Local Blogger: What's Dance Got To Do With It?

Humans dance as a way to understand and express ideas, feelings, and experiences. Whether fine art or folk art, this moving art form has been around for as long as human beings have been moving about.

What's amazing is that dance has taken many shapes and forms. From ballet to belly dance, it is how the body tells a story.

I recently learned that the SoCo Dance Theater Concert 2014 will present a handful of modern dances with accomplished choreographers and dancers May 2-4 at the Evert B. Person Theatre at Sonoma State University.

This emerging professional, multi-generational dance company explores both old and new approaches to dance. According to Kristen Daley, theater choreographer and dancer, this show features traditional and experimental dance pieces that strive to educate the audience about how the human form interprets its world.

According to The Elements of Dance, dance provides a way of learning—one that develops communication abilities, problem solving techniques, and creative and critical thinking skills along with kinesthetic abilities. At its core, the goal of dance education is to engage  in artistic experiences through the processes of creation, performance and response.

 "Mother’s Love, Mother’s Labor, Mother’s Letters to the Sea": Choreographer – Nichele Van Portfleet. As part of her Senior Project at Sonoma State University, Van Portfleet created this production which is focused on the ways dance can serve as communication. This piece explores the kinetic relationship between partners sharing weight, space, time.

"Donna Anna Study": Choreographer – Mark Haim. Filled with what choreographer Mark Haim describes as "amplified passion," this piece - inspired by Mozart's "Don Giovanni" - communicates the feeling of the opera, playing on duality and emotional contrasts.

"Something Borrowed, Something Blue": Choreographer – Mira Lisa Katz. A piece about attunement, balancing closeness with spaciousness, about crossing earthly paths for an instant or a lifetime. 

Hours: 8 p.m. Friday, May 2 and Saturday, May 3, 2 p.m. Sunday, May 4. Tickets are $15-$20. Admission is free for children five and under. 

For more information: www.socodancetheater.org