose Ballet School since 2000, and become its director in 2014.

In 2017, Rawson started the Fast Forward series to provide emerging choreographers, both national and local, with the chance to experiment in making new work. The idea was company dancers could grow both as performing artists and creators, and audience members could get a behind-the-scenes view at the choreographic process, including context and insight into dance-makers’ inspirations.

The sixth annual Fast Forward premieres on March 18 at the HammerTheatre Center and will present the work of six choreographers, many of whom have long ongoing ties to Ballet San Jose’s legacy as well as to New Ballet.

Rawson’s contribution to the slate is “Wildflower,” a neo-classical work for the full company.

“I was inspired by the green hills along Highway 280,” she said. “I commuted to San Francisco Ballet School six days a week for 10 years, and loved them deeply, especially when covered in California poppies or mustard flowers. I’m so happy to have hills green again and wanted to do a piece that reflected their beauty.”

The work is danced on pointe to music by the romantic composer Amy Beach, the first American woman to compose and publish a symphony. Her score will be played live with Thomas Shoebotham on cello and Aileen Chanco at the piano.

Also contributing a work is Peter Merz, who’s new to the Bay Area after dancing with the Cincinnati, Dayton and Louisville ballet companies, and directing the Ballet West Academy. His latest creation is “QDD,” an acronym he coined from a quotation from Martha Graham.

“When asked what one could expect from an artistic life, she answered ‘Queer Divine Dissatisfaction,’” he says. “The piece comes from a lot of upheaval in my life and the world and trying to recapture things that inspired me to choose a life as a ballet choreographer. Making art is about pointing out the things that we are looking to change, that we should be dissatisfied with. Art can be about what is healing and soothing.”

When Merz he asked Rawson about making a ballet using music by the hardcore rock band Fugazi, she said that’s fantastic, then contacted her brother, a music teacher, who put a band together to play the accompanying music live at Fast Forward.

Former New Ballet company dancer Mesa Burdick, who’s now performing with the Sacramento Ballet, offers a new work which was first developed with dancers in that city. The song “Tzantza by folk/electronica artist Nicola Cruz “inspired the choreography so I instantly knew the direction and the tone I wanted to go in,” said Burdick. “ I originally thought the music was almost too intense, it had a really driving beat and it definitely has a jungle undertone theme. I wanted tobring to the forefront a lot of elements in the music, to accentuate them. It is not a story-based piece by any means, but I wanted it to be a big crowd-pleaser, something the dancers were going to have fun with, and leave the audience wanting more. Someone said they felt like they could see the music in the dancers, that they illustrated the instruments, which was exactly what I was going for.”

The remainder of the Fast Forward program is comprised of work by choreographers Linh Mai Le, director of New Ballet School and a Youth America Grand Prix Outstanding Choreographer award winner; Shanghai native Jing Zhang, who joined Ballet San Jose in 2005 and now teaches at the New Ballet School; and Mariana Sobral, director of her own eMotion Arts Dance Co.

The focus on new works is in sync with the company’s philosophy, Rawson says.

“We’re trying to do things in a new way. We really strive not to discriminate based on body type, gender identification, or race, especially in our school. We want to make sure the training we’re providing is helping each individual grow as a personand is focusing on their emotional and psychological development as well as artistic development.”

The company is also striving to make a longtime home in Silicon Valley, which is a challenge in its own right, Rawson says.

While individuals are helping to keep the arts afloat in the South Bay, Rawson says, “The tech companies aren’t. They often even have something in their bylaws that says ‘we do not support the arts.’ They will support humanitarian causes, health and education, which is wonderful. Silicon Valley is one of the most philanthropic places in the world. But they don’t give locally, and it’s not for the arts. That makes it very challenging.”

But Rawson, who comes from a tech family and is married to a tech companhy employee adds, “I have not met a single software engineer who did not thoroughly enjoy the ballet once I introduced them to it.”

NEW BALLET COMPANY

Presents Fast Forward, an evening of new contemporary ballet

When: 7:30 p.m. March 18

Where: Hammer Theatre Center, 101 Paseo de San Antonio, San Jose

Tickets: $10-$35; $250; hammertheatre.com; newballet.com