Many people take for granted the amount of international art that is presented in the Bay Area. This part of California is probably third after New York City and Los Angeles when it comes to seeing contemporary dance from places like Israel and France, not to mention places like the East Coast and Los Angeles.
This weekend is a perfect example of the kind of international dance programming that is available in Marin, Palo Alto, Berkeley and San Francisco, allowing Bay Area audiences to see contemporary dance by both American and international choreographers.
From Los Angeles is a fairly new company that has built their repertory around apparatus-based dances. Diavolo Dance Company is being presented at Stanford University (Oct. 28-29) as part of a larger residency program. This company creates environments constructed with obstacles that inspire creative ways to choreograph, based on problem-solving. Larger-than-life structures and super-sized doors, chairs and stairways, provide the backdrop for movement and "create metaphors for the challenge of relationships, the absurdities of life and the struggle to maintain our humanity in an increasingly technological world." Choreographer Jacques Heim has worked with Cirque de Soleil, and will be presenting three pieces of repertory, including D2R-A (dancers maneuvering a military obstacle course), Trajectoire (dancers manipulating an abstract 21st-century galleon) and Knockturn (a piece that uses doorways as metaphors to create thresholds).
From the east coast is a pioneering company that has been challenging how we see contemporary dance. MOMIX Dance Theatre and choreographer Moses Pendleton will be at the Marin Center for one night (Oct. 28) presenting Luna Sea. MOMIX specializes in making dance pieces that are shaped by stage design and cause the dancers to become unrecognizable anthropomorphic symbols. Luna Sea also uses puppets designed by Michael Curry from The Lion King, and an eclectic sound collage, featuring Buddha Experience, Brian Eno and Hans Zimmer.
One of the most respected international dance companies will be at the Zellerbach Hall (October 27-28). Lyon Opera Ballet's name is a little misleading because they don't do opera, and their style of contemporary dance can barely be called ballet (at least not in any classical sense). This innovative group has been crafting a name for themselves as one of Europe's most daring state-funded dance companies, and this year's program provides a good look at what's happening with contemporary dance internationally.
Artistic Director Yorgos Loukos has selected work from three of Europe's most influential female choreographers, and they couldn't be more different from each other. Anne de Keersmaeker's Die Grosse Fuge is a group piece for eight men that will use running, diving and rolling to explore the idea that dance can be anything but pretty. Sasha Waltz's work has been heavily influenced by a German sensibility largely defined by choreographers like Pina Bausch and William Forsythe. Fantasie is a group work set to the music of Franz Schubert. Lastly, French choreographer, Maguy Marin will present her controversial work Groosland, where 20 dancers are costumed in fat suits and dance to Bach.
Israel's Batsheva Dance Company will be at the Yerba Buena Center (October 26-29) presenting Ohad Naharin's Three. Batsheva was originally co-founded by Martha Graham in 1964, and was directed by Naharin from 1993 to 2003. His new piece was inspired by the concepts of Beauty, Nature and Existence, and how these tenets do not exist separately but are "inextricably inter-related." The company is comprised of beautifully trained dancers, and Naharin's choreography is a combination of classical ideas mixed with innovative movement, creating work that is easy to watch but intellectually stimulating.
Diavolo Dance at Memorial Auditorium, Stanford University: (650) 725-2787, www.livelyarts.stanford.edu.
MOMIX at the Marin Center: (415) 499-6800, www.co.marin.ca.us.
Lyon Opera Ballet at Zellerbach Hall, Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave., UC Berkeley: (510) 642-9988, www.calperfs.berkeley.edu.
Batsheva Dance at YBC, Howard and Third Streets, SF: (415) 392-2545, www.performances.org.
See websites for times and ticket prices.